Letters to the Editor - April 24, 2025

To protect the rule of law, enforce it

It is extortion by Trump and bribery by the law firms which have promised nearly one billion dollars of “pro bono” legal services to causes approved by Trump. Both extortion and bribery are crimes under the penal laws of most States. Moreover, the extortion by Trump violates multiple provisions of the Constitution. This chaos caused by the Wannabe King must be stopped.

Where are the Attorneys General of the States?

The Attorneys General should consider multi-state indictments of Trump for extortion and the law firms which have capitulated for bribery.

As these cases move up through the appellate process of the court system, one can hope:

That even the Supreme Court will recognize that the immunity granted to Trump should not be available when his actions violate both the penal laws of the States and the Constitution of the United States, and

That even the law firms which have capitulated to Trump’s blackmail and are subject to criminal prosecution for bribery will repudiate their vague agreements with Trump to provide “pro bono” legal services.

While bribery is a crime, repudiation of a vague agreement which is the result of criminal extortion is not.

G. A. Mudge

Sharon

Affordable healthcare for women

She was petite with pale skin and shoulder length dark hair. She worked at the book shop in town. Her husband took care of his grandmother, her house and garden, so they could live in the grandmother’s apartment over the garage.They could not afford health insurance, but she told me that she was able to go for her annual checkup including cancer screening and birth control at Planned Parenthood for only three hundred dollars.It was such a relief for her.

Millions of Planned Parenthood patients nationwide go for their health care, birth control and cancer screening and it is paid for by Medicaid. Planned Parenthood is prohibited from using Medicaid funds for abortions.

Three southern states have blocked Planned Parenthood from seeing Medicaid patients. The Trump administration is withholding tens of millions of Medicaid dollars from Planned Parenthood clinics.South Carolina is backing a suit before the Supreme Court against Planned Parenthood to stop them from getting Medicaid payments for their patients, even though they do not use those funds for abortions.

This seems very cruel.Where will these women go to get the health care they need and can afford?

Lizbeth Piel

Sharon

On Every Face, That Day

Hope was palpable,

emblazoned on the faces

of all who gathered there; while he, his one lung

surely gasping

with the weight of expectation,

stepped forward from the shadows

of the ancient basilica—and his own humility—

into the footlights of all

he must embrace.

Even had they not been asked,

the thronging masses—there,

and glued to screens

around the globe—

would pray for him,

the aging pontiff,

pastor of the poor,

his smooth jowls

transformed to radiance

by joy and affirmation,

reaching out to upturned faces,

breaking ground on every front,

the name Francis, alone,

pregnant with promise—and possibility.

Betsy Sprague

Salisbury

Written March 13, 2013, upon Pope Francis’ election.