Letters to the Editor, March 2025

Kudos on your President’s Note in the recent December 2024 issue. You nailed it with your description of our then-President-elect. But as disgusting an individual as Trump is, I lay blame with the American people for electing such a disgraced individual to the most powerful office on the planet. It does not bode well for humanity that people are more swayed by a modest increase in the cost of eggs and milk, even with gasoline prices plummeting and other costs moderating, than trying to preserve a decent future for themselves and their progeny.

You and I both know that saving our planet from the multiple ravages of climate change, deforestation, habitat encroachment, plastic pollution, and forever chemical pollution — just to name a few — is going to require a huge sacrifice on the part of every human on the planet. And our recent election, as well as elections in other countries, has shown that most of us are simply not up to the task.

One example really stands out for me. Just weeks before this election, western North Carolina suffered the most devastating natural climate disaster in the history of the state, with many people dead and hundreds or more losing their livelihood. And yet, that very state, a few weeks later, overwhelmingly voted for a climate denier to be their next leader.

I have personally had enough. I live in a home which is heated and cooled with heat pumps, and solar panels provide most of my electricity. I drive an electric car, and I sort my trash and recycle as much as the city allows. I live alone and do not have any children. I also support, as much as possible, your organization as well as Planned Parenthood, the Environmental Defense Fund, and the Union of Concerned Scientists. Yet I feel I am spitting into the wind.

I applaud you, your staff, and your supporters for not giving in. I will always continue to support you, but I am so pessimistic these days I am ready to throw in the towel. I feel that if most people don’t want to work on healing the planet, they deserve the planet they will inherit.

I recently finished reading the book of Jeremiah in the Bible, and I feel his story rings true now. He spent his life warning the people that if they did not change their ways, they would be utterly destroyed. Yet his message was treated with contempt. He was ridiculed, jailed, and even sentenced to death for preaching against the prevailing message that said that everything was just fine and no changes were needed. The result, of course, is that Babylon was utterly destroyed. It’s such a pity that the large block of so-called Christians who helped put Trump into power don’t really seem to have read or at least understood their Bible.

With deep respect to you and your staff.

Mel Cohen, MD

I just read your President’s Note in the December issue, and I have to tell you I feel pretty much the same about this note as Dick Bennett felt about your last one. I will be detaching that page and slipping it into a folder in my backpack. I want to be able to refresh my memory with your wording and direction from time to time.

I may have been for ZPG before the organization bearing the term was founded. After my second child reached a healthy two years old, I had a vasectomy. The two of us replaced ourselves, and that was it. Both my sons have been married over 10 years, but I only have one grandchild. (Truthfully, I would like a couple more, but that’s not happening.)

Alan Bronstein

You expressed my thoughts clearly in your December 2024 President’s Note! I trust we will all survive four years IF we quietly work together.

I feel like I am a member of a silent majority, and NOT the one Nixon spoke of.

Let’s hope we can avoid climate and other catastrophes over the next four years.

Keep up the good work!

Walter Mozgala

Thank you very much to Elizabeth Kidder Michael for her letter about men and their responsibilities in the December 2024 magazine. I didn’t think the response really answered her question.

I have written a couple of times on the same subject. Why aren’t there more articles about men and what they can do to stop overpopulation? They need to be held accountable for their actions. Some men have responded by getting vasectomies, and that’s commendable. But let’s have more articles geared towards men and quit concentrating on women all the time. It takes two people to make a baby!!!

Bonnie Scott

Send your letters to Marian Starkey at marian@popconnect.org if you’d like to be featured in the next issue of the magazine!