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To the Editor:
Re “It’s Seven Grandkids, Mr. President,” by Maureen Dowd (column, July 9), about her sister’s letter to the president urging him to acknowledge a daughter fathered by Hunter Biden:
While I fully agree with Ms. Dowd and her sister that this little lady must be included within the Biden household, I really feel the necessity to add one essential reminder. As the mom of an addict (fortunately in restoration, though restoration is rarely a clean journey), I do know that one ought to by no means inform the household of somebody who has wrestled with habit what they “ought to” do. As in by no means, ever.
Trust me, the Bidens are in ache on this and so many different points associated to their struggling, brave, flawed son. Perhaps in time they’ll make different selections about this treasured little lady. But that’s a part of their journey, and recommendation written to stress a household isn’t useful or honest to anybody.
Anne DeCocco
Raleigh, N.C.
To the Editor:
I fully disagree with Maureen Dowd. I welcomed a grandchild when my son was 19 and single. But it was my alternative, and if I had turned away for no matter personal cause, I’d not count on to be publicly condemned for it. Either manner, it’s a personal determination.
Handling this household matter is between the beginning mother and father of the kid. It’s not a scenario for grandparents to overstep. This youngster, Navy Joan, has a household who loves her. Why ought to she be pressured on one which doesn’t?
If it weren’t for the White House connection, all of us can be extra well mannered about expressing opinions a few youngster being pressured on an 80-year-old grandfather and his household.
S. Donnelly
Cape Cod, Mass.
To the Editor:
I’m a staunch supporter of President Biden from each a political and private perspective. He has made appreciable progress on bipartisan laws and reveals private empathy and deep consideration for all Americans.
But I have to applaud Ms. Dowd’s column on the shocking tone deafness of the Biden household to their unacknowledged seventh grandchild. No matter the circumstances of her conception, she is a human being who deserves an prolonged household and who completely deserves acknowledgment of her existence.
Mr. Biden ought to know higher than to consign an harmless little lady to a lifetime of rejection and the lack to be embraced by all of her legit household. This is unquestionably not the Joe Biden I love.
Jane C. Parker
New York
To the Editor:
Nothing has raised my ire greater than Maureen Dowd’s commentary. Ms. Dowd, Peggy, her sister, and all of us exterior the Biden household — go away them alone. That anybody is casting judgment on what’s unequivocally a personal matter is simply plain mistaken. Without strolling in somebody’s footwear, what do we all know or really perceive about others’ lives?
Empathy, please, not gratuitous meddling.
Susan B. West
Athens, Ohio
A Bad Compromise on Serving Gay People
To the Editor:
Re “States Can Still Protect L.G.B.T.Q. Consumers” (Opinion visitor essay, July 2):
While I admire Aaron Tang’s effort to discover a compromise that prohibits discrimination based mostly on sexual orientation and protects “the expressive freedom of individuals of religion,” his resolution will not be a superb one.
He proposes that states allow marriage ceremony net designers who object to same-sex marriages to farm out to workers or impartial contractors any solicitations from homosexual or lesbian {couples}. That technique, he says, would permit companies to satisfy public lodging necessities with out forcing the proprietor or any like-minded workers to create content material with which they disagree.
Nothing in present regulation prohibits an proprietor from assigning work to workers; if the proprietor of 303 Creative needed to decide on that choice, she might. But to direct the purchasers to an impartial contractor is akin to a restaurant that refuses to serve Black individuals telling the shunned patrons: “Go subsequent door; they’ll serve you.”
That supplies neither the equal entry nor the equal dignity that public lodging regulation requires.
Jeffery L. Bineham
St. Paul, Minn.
Finding Support in Faith Communities
To the Editor:
Re “What Churches Offer That ‘Nones’ Still Long For,” by Jessica Grose (publication, June 28):
To ensure, many spiritually curious individuals and religious seekers keep away from organized spiritual communities out of an outdated assumption of being judged, criticized or condemned for his or her beliefs, practices or simply being who they’re.
Yet phrase on the contrary is getting out: Many church buildings, synagogues and different spiritual establishments are welcoming and affirming of multiracial, interfaith, unsure, and L.G.B.T.Q.+ people and households.
There is a rebound of curiosity and exercise in religion communities, post-Covid isolation, introduced on by a brand new appreciation for what a secure and supportive congregation can present. As one father or mother of younger youngsters stated to me, “We have to be with one another, as if we’re turning to the temple to make up for misplaced time in the course of the pandemic.”
I hope that extra individuals see their native home of worship as a possibility to kindle and enter new, nurturing and constructive relationships in a religious neighborhood.
(Rabbi) Dennis S. Ross
Hamden, Conn.
Indiana Jones and ‘the Magic of Movies’
To the Editor:
Re “Unwrinkled or Not, Forever Battling the Nazis” (assessment, June 30):
“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” isn’t only a film — it’s a time capsule. You open it up and also you uncover the magic of films another time.
There you’re in a darkish theater, amongst strangers, digging into your popcorn, your eyes transfixed on the motion on the display screen. There’s Indiana Jones! And he’s not simply alive and properly, however he’s thriving! Crisscrossing the globe from New York to Morocco to Sicily. In search of essentially the most elusive treasure of all!
Suddenly, you’re a child once more, you’re Jones’s new 13-year-old sidekick, integral to the end result of the story, discovering your manner in forbidden Italian caves, armed along with your instincts and guile, and a newfound information of Archimedes.
Who is aware of, possibly you’ll change into the subsequent nice archaeologist, possibly there’s nonetheless time. You stroll out of that theater and into the humid July evening having been on the wildest experience you’ve ever been on, one you’ll always remember. The summer time’s nonetheless forward of you, and also you marvel what different adventures await.
Thank you, Harrison Ford and James Mangold, the director, for giving us this treasure of a film. May we defend it and the moviegoing expertise for years to come back.
Andrew Sherman
New York
Ron DeSantis and Goofy
To the Editor:
“Disney Fears Broadsides as DeSantis Campaigns” (Business, July 4):
If Disney desires to defang Ron DeSantis, it ought to do what it does greatest: talk. I see a brief cartoon. Goofy is sitting, studying a newspaper. He appears up and says, “I see DeSantis has stated [pick out four or five of the nuttiest things DeSantis has said].”
Goofy makes a face and says, “And they are saying I’m goofy.”
Robert M. Kahn
White Plains, N.Y.
