Historical contributions
Re “Celebrating a ‘capstone’ of Va.’s port development” (Other Views, Dec. 7): Guest columnist and former U.S. Rep. Thelma Drake’s thoughts on Norfolk Southern’s Heartland Corridor show how that rail link enhances the Port of Virginia as a continental gateway.
It’s right to celebrate, too, the 19th century contributors to the port’s success. William Mahone from nearby Southampton County as a young engineer built the railroad from Norfolk to Petersburg through the Dismal Swamp. Then as an older entrepreneur, he consolidated it with two other railroads, creating most of the Virginia part of what is now the Heartland Corridor. Matthew Fontaine Maury, best known as an oceanographer, published a piece in 1868 with text and a map prophesying and bringing closer to reality Norfolk’s destiny as the East Coast gateway best placed to serve most of the country. Remember them.
William C. Wooldridge, Norfolk
Illegal orders
I am a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and I fully support the video reminding troops about the need to disobey illegal orders.
I have been telling my friends the same thing for months. Why? Because the attempt by President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to politicize the military and use it for partisan political ends is alarming and places our troops in difficult situations. Trump and Hegseth have conducted an unprecedented purge of the military’s senior leaders, getting rid of anyone deemed not loyal enough to Trump.
At the same time the ranks of our country’s military lawyers, the very people commanders rely on to determine the legality of orders, have been decimated, with many reassigned to duty as immigration judges. Then, U.S. troops are sent to cities to police U.S. citizens in violation of U.S. law, and troops are ordered to sink suspected drug boats in international waters, in violation of international law. Clearly, if there was ever a time active duty personnel — enlisted as well as officers — need to be concerned about illegal orders, it is now.
War tribunals have shown that someone carrying out an illegal order is just as guilty as the person who gave the order. Our troops need to be reminded of that and that their loyalty is to the Constitution, not any person or political party.
Michael Stevens, Yorktown
Despised
Why is the Trump administration increasingly more and more despised?
Well, far too much favor is extended toward our financial elites, while the needs of everyday people too often get ignored.
Climate change has gotten much worse, due to short-sighted policies that heavily favor big oil companies, which act to suffuse our atmosphere with dangerous heat-trapping carbon dioxide, causing hot spots, rising sea levels, droughts and wildfires.
Undocumented immigrants, as well as some documented ones, are being hunted down by ICE agents, and then shipped to barbarous detention centers.
Our Department of Justice regularly dispenses utterly rigged “justice,” a far cry from being impartial.
Our health care is often a horrible joke, though we should be under no obligation to tolerate institutional quackery. During the COVID-19 pandemic mRNA vaccines saved millions of lives, a fact that still fails to satisfy some CDC leaders. The same leaders believe that they can “perceive” a link between vaccines and autism.
Job insecurity is through the roof — nearly 750,000 federal workers were recently furloughed during the recent government shutdown.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, the public’s friend during times of extreme weather, is perennially understaffed and underfunded.
Many inner cities are now teeming with law enforcement: city police, ICE and National Guard soldiers. Ironically, all this “lawfulness” actually contributes to violence. Residents often feel as if they are trapped in some fascist country.
Stan Pearson, Newport News
