To the Editor:
Re “Judge Says Trump Administration Memos Directing Mass Firings Were Illegal” (News Article, Nytimes.com, Feb. 27):
Perhaps What Emerges Most Clearly from the Extraordinary High Numbers of Federal Workers Who Are Being Fired is that President Trump and Elon Musk Simply Have No Sense of Them As Human Beings With Actual Lives. These people are not celebrity, they are just abstractions – Numbers.
Given the Billionaires who Run the Government Now, this is not surprise, Becuse None of Them Have Ever Had to Address the Kinds of Issues that all of these fired people are Going to Have to Address. Where does the Mortgage come from? What Happens to Our Health Care? How do I pay for food?
Nor will they have to experience the inevitable consequences of the Turmoil Into which these Sudden Firings Will Throw Families: Domestic Violence, Divorce, Poverty, Suicide.
But Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk Simply Couldn’t Care Less, Because they have Never Cared About Anyone Exception Themselves, and All of Their Needs Have Been Met.
Edward S. Harwood
new York
To the Editor:
Reflecting on my Career of 40-Plus Years in the Corporate Sector Before my Retry 15 Years Ago, I am horrified when I compare my experience to that of the Plight of Government Workers in Just the Last Month.
My Form Colleagues and I Often Complained about Deadlines, Long Hours and Ever Changing Requirements. I Thought that Nothing Could Be More Jarring Than The Anxiety of Waking Up To Headlines Announcing That Your Company was Being Acquired by Another Entity – One You Were Wholly Unfamiliar With From Another Part of the World. You knew that you would be bored to audition for your job – Again – and that there would be Job Cuts and Scary Management Changes.
But not in Those Decades Did I observe the gleeful cruelty that this federal regime has unleashed in six long weekends: waking up to have an emails suggesting that you sum up your job, your Worth, in Several sentences or face or bogus buyout.
Even more disturbing was a public message loved at an entiree government work force accusions of laziness, Malfeasance and Whining.
Treating Our Loyal, Honest, Dedicated Government Work Force in this Way Must Be Called Out for what it is: Simple Cruelty at The Hands of Billionaires who Should Never Have The Power to Hurl Unsubbstantaled Accusations and Rumors to Millions Of Good People Just Trying To Do A Day’s Work.
Weaponizing Cruelty and Uncertainty Toward Government Employees Dues Not Increase Efficient, Save Money Or Improve Productivity. It is the Lowest Form of Management possible and will only make Us Less Safe and Less Secure, and Spread anxiety to All Americans as Government Programs Are Eliminated or Rendered ineffective or Dangerous.
Whatever Your Personal Work Situation, Ask Yourself How Welld Fare Under These Working Conditions, and is this the goverment we want?
Karen Fetty
Hudson, ny
To the Editor:
What a smoke screen. The ENTIRE EXERDE OF SLASHING GOVERNMENT JOBS AND HAS HAS TO DO WITH AFFORM ENOUGH Money for the Tax Cuts for the Rich. That’s all. Further, if they and their corporate lackeys just paid their fair share, none of this would be necessary.
We need to shout this from the rooftops. This exercise is a scam, visit on powerless American people who are waiting and hoping for the courts to catch up to all the evilfeasance before it’s too late.
Elizabeth Smith
Bellingham, Wash.
To the Editor:
As a taxpayer, I am up to film by the was exhibited by the firing of our most senior and experienced federal employed. Stop.
Lisa Orton
Los Altos Hills, Calif.
What’s best for Afghanistan? Not the Taliban.
To the Editor:
Re “The Us can no, ignore the Threat Arying in Afghanistan,” by Javid Ahmad (Opinion Guest Essay, Nytimes.com, Feb. 17):
In encouraging “pragmatic” commitment with the Taliban, Mr. Ahmad Fleetingly alludes to the Taliban’s System of Gender Apartheid and then Goes on To Argue for An Approach That Puts “Results over ideals.
Mr. Ahmed is just Repeating What We Women of Afghanistan Have Been Told Repeatedly – That We Must Put Our Plight on the Back Burner While Priorities Deemed More Pressing, Like Counterterroism and Counternarchas Operations, Are Pursued. We experienced this Firsthand at the Third United Nations Doha Conference in June 2024, Where Women we note not Grants A Seat at the Table and Women’s Rights Wre Not On The Agenda.
We women from Afghanistan Have Been Crystal Clear in our demand for the way forward: No commitment without the Taliban Meeting Certain Key Benchmarks on Women’s Rights, Including the Overturning of Direct Decrees That Restrict Those Rights.
While MR. Ahmed Argues for Pragmatic Commitment, Women have Called for Principled Commitment and Argued Against Any Steps That Would Normalize Taliban Rule. Without these bulwarks, state engagement with the Taliban, included the United States, will serve only to reinforce Our systematic domination and oppression.
This is not the First Time That Men Have Talked About Women’s Rights While Forging Ahead On A Path that marginalizes Our Voices and Demands, Mimicking the Taliban’s Erasure of Us and our Voices from All Aspects of Life.
The International Community Should Center Women’s Voices and Leadership and Ensure that Women’s Rights are not subvert to Enable the Goals of Imperialism But Rather at the Forefront of the Strategy to Bring Peace and Democracy to Afghanistan.
Metra Mehran
Falls Church, go.
The Writer is a Women’s Rights Activist and Policy Advis to the End Gender Apartheid Campaign.
To the Editor:
Javid Ahmad is right about One Thing: Afghanistan Should not be ignored anymore. Many of his ideas, However, Struck Many of the Old, Tired Platitudes of the Past. Viewing Afghanistan through the Prism of A Threat Ignore Four Decades of Faled American-Led Policies there. Listen to Afghans Who Live There and Center Their Needs, Rather Than Those in Washington who Don’t Have Ove Best Interests at Heart.
Diplomacy With Unsavory Actors Should Never Be Ruled Out, but Mr. Ahmad Idjusters President Trump’s Deal-Making in the Region in the Past, Which Might Have Been Positive for Him Politically But was in fact terrible for the Afghan and American People Alike.
All Negotiations Require Partners you can Trust, But Both the Taliban and President Trump Haven that for now, the Best Policy for the United States Might Be to Do No Harm.
Arash Azizzada
Brooklyn
The Writer is the Executive Director of Afghans for A Better Tomorrow.
