Letters to the editor: Thursday, July 24, 2025

Northwell Health’s affiliation and Sharon Hospital’s future

In your July 17 article on a University of North Carolina study, you reference possible Medicaid cuts or closings at Sharon Hospital. Your article says Sharon Hospital was included on a national list of endangered rural hospitals because it had experienced three years of negative profit margins. Although Sharon Hospital technically qualifies to be included in the list, its new affiliation with Northwell Health wasn’t taken into account, and therefore, actually, Sharon Hospital should not be considered to be in the same boat as these other hospitals.

The Sharon Community should know that:

1. Northwell has one of the strongest balance sheets of any major U.S. hospital systems in the U.S.

2. As part of their agreement with the State of Connecticut, Northwell has agreed to maintain essential services at Sharon Hospital, including maintaining and even expanding maternity services for a minimum of 5 years.

3. Northwell has agreed to invest up to $1Billion in the Nuvance hospital system.

4. Northwell has to appoint independent monitors for all of Nuvance’s hospitals and to hold public meetings for the next 5 years where the public can make their voices known.

Victor Germack

Vice President

Save Sharon Hospital

Salisbury

Drunk on the Trump Kool-Aid?

Signs that you may be drinking too much of the Trump Kool-Aid are:

1) You’re okay with him being an “honest liar.” Is there such a thing?

2) You’re suffering from amnesia when you believe he keeps his promises.

Trump made lots and lots of promises during his campaign.Here are 4:

End inflation starting Day One, Aug. 9, 2024 / Bozeman, Mont. (Oops, inflation YTD 2.3% )

Get the price of gasoline below $2 a gallon, Sept. 5, 2024 / Economic Club of New York (Oops!, national average of gas is currently $3.14)

End the war in Ukraine in “24 hours” once he is in office,May 11, 2024 / CNN town hall (big Oops!)

Bring about “peace in the Middle East,” Nov. 1, 2024 / Dearborn, Mich. (Oops! But he will transform Gaza into the new Riveria … another promise! )

Oh, and the bromance between Elon and Donald has ended. The two children are now calling each other names on social media.Very presidential.

There should be a warning label on drinking Trump’s Kool-Aid.“Causes Amnesia.”

3) You like that Trump talks a lot. But does he make sense? (not much of the time).

Highly recommended reading Time magazine’s April 22, 2025, interview with Donald Trump and the accompanying Fact Check article.Reading it may act as an antidote to the Kool-Aid.

Other signs you’re drinking too much of his Kool-Aid.

4) You echo many of Trump’s false claims, demean the other side, brag about how they have been outsmarted, and focus on their flaws while oblivious to the character flaws of your favorite Kool-Aid dispenser.

5) You’re blinded by all the good TV.The old status quo is out.Ethics, morality, empathy and honesty are for wimps.You’re okay with your president enriching himself by sellingNFTs, meme coins, Bibles and crypto.Have you made money on any of these?Trump certainly has.

Data from Chainalysis shows that the creators of the TRUMP token made $320 million in fees while retail investors lost money.Source: CoinDesk, May 9, 2025.

You may want to look in the mirror in about 6 months and see if you are really better off.

Maybe Trump will work miracles and make America great again, however you want to define it.However, there is one thing that is certain;if he succeeds it will all be because of him.If he does not, he will be sure to cast the blame wide and far, or maybe just move the goal post lower and admit he duped a lot of Americans (doubtful).One thing many Americans may agree on, when it comes to con artists, Trump is one of the best.

Recommended Reading:“On Tyranny,” by Timothy Snyder.

Joseph Geraghty

Lakeville

IDF’s ‘Warning Shots’

My understanding of warning shots is that they are intentionally harmless, something whose purpose isto restore order or to drive a group of people (usually unarmed ) in the direction you want them to go.

Why is it that hundreds of starving Palestinians are regularly dying and hundreds more are wounded by “warning shots”? It can’t be accidental or because the soldiers have bad aim. Just today, as I am writing this,97 Palestinians were killed at a food distribution site.

The solution to chaos is not killing and maiming. According to UNICEF, the Gaza has the highest number of children amputees per capita anywhere in the world.

Given the massive scale ofdead and wounded, as well as the destruction of homes, schools and hospitals it appears that the Israel’s goal is the decimation of the people and culture of the Gaza.

The absence of prophetic and moral voices at home and abroadat this time is astounding. The fact that munitions are sold by US arms manufacturers, to the Israeli Defense Forces only adds to this shameful and tragic situation.

More death and destruction will only lead to more death and destruction.

Shocked, irate and sad.

John Carter

Lakeville

Questioning Trump’s ‘wins’

The “wins” that Mark Godburn cites from the current administration (Letters to the Editor, July 17) illustrate a very deep level of cognitive dissonance.

To say Trump isn’t a constitutional threat is factually incorrect and dangerous.

When he mentions “criminals” being deported, Godburn has conveniently left out that green card holders, students on visas, and people that have been living here legally for decades are also being deported.

He praises the “congressional spending” bill that passed, but tell us this Godburn: When the cuts come for Sharon Hospital, should you be our first call to replace the jobs lost?

Steve Ohlinger

Salisbury

Kaitlin Ohlinger

North Canaan