Letters to the editor — Thursday, September 24, 2026

Twenty-five years later things have changed

I too went to see that terrific production of “Come From Away” at Sharon Playhouse.

Twenty-five years later, my memories of 9/11 have not faded. Many things have changed in that time, but most vivid is the change in our relationship with the rest of the world. The international response to the attack was immediate, full of love, and offered unqualified support.

Our response was to invade Iraq (tho the terrorists were all Saudi) with the full force of our powerful military and stay there for 2 decades without really impacting the politics of the region. We pursued alleged “weapons of mass destruction” that were never found or even confirmed, eventually captured Osama Bin Laden, lost a large number of young American men & women (not to mention the civilians killed) at a cost to taxpayers of $3,000,000,000,000.

Candidate Trump promised to never again get us into an “endless war” but did so in Iran. (In fairness, he also promised to bring gas & food prices down).

He has thoughtlessly destroyed the democratic alliance built since WW2 (not just NATO) with childish insults, tariffs, and threatened invasions. Our eternal friend Canada is applying to the EU as a trading partner, since America is no longer considered trustworthy. Our military is roiled by a purge of experienced leadership, basic troop needs ignored, and a lack of weapons (all the missiles spent on this one operation). The only beneficiaries are Russia, China & arms makers. America has been weakened & made less safe by an incompetent leader and a complicit congress. In a few years they’ve managed to frighten & anger our citizens to the point we are unable to talk to each other. Very sad.

Leo Blackman

Wassaic

Thanks to Brian Kenny

My daughter, husband and I had a flat tire right behind the firehouse in Sharon. No one was around and out of nowhere appeared Brian Kenny of Kenny Funeral Home. He asked if he could help and offered to drive us to our home in Ancram which I knew was way out of his way. He drove our adult daughter and then came back to see if there was anything more to do to help. He didn’t know us, we didn’t know him and all he did was help when help was needed. This isn’t an advertisement for his funeral home but if this is the way he treats strangers then he is the best of funeral directors anywhere.

Lorraine Coyle and Oliver Koppell

Ancram