To the Editor:
Re “With Aid Spent, Poverty Traps Millions More” (front page, Oct. 16):
Throughout this crisis, more and more people are turning to nonprofits for food, child care, health care and other vital services. Yet many nonprofits themselves are struggling to survive as those increasing demands bring increases in costs when revenues are declining. This is not sustainable.
The Cares Act kept things going for a while, but those dollars are now gone. Nearly a million nonprofit jobs have been lost since March. Without another relief package immediately, tens of thousands of additional nonprofit employees will go from helping others to needing help themselves.
Nonprofits throughout the country and the millions of Americans who depend on them cannot wait until after the election for relief. The White House, the Senate and the House owe the American people the same commitment to Covid relief that nonprofits are showing every day. Get back to the negotiating table, and don’t stop until a deal is done.
Tim Delaney
Washington
The writer is president and chief executive of the National Council of Nonprofits.
Ways to Help the Coal Miners
To the Editor:
Re “Despite Vow to Put ‘Miners Back to Work,’ Coal Keeps Collapsing” (front page, Oct. 6):
The country is in the midst of a transition away from coal power, driven by the availability of cleaner, cheaper forms of energy. President Trump’s empty promises have done nothing to help the communities affected by this shift, and time and time again he declines to take real steps to improve the situation in coal country.
Instead of making promises they can’t keep, the administration and Congress need to focus on ensuring that affected workers and communities aren’t left behind.
That means taking steps like supporting the Reclaim Act, a smart piece of legislation that would use already existing funds to help coal communities clean up abandoned mine lands, diversify their economies and create jobs. It means shoring up the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund as black lung cases surge to startlingly high levels.
It’s time our government stopped exploiting these communities and started taking real action to help these areas thrive.
Jason Walsh
Washington
The writer is executive director of the BlueGreen Alliance.
The Laptop vs. the Pen
To the Editor:
Parents of elementary-school-age children who do not have laptops can turn to an earlier form of technology: the pen. Writing by pen teaches in ways that computers can’t.
Identify an article or a book your children will enjoy working with. Then, in a notebook, have them copy exactly, in longhand, in ink, a paragraph or two, that can be checked and corrected weekly.
You might model the copying for them. Third and fourth graders, especially, can improve their skills as they write complicated sentences they could have never composed themselves at that age. With this approach, English grammar, usage and punctuation become second nature.
I was taught this way for two years at that age, copying for an hour a day at my desk, quietly and comfortably, while my teacher wrote out the sentences on the chalkboards up front. I learned so much from this exercise, and your child will, too.
Tim Burke
Middletown, N.J.