To the Editor:
Re “Prince Harry and the Value of Silence,” by Patti Davis (Opinion guest essay, nytimes.com, Jan. 7):
I have not watched the Netflix documentary, nor do I plan to read Prince Harry’s book about his family. Ms. Davis’s essay expressed my sentiments exactly.
We do not need to know people’s private family matters, and I think no good can come of this. I feel for Harry in that he is young and in time may come to regret his actions.
This royal life seems to be a very unhappy one, and I do hope that things come out well for him in the end, but I do not see that airing your dirty laundry is going to help matters.
Bette Cotter
Glendale, Calif.
To the Editor:
The British have a word for it: “whingeing.” The closest we Americans can come to it is “crying in your beer.” Whatever you want to call it, Harry has been wallowing in it.
While he may deserve a modicum of sympathy for having been born into a life that was largely preordained, he could have made a gracious exit. His uncle Prince Edward had the gumption to separate himself from monarchical constraints and forge a career in his own right, apart from the pomp and ceremony of the royal court.
Prince Harry could have done the same thing. He instead chose to exploit the prerogatives of his birth while at the same time reviling the system that offered him the platform to air his puerile grievances.
He should grow up.
Miles B. Anderson
Sag Harbor, N.Y.
To the Editor:
Re “Why Is America So Taken With These Two?,” by Pamela Paul (column, Jan. 10):
Even though Harry’s TV interviews and book might be self-serving, it doesn’t matter to most Americans. He comes off as a smart, decent human being, just as vulnerable as the rest of us, a likable bloke.
In 1776, when Americans declared their independence from the throne, the British press reacted with contempt. Over 200 years later, when Prince Harry declared his independence from the monarchy, the British press responded with scorn. Some things never change.
Chase Webb
Portland, Ore.
To the Editor:
I don’t know why entitled narcissists whose claim to fame is being famous seem so appealing, but I suspect it’s for the same reason the Kardashians are millionaires and Donald Trump improbably became president.
If only we gave the same support to those with character, ability and talent.
Jay Markowitz
Pound Ridge, N.Y.
To the Editor:
Pamela Paul asks why Americans have a “particular crush” on the Sussexes. There’s not a lot of evidence that they do.
Our media, however, seem to believe that the U.S. public is fascinated by and even admirers of royalty. Perhaps our columnists and TV commentators are overly influenced by the British tabloids’ intense coverage of royalty.
The tabloids also whipped up support in the U.K. for Brexit; that’s not turning out very well. And there’s always an audience for circuses and spectacles of all sorts.
Richard Hoffman
Washington
To the Editor:
Could I please see by a show of hands all those who have had more than enough of Harry and Meghan?
Ray Bailey
New York
Changing Our Gun Culture
To the Editor:
Re “Child’s Access to Gun Shocks Virginia School” (front page, Jan. 10), about a 6-year-old who shot his teacher using a gun from home:
In a rational, caring and responsible society, the young are rightly viewed and treated as not having matured intellectually, emotionally and psychologically until their late teens to mid-20s. Grade-school-age children are not fully responsible for the quality of their judgments and decisions.
It is the responsibility of the society to educate, instill civilized values and put proper controls on behavior, as well as protect its youths from others and themselves. This role is assigned both to parents or other primary caretakers and to societal institutions such as schools, law enforcement and government.
In our culture, gun use and attitudes toward gun ownership have surpassed reasonableness to the level of immorality. We can’t be in denial about this fact and we must address this problem even as a 6-year-old packed and violently used a handgun.
Paul Rosenberg
Palm Beach, Fla.
The writer is a retired psychiatrist.
Fix the Korean War Memorial
To the Editor:
Re “Korean War Memorial Is Riddled With Errors” (front page, Jan. 9):
It is no surprise that the list of names etched onto the granite of the Korean War Veterans Memorial includes incorrect information and that there are names missing. Even if the results of the Barker brothers’ work — the Korean War Project — had been properly utilized, some errors and omissions would have been inevitable.
Isn’t there a role for technology here? Instead of permanently engraved names that are difficult and costly to revise, why not add a multimedia exhibit where individual names could be searched and displayed, perhaps with photos and a line or two about veterans’ wartime experiences? It could easily be updated and corrected, probably for a very reasonable price.
If such technology is ever included, I hope the Barker brothers’ extraordinary work and dedication to this project are highlighted. Thank you for calling attention to their efforts.
Linda Acheson Pool
Fox Chapel, Pa.
Please Don’t Annoy the Bison
To the Editor:
Re “Establishing a New Home for Bison to Roam” (Science Times, Jan. 10):
I foresee a possible problem. If this project succeeds in getting large herds of bison roaming the West, people are going to want to see them. They are going to want to take selfies with bison.
I lived in Wyoming for about 10 years in the late 1970s and early ’80s. Every year we would see stories in the paper about some tourist who got stomped or gored because they wanted their picture taken with a bison.
Bison are 1,500 pounds of smelly, nearsighted bad temper. They don’t like people walking up to them to take selfies; they really don’t like people trying to take a selfie with their babies. They are very capable of reducing said clueless tourist to dust.
Bruce Higgins
San Diego
Storing Digital Data
To the Editor:
Re “Your Memories. Their Cloud” (Sunday Business, Jan. 1), about the risks of storing important data on technology companies’ servers:
This was a very timely article articulating the need to drastically reduce our personal digital data storage. But an issue not mentioned by the writer is the lack of security offered by digital storage methods in addition to the cloud.
Cloud storage is fine, but its vendors provide no guarantee that your data is safe, nor do they compensate for lost data. The problem with all other storage technologies — be they CDs, hard drives, magnetic tapes or thumb drives — is that they all have finite and often remarkably short lifetimes, putting critical data at risk. Further, magnetic and semiconductor storage are especially susceptible to the rare solar flare that may strike the earth at any time.
Considerable work is currently underway to develop new archival storage technologies that will successfully store data for centuries without change.
Clark E. Johnson
Madison, Wis.
The writer is the director of WaveDomain, a company developing an archival data storage technology.