Regarding the Oct. 19 Metro article “Residents bash grand ambitions for East Potomac golf course”:
I am a 76-year-old African American man and a native Washingtonian. My father was a World War II veteran and worked as a clerk at the Pentagon for 35 years. In order to supplement our family’s income, he caddied at a suburban country club every weekend. Like many working-class Black men of his generation, that was his first exposure to golf. He loved the game. He taught me to play golf at East Potomac Golf Links and its driving range. Often, we combined golf, fishing and picnicking in a single day.
We were not alone. On most summer weekends, East Potomac Park was crowded with working-class families, many including someone employed in federal civil service, engaged in various forms of recreation at this fabulous park that sits on the Potomac. Now, in a move that says everything you need to know about the man, President Donald Trump seeks to take this recreational treasure away from working-class Washingtonians and deliver it to his rich friends as a luxury golf resort. This should not stand.
Zachary W. Carter, North Bethesda
The writer is a former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York and a former corporation counsel of New York City.
President Donald Trump’s plan for East Potomac Park is a travesty for the city and the region. We, the people, vehemently object to Trump’s quest to destroy D.C.’s beloved multiuse, century-old park.
Why do we need another nearby elite-level facility? Players like me enjoy East Potomac Park’s economically priced links. Trump’s opinion that the course is “old, broken, dilapidated, and of no further use” and “completely overgrown” may be true, but it’s obvious those characteristics don’t affect the course’s popularity among the hackers who played 124,500 rounds there last year.
If our beloved course disgusts Trump and his friends, I have a simple solution for him: Keep playing at the Trump National course in Sterling and the TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm near Bethesda. They serve Trump, his crowd and pro golfers excellently.
Trump should focus on the issues that are raising havoc on our lives, not on destroying a space that residents have cherished for over 100 years.
Ed Melisky, Herndon
What’s harder to repair
Regarding the Oct. 19 online news article “Amid attacks by Trump, judge weighs golf course plan in tense hearing”:
I spent the first six years of my life in an apartment on First Street SE. When he wasn’t working one of his two jobs, my father would occasionally golf at East Potomac Golf Links. It was close and affordable, and our family would then picnic at Hains Point.
I am saddened that our president has taken an ax to East Potomac. The citizens of D.C. don’t need a fancy golf course that could price many District residents out of playing.
But what disturbs me most are the comments President Donald Trump made about U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes, who is the federal judge overseeing the administration’s overhaul of the park. Trump called Reyes “a crazed lunatic” who “may be insane.” Reyes reports that she has now received death threats over her handling of the case.
Trump has left his mark on our nation’s capital. Most troubling, though, are not the physical changes but the damage to our national psyche.
I hope that, post-Trump, we can repair that damage and elect leaders to the executive branch who respect the judicial branch. I fear that disrespect for the rule of law has been normalized to such an extent that we may not.
Diane B. Norton, Fairfax
Why I wash my farm-fresh eggs
Regarding the Oct. 17 online quiz “Do you need to wash these foods? Take our quiz”:
When I was a child, I had 125 4-H chickens, and about half were hens. My family lived in an old Victorian farmhouse on a farmette, which included a barn and a barnyard. Generally, hens lay about one egg per day. The first week, they laid more eggs than my family could eat. So, I sold the extra eggs to neighbors and friends.
However, what most people don’t realize is that chickens often defecate on their eggs while laying them. I hear some people say that animals do not foul their own nests. That is true with some animals, but it is not true with chickens. One of my jobs was to wash the eggs before delivering them to customers.
About two weeks after I acquired the chicks, we had a terrible, hard freeze in the Tennessee mountains. My daddy said the chicks wouldn’t survive out in the smokehouse, even though they were in incubators. So, we had to bring all the big incubators into the formal dining room and near the oil furnace. They were in the house for about a week, which really upset my mother. She insisted I clean the cage bottoms every couple of days, which was another disgusting chore.
The quiz said not to wash eggs. It’s true that eggs from the grocery store are on “the federal do-not-wash list” because cleaning them is a routine part of commercial egg processing. But I will keep washing my farm-fresh eggs.
Beverly Brookshire, Sanford, North Carolina
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