To the Editor:
Re “Jury Says Trump Owes $83 Million” (front page, Jan. 27):
The huge damages award provides the perfect ammunition for Donald Trump to play the grievance card to his base and even beyond. The free publicity triggered by Mr. Trump ranting against the system (“This is not America”) fuels the MAGA message.
At the end of the day, Mr. Trump may be a net winner from this entire defamation episode. Unabashedly, Mr. Trump raises funds off what he calls this “ridiculous” result.
We struggle to understand Mr. Trump’s appeal, just as we struggle to realize that the E. Jean Carroll award will be steamrolled into a victory for Mr. Trump. Whether this approach can win a general election is in play.
David S. Kasdan
Cortlandt Manor, N.Y.
To the Editor:
Re “Carroll Promises to Do ‘Something Good’ With a Fortune Won From Trump” (nytimes.com, Jan. 27):
It’s wonderful that E. Jean Carroll plans to do “something good” with the $83 million Donald Trump has been ordered to pay her for his cruel and repeated defamatory conduct.
I humbly suggest that Ms. Carroll consider supporting organizations that fight to extend or eliminate the dozens of archaic, arbitrary and predator-friendly statutes of limitations across the United States that prevent victims of sexual violence from seeking justice in court against their perpetrators and, in many cases, the employers that hired and helped them.
After all, it was one such reform measure in New York — the 2022 Adult Survivors Act — that temporarily suspended the rigid deadline blocking older cases and enabling Ms. Carroll and other wounded survivors to file civil lawsuits against individual and institutional wrongdoers.
Adam Horowitz
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
The writer is an attorney who represents victims of sexual violence.
To the Editor:
The recent verdict for E. Jean Carroll is reason for celebration for women who have been the victims of sexual assault and bullying by men — including me.
But there’s another aspect of this case with which I identify — Ms. Carroll’s freelance writing career. As a former freelance writer, I was well aware of her popular and witty advice column for Elle. Our paths briefly crossed when I applied to be part of a reality show she was trying to launch. She was lovely and gracious in our email exchanges.
Ms. Carroll has said that her judgment winnings will go to good use, and I have no doubt that she will find a worthy organization, perhaps for rape and assault victims, to donate to. Unlike Donald Trump, Ms. Carroll has lived frugally and is a kind and generous person. In contrast, The Times reported that Mr. Trump paid $2 million to eight charities as part of a settlement in which he admitted to misusing the funds raised by the Donald J. Trump Foundation to promote his presidential bid and to pay off business debts.
It is clear to me, and I hope to those who are not in the thrall of a cult of personality, that the best person has won.
Jodie Gould
New York
To the Editor:
When Donald Trump whines on social media that “our Legal System is out of control,” he means, of course, that it is out of his control — a darn good thing, if you ask me.
Let’s just hope it stays that way.
Louise Guinther
Queens
Mr. President, Speak Plainly
To the Editor:
Re “Time to Conquer Hell,” by Maureen Dowd (column, Jan. 7):
Ms. Dowd is right in stating that President Biden has to “press his own case and not rely on the media or Trump’s fatuousness.” He also needs to be more effective when he does so.
His speechwriters need to steer his speeches away from grand platitudes and rhetorical flourishes and more toward plain speaking. Tell people simply and clearly what they will lose if Donald Trump is back in power — what rights, freedoms and government programs will be endangered or lost if he and his government of loyalists are calling the shots.
We could easily lose basic freedoms like the right to say whatever we want about our government. Less regulation means we would go back to a time when large companies could make products that are dangerous and polluters are free to poison our air and water. We could go back to a time when health care is no longer available to millions, when gay people are no longer free to marry the person they love.
“We never bow, we never bend” — which Ms. Dowd quotes from Mr. Biden’s Jan. 5 speech — is a beautiful sentiment, but to most people it means nothing. We need President Biden to be clear about his accomplishments and about the concrete dangers of more Donald Trump.
Karin Kramer Baldwin
Petaluma, Calif.
Public Health Questions
To the Editor:
Re “Public Health Officials Can’t Risk the Public’s Faith,” by Pamela Paul (column, Jan. 19):
Ms. Paul blames public health officials who urged Covid lockdowns for causing unanticipated harms, such as delaying learning among schoolchildren. But in fact blue states that, given the enormous uncertainty and fear caused by the pandemic, more fully instituted lockdowns and vaccine mandates also suffered proportionately far fewer Covid deaths and thus less long Covid disability. Such differences remain even when adjusting for differences related to poverty, age of the population and other factors.
If all states had the rates of a blue state like New Hampshire, over half a million Americans would not have died. The question is not whether Covid prevention delayed learning (it did), but whether that delay was worth saving half a million Americans’ lives.
Bioethics argues that all risks and benefits — both social and medical — need to be considered, not just some. Such factors may be hard to balance, but should humble us before we too readily assign blame after the fact.
Robert Klitzman
New York
The writer, a psychiatrist, is a professor at the Mailman School of Public Health and the director of the bioethics masters program at Columbia University. He is the author of “The Ethics Police?: The Struggle to Make Human Research Safe.”
Vocational Education
To the Editor:
Re “High Schools Will Provide Job Training for Hospitals” (news article, Jan. 18):
Vocational education is finally getting the recognition it deserves. For too long, young people have been warned that without a four-year degree their future is bleak. As a result, many take on debt only to belatedly find that they would have been far better off entering the work force with a high school diploma and an apprenticeship.
Walt Gardner
Los Angeles
The writer taught for 28 years in the Los Angeles Unified School District.