Letters to the Editor March 27, 2026

Writer urges No Kings protest participation

To the Editor: 

Once again, I don’t know where to begin. During the 70th session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, the U.S. was the ONLY country to vote against the commission’s conclusions. 

The U.S. alone objected to “gender ideology” and commitments to sexual and reproductive health. Delegates noted the U.S. was attempting to roll back years of progress on gender equality. Simultaneously, the U.S. Department of Justice failed to release all the Epstein files despite an act of Congress requiring them to do so. And, no one has been held responsible for the sexual assaults/rapes of over 1,000 victims, including at least 34 minors. 

I am no longer surprised but I continue to be enraged and disgusted. The war in Iran has already cost $22.8 billion. That money could provide Medicaid to 6.8 million children, build 2.6 million public housing units, fund Head Start for 1.3 million, hire 240,000 teachers, cancel $20,000 in student loans for 1 million struggling borrowers and still have money remaining. The president is now requesting an additional $200 billion to fight the war in Iran, a war that the vast majority of Americans and allies do not support. 

What else could $200 billion of our taxpayer dollars buy? Six years of rental assistance for millions of low income households, roughly 23 years of federal child care funding, 16 years of Head Start funding, six years of affordable health care by providing subsidies for millions, funding SNAP for 42 million hungry Americans, and so much more. 

Trump claims that he has won the war, is currently winning the war, needs help to win the war, needs no help to win the war, needs $200 billion while winding the war down, all to destroy the nuclear program he claims to have already destroyed last year. 

If this troubles you, attend a No Kings March this Saturday, March 28! 

Jennifer Brennan FrancisSouth Salem

Writer calls Lawler town hall events ‘fraudulent’

To the Editor:

Every Mike Lawler town hall is fraudulent and an insult to his constituents.  I pay his salary, he is my public servant. And as my servant I expect respect, but all I get at his Town Halls is insult and disrespect.

I always thought that a town hall was intended to foster a dialogue between our elected officials and the public — their employer. If I wanted to be lectured to I’d go and hear a lecture — I wouldn’t go to a town hall. The Congressman does everything in his power to suppress a dialogue in which you could actually get to the root of an issue and the congressman’s motivations. The Lawler town hall is a very specific process and no accident. Mike always controls the microphone. He’ll drown you out with his volume if he doesn’t like what you have to say.  Mike’s town halls are thoroughly UN-democratic, perfectly in keeping with the tenor of today’s Republican Party.

IF called upon you get to ask one question and the microphone is immediately whisked away. There is no opportunity to ask a follow-up question which would allow for a dialogue and getting to the truth of a matter. Often Lawler responds with a word salad of circumlocution, obfuscating with half-truths, and telling lies. The choice for those of us being lied to is to either sit there and take his lie or challenge it in the only way available to the public. There is no way to respond or question his assertions without raising your voice to be heard. In which case you have to shout and Mike then points and says something like: “you are being so uncivil … so immature … so shameful …”  Making you sound like a crazy person.

Mike loves it when his detractors have to shout to be heard so that he can paint them as unhinged crazies. That’s part of his strategy in his town halls.

If you want to hear the truth don’t bother going to a Mike Lawler town hall. If you want to be abused and disrespected … by all means go to a Lawler town hall.

Nicholas KuvachPutnam Valley