Take all safety precautions to prevent drowning
Brooklyn: Malcolm Jamal Warner passed away swimming in the ocean while on vacation in Costa Rica. This tragedy compels me to call out the ocean for its dangerous riptides and rough nature, as well as its gentle waves and its bathtub or shower quality, feel and beauty.
All too often, the waves tumble the best swimmers over. They could be surfing, swimming, doggie-paddling or just plain doing the shark wave or the butterfly. In the ocean, sadly, drownings happen when swimmers float mindlessly, doing strokes as they get pulled in. A few swim into riptides or undercurrents and get tumbled and pulled. Safety is swimming near a lifeguard and making sure one can stand in the water if need be and run out quick.
Good swimmers know the power of each wave they enjoy and use the right stroke. Others swim out too far — to trouble and worse. The best is to swim near a lifeguard in water one can stand in. If they have trouble swimming, scream help to the lifeguard.
A good rule of thumb is to look at the flag. A green flag means go in, a yellow flag means use caution and a red flag means stay out. Yellow is the tough one because it means there are riptides and undertow and danger. One should stick close to shore or use a lot of caution, go in a little bit and swim back often to have a good outcome. Raquel Hanon
Keep it classic
Levittown, L.I.: To the Mets: Please lose the gray uniforms with the purple trim. Please, let’s have some tradition for our N.Y. Mets. One home shirt (white with blue pinstripes) and one away shirt (gray). Please, Uncle Steve, give us back our tradition. Frank Ianno
End all support
Yonkers: We can not continue to support Israel’s starvation and destruction of Gaza. Stop now all military and economic aid to Israel. There is a picture in The New York Times of a mother holding a child that looks like many pictures from Biafra during the Nigerian Civil War — a child near death from lack of food. We call ourselves Christians, but we don’t care. We must speak up to stop the use of food deprivation as a means to conquer more land in Palestine. Speaking of MAGA, we never sided with people who did this before. Stop the killing. Stop the help to Israel. Joe Gomes
Casualties in question
Brooklyn: To Voicer Gilbert M. Lane: Without presenting any documentation, you claim that Israel has killed or injured 50,000 children in Gaza. You expressed no concern for the Israeli children massacred by Hamas on Oct. 7. The statistics on civilian casualties in Gaza, provided by the Gaza Health Ministry, are of questionable value. It claimed that an Israeli missile killed 500 people at Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, when it was an errant Islamic Jihad rocket that killed 200 people in the hospital’s parking lot. Lawrence Freedland
Self-declared
Manhattan: To Voicer Demes Poulos: Because the UN is not a democratic organization, General Assembly resolutions are only proposals and are not binding, so Palestinian rejection of partition ended any possibility of implementation (this doesn’t even consider the fact that neither the Jewish people nor the Arab people in Palestine were UN members). Consequently, only Israel’s declaration of statehood legitimizes its existence. Since the Palestinians do not accept that declaration, what has gone on for more than three-quarters of a century should be regarded as civil war. That the Security Council never implemented Resolution 181 (if it even could against non-members of the UN) cuts both ways: Israel is left without international legitimacy, and the Palestinian people are without a basis for a two-state solution. That is why I suggest the UN’s reassertion of mandatory authority over all territory not partitioned as Israel. Michele P. Brown
Renewables save
Long Island City: NYSERDA’s Doreen Harris has a heckuva ghostwriter (“New Yorkers don’t have to choose between clean power and their budget,” op-ed, July 20). The last nuclear plant built in the U.S., Georgia’s Vogtle plan, went years late and billions of dollars over budget. Electric utility customers are still footing the bill. Instead of dangling costly but neither clean nor renewable nuclear power, Gov. Hochul must sign legislation ending the 100-foot rule to crack down on unnecessary gas pipelines and save us money. Her one-time taxpayer-funded $1 billion will not meet our clean energy and climate resiliency needs, especially as the GOP obliterates tax breaks for homeowners to install grid-saving distributed solar, cancels critical weather forecasting and disaster aid and snuffs out renewable energy projects. One billion dollars should flow to the state every year through Hochul’s long-promised Cap-and-Invest program, billing oil and gas companies for the climate damage they’ve caused. Grace Mok
Start with yours
Fairfield, Conn.: “Toot” wants to change the names of a football team and a baseball team. While you are at it, how about changing your name to its roots, Mr. Drumpf? Edward Petitti
Artless aspiration
Indian Harbour Beach, Fla.: President Trump wants to rename the Kennedy Center Opera House for Melania! Can she sing? Can she dance? Can she speak? Maybe she can throw her big black hat in as a candidate. John T. O’Connell
Scandal switcheroo
Jacksonville, Fla.: All over Fox News on Tuesday, all those clowns were talking about was the conspiracy theory that Barack Obama tried to undermine the orange man’s presidency by making up the Russia collusion story, and that Hillary Clinton was on some kind of sedative while in the administration and running for president! How transparent can Fox get? Obviously, they’re trying to divert our attention from the Epstein scandal and who might be on his list of clients for secret orgy rendezvous on his island! It’s unfortunate that half of this country will listen to this garbage! It’s no accident that the House speaker sent Congress home early for their undeserved summer vacation, with the Epstein reveal left hanging! And you just know the Republicans hope that the thirst for knowledge of the Epstein papers will fizzle out over the next six weeks! Carl J.C. Hafner
Treason projection
Brooklyn: Trump has a lot of nerve accusing Barack Obama of treason. Trump was the one who sent an angry mob to the Capitol Building to overthrow an election. His actions caused our representatives to run for their lives. If anyone has committed treason, it is him. Andrea Allen
Taken from us
Manhattan: There is no question that the cancellation of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” resulted from Trump’s retribution. So many of us are disappointed that such a thing can happen. Your newspaper should continue to publish letters of protest and be in the forefront of all protests for this dastardly act. All other CBS programming should be boycotted except for Colbert’s show until next May, and hopefully, another network will pick him up so he can take his staff and leave CBS with a major void. Once the sponsors feel the backlash monetarily, they should all spend their advertising dollars on other networks. This is a case where the people have the power to inflict this result on CBS for its cowardly choice. Colbert has the constitutional right to free speech, and he is being forced out for exercising that right. Just another example of how democracy is being trampled. Jack Weiss
Anti-intellectualism
Kings Park, L.I.: I never thought I’d see a time where medical and educational institutions are promoted as enemies of the people. In the U.S. in 1900, the average lifespan was approximately 47.3 years. In 2024, it was 79.25 years. The dramatic increase is due to medical advancements and, yes, vaccines. Similarly, the number of Americans who earned a college degree in 1900 was 2%. In 2024 it was nearly 50%. More educated Americans results in more knowledgeable individuals who discover these advancements in science and education that enlighten and benefit all Americans. Yet, today these people appear to have become the object of scorn and ridicule. As a college professor, I encourage my students to voice their views but back them up with research, not one-sided websites that have an agenda. John Karahalis
