Does Moran underestimate Trump’s appeal? | Letters – NJ.com

Tom Moran’s Sept. 29 column harbors a desperate plea that Republican senators will rise to the occasion and vote to convict President Donald Trump once the Democratic-led House does its farcical dance of impeachment. His hope has some basis because Republicans have previously demonstrated their commitment to moral governance when one of their party commits acts of shame. I am still waiting for such resolve with Democrats even as recently as the Virginia governor and lieutenant governor fiascoes, never mind even going back to the Bill Clinton impeachment.

I’d like Moran to memorize one key phrase going forward: “shy Trump voters.” I did not vote for this president, but each day steels my resolve to pull that Republican lever in 2020 as I watch the Democratic Party stage a French Revolution-style “bloodless” insurrection against our way of life.

The stunned looks on the liberal segment of the press in 2016 will be far eclipsed by the 2020 results as the progressive wing of the Democratic Party repeats the Hillary Clinton “deplorable” strategy of that prior election.

Frank P. Puzycki, Long Valley

Sheneman cartoon insults Trump backers

Two comments about Drew Sheneman’s editorial cartoon, depicting all Donald Trump supporters as selfish and slovenly. Second, perhaps Rep. Frank Pallone, D-6th Dist., should quote the rough transcript of Trump’s phone conversation with the Ukrainian president truthfully instead of making up a quote that surely was not what the president actually said.

JoAnn Giordano, South Plainfield

Article missed key Menendez background

In reading the article about Sen. Robert Menendez D-N.J. saying he has yet to make a decision on vote to impeach Trump, I found nothing mentioned that Menendez did exactly what the president is accused of doing.

As reported in May by CNN, Menendez and fellow Sens. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., wrote a letter to Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Yuriy Lutsenko, expressing concern at the closing of four investigations they said were critical to the Robert Mueller probe. In the letter, they implied that their support for U.S. assistance to Ukraine was at stake.

Anyone would expect to see this included in the article. Just where do I go to get the real news?

John Lester, East Hanover

Resume welcoming more refugees

Thank you for your recent editorial (“In an assault on our nation’s values, the bully-in-chief lashes out at refugees“) about the president’s executive order allowing states and localities to keep out refugees. We should encourage our elected representatives to co-sponsor the Grace Act, which would set a floor of 95,000 refugees permitted into the U.S. every year. This is the historical average since the inception of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program in 1980, and would protect it against abuses by the executive branch that have resulted in the tragic closure of agencies such as we’ve seen in New Jersey and across the country. It will take years to rebuild the infrastructure of these refugee resettlement programs after the damage this administration has done.

It should also be noted that International Rescue Committee continues to resettle refugees in Elizabeth, and Interfaith-RISE resettles refugees in Highland Park. These organizations are worthy of everyone’s support. And while Church World Service no longer resettles refugees in Jersey City, Welcome Home Jersey City, an all-volunteer 501(c)(3) nonprofit, continues to work with refugees who’ve been resettled in this area, offering educational, employment and material support to refugees, asylees and asylum-seekers in our community.

Alain Mentha, executive director, Welcome Home Jersey City

In Essex, focus on reservation, not zoo

Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo’s guest opinion column (“Zoo attraction will give visitors an interactive experience”) attempted to justify the expenditure of millions of taxpayer dollars to build another amphitheater at the Turtle Back Zoo, which would take additional acreage away from the South Mountain Reservation.

DiVincenzo attempts to cloak his further destruction of the reservation under the guise of “education.” For those who have not attended any of the dog-and-pony shows put on by members of the zoo staff, the “education” looks like this: Zoo staff intend to parade tranquilized animals in front of thousands of squirming kids in order to “educate” them about these poor animals.

The irony is apparently lost on DiVincenzo, who could better educate the children by taking small groups on walks through what remains of the reservation in order to teach them about the effects of removing trees to build parking lots and attendant loss of oxygen production, the effects of storm-water runoff and habitat destruction, and increase in carbon dioxide caused by all the buses that transport the kids to the zoo to watch terrified animals in order to “educate” them.

DiVincenzo should take a hike — literally.

Judith L. Rosenthal, Millburn

The Star-Ledger/NJ.com encourages submissions of opinion. Bookmark NJ.com/Opinion. Follow us on Twitter @NJ_Opinion and on Facebook at NJ.com Opinion. Get the latest news updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.com’s newsletters.