To the Editor:
Re “Losing My Eyesight Helped Me See More Clearly,” by Frank Bruni (Opinion guest essay, Feb. 20):
Mr. Bruni is right that most people don’t notice others’ hardships, physical or emotional, or stop to ponder the toll behind a smile or a laugh. His imagery of wearing a sandwich board to reveal, indeed proclaim, these buried truths struck a chord with me: “Living with lupus, spine compressed at 27, immunocompromised for five decades.”
And yet, in our current need to put Covid behind us, in our drive to put individual rights over the good of the community, will the message emblazoned on my sandwich board capture anyone’s attention?
Suzy Szasz
Richmond, Va.
The writer is the author of “Lupus: Living With It.”
‘Unbecoming’ Women
To the Editor:
Re “The Lazy, Drunk, Broke Women on TV,” by Sarah Hagelin and Gillian Silverman (Opinion guest essay, Sunday Review, Feb. 20):
One need not drop out of living in a self-respecting way as an alternative to devoting exhausting effort to attaining the corner office.
“Unbecoming” women, as the essay refers to them, draw more condemnation than their male counterparts for a reason: We need smart, supportive, hard-working women too much.
Fairly or not, society has depended on women to manage almost everything, provide all the nonfinancial support, and keep lives and things together when they are in danger of falling apart. Can’t we just dress well, keep a decent apartment, read, write, and make friends and some money?
The last thing our troubled country needs, in reality or on television, is proudly shiftless, slovenly women.
Julie Webster
Brookline, Mass.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/07/opinion/letters/ukraine-russia-war.html