Hostage history

Our USS Constitution — Old Ironsides — and its history of halting the North African Barbary pirates’ hostage-taking  — has been completely overlooked in the reporting on Gaza’s Hamas taking of Israeli civilian hostages and murder of 1,400 Israelis.

Bostonians — indeed, all  Americans —  should proudly know that the USS Constitution and five other frigates were built specifically to battle and halt Barbary pirates’ seizing of American hostages from American merchant ships.

Unlike the “pro-Palestinian” Hamas supporters of today, there were no American cheers or dancing in support of the North African pirates when the USS Constitution was launched in 1792.

The USS Constitution and five other frigates were built to defend the young America and its democratic freedoms. And they did fight “to the shores of Tripoli” in the first Barbary War. The brave sailors and marines halted the hostage-taking of Americans. The USS Constitution remains as a living warship memorial to freedom and democracy.

Apologists for the Hamas attack on Israel criticize Israel for fighting back. These useful Hamas idiots cheer the barbarians. Taking hundreds of children, women, male civilians — murdering of some 1,200 Israeli civilians — is nothing to be celebrated. Yesterday’s Barbary pirates are today’s Hamas and Hezbollah, the new barbarians attempting to wipe out the only democracy in the Middle East.

Robert Skole

Boston

College leaders

As I read their non-responses of Harvard’s Claudine Gay, Penn’s Liz Magill and MIT’s Sally Kornbluth to simple yes-or-no questions about whether calling for the genocide of Jews on violates the code of conduct for their campus, my only surprise was that none of these feckless bureaucrats pleaded the Fifth. Because that might have been a better response than saying “It can be, depending on the context.”

I am in total agreement with hedge fund manager and Harvard alum Bill Ackman, who demanded that all three presidents “resign in disgrace” after putting forward some of the “most extraordinary testimony ever elicited in Congress, certainly on the topic of genocide.”

Peter Bochner

Wayland

Ed Gaskin

During my professional career as a Social Worker and in Law Enforcement I hardly ever wore a suit and I did care what people thought of me. The first time I met Ed he was wearing a suit and I was wearing jeans and a polo shirt. What impressed me most about Ed was his love and commitment to the Grove Hall and Roxbury community. The work Ed has done has greatly improved the quality life of the residents and the businesses in the area.

Robert Francis, Retired Chief

Boston Municipal Police

Hunter Biden

Hunter Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, declares that “ . . . if Hunter’s last name was anything other than Biden, the charges in Delaware, and now California, would never have been brought.”  I can assure him with with reasonable confidence that if Hunters’ last name was Trump, the charges would have been brought, and probably much sooner.

Nicholas G. Xenos

York, ME