To the editor:
About “An Act of Rebellion Can Improve Things for Working Moms” by Toby Kiers (May 4th Opinion Guest Essay):
I’m a woman pursuing a bachelor’s degree in philosophy with ridiculous hopes of getting a Ph.D.and work in academia and again I have a family.
Dr. Kiers’ essay shed light on the frustrating reality of discrimination that mothers face in academia, and offered a shining ray of hope against it.
The false dualism presented to women and assumed by so many (including Dr. Keith’s own children) is that we have to decide: our studies, our careers; our academic efforts, or My children. either.
Dr. Kiers pointed this out. This isn’t really a choice we have to make. Being a mother does not negatively impact our academic performance or contribution to research. It actually enhances it in new and unexpected ways.
Dr. Kiers is helping to forge an exciting path while refusing to choose between her research pursuits and her family. It is a path to a world where women are celebrated, respected and supported for who they are and for all of their contributions, including their children.
that This is the world of academia that I would like to enter someday.
Megan Clancy
Washington
To the editor:
Hats off to Dr. Toby Kiers! Her story is shared not only with fellow scientists, but also with women in general. I admire her courage in considering the advice of an older woman who brought her three-week-old son to her workplace and stopped her from being self-deprecating.
“What may seem like an inconvenience is often a blessing in disguise,” she writes. Amen to that! What about detachment and weakness creating meaning? I am now seeing vulnerability valued and detachment questioned in the medical field through the prose and poetry of nurses and doctors.
I’m a veteran nurse. Reading this article brought me back to the AIDS epidemic. When it came to science, we had no idea what we were dealing with. I was on maternity leave and came to know more about “brain fog”. I received a call asking me to open a new department specializing in AIDS. After thinking about it for a day, I accepted. My two sons went with me into the wilderness where people were dying from a virus we knew little about.
My sons are now 40 and 50 years old. My older son still tells me stories of the lessons he learned and the joy he had at the parties the dying threw for us nurses on Mother’s Day. Does vulnerability affect your work? surely!
pamela mitchell
Me, Bend.
To the editor:
I’m a woman who was eight months pregnant with my second child and walked across a medical school graduation stage with a toddler in my arms, so here’s Toby Kiers on managing a career as a scientist while raising a child. I can certainly relate to your essay.
Staying with young children at home was very difficult for me. However, I am blessed with a wonderful husband who loves being a father, and I was able to take a sabbatical for part of my training.
As a result, our two daughters, now adults, have a very close relationship with their father. I think this is a real victory in evolving the situation for women in the workplace. Partners can participate in not only the nitty-gritty aspects of parenting, but also the bright moments.
I feel like I missed out on the wonderful upbringing my mom gave me as a stay-at-home mom. But I was also able to show my daughters what commitment to an intellectual and humanitarian cause looks like.
I do think that residency programs are excessive in terms of workload and mental strain. This needs to evolve. However, I believe that all children become stronger when their parents enjoy participating in the up-close and personal aspects of raising their children.
susan ferguson
Berkeley, California
mythologize Trump
To the editor:
About “Trump Embraces Lawlessness in the Name of Higher Law” by Matthew Schmitz (opinion guest essay, April 4):
Mythologizing Donald Trump – whether Schmitz fancifully compares him to outlaws like Robin Hood, Billy the Kid and Jesse James, who excited people with their challenges to authority, or to Christ. Either the evangelicals make an even more outlandish casting of Trump as King Cyrus. Or even Jesus fails because most of us see him as he is, a narcissist with no positive intentions or respect for the law.
If I had to compare, it would be David Duke, the Klansman who ran for president, or Governor George Wallace, who stood at the school door to block integration. The only people who saw them as rebels with a cause were championing a lost cause, much like those who flock to MAGA today.
steve horwitz
Moraga, California
mentally ill and in prison
To the editor:
About the difficult life and death of prisoner Marcus Johnson, “Inmate’s death highlights mental health deficiencies” (front page, May 6):
As a social worker who has worked in the mental health field for over 50 years, I read with interest and sadness yet another article about a mentally ill person who died in prison due to lack of proper treatment.
This article highlights the failure of deinstitutionalization. This shows that our prisons have become an alternative to the prisons that once housed the mentally ill. Not only are mentally ill people at a disadvantage, but so is the general public, who are at risk of harm from people who hallucinate on the streets.
Our shelter system is also not equipped to manage the necessary services and supervision. The last resort is cells. I believe that offering a long-term residential program with a highly supervised step-down program provides a solution to the tragedies we currently read about in the news every day. It would certainly be cheaper than incarceration.
Let’s look at providing real help to the mentally ill rather than punishing them.
helen rubel
Irvington, New York
Say no to more offshore drilling
Even if climate change, rising ocean temperatures, and the risk of dire events like the Deepwater Horizon disaster weren’t enough reasons to halt offshore oil expansion, the industry will be able to sustain its disruption when wells run dry. We also know that we cannot expect to be wiped out. .
A huge backlog remains when it comes to plugging decommissioned or abandoned wells, removing old oil platforms, and repairing seabed damaged by drilling operations. Oil and gas companies already litter the Gulf of Mexico with more than 18,000 miles of disused pipelines and more than 14,000 unplugged wells that can leak chemicals such as methane into the ocean.
It also involves financial risks. If an offshore oil and gas operator files for bankruptcy, as 37 companies have since 2009, U.S. taxpayers could be forced to pay for the cleanup.
That’s enough. We cannot afford any more offshore drilling.
Andrew Hartsig
anchorage
The author is Senior Director of Arctic Conservation at Ocean Conservancy.
