‘How Can We Combat What We Don’ t Understand?’
Our Top 10 Comments of the Week: Readers debate the Manchester bombing, planning your own wake and the first female infantrymen in the United States.
Here are the top 10 comments of the week on our digital platforms, as selected by our readers and the journalists who moderate nearly every comment. Some comments were edited for length and clarity.
1. When my son heard about this horror, he looked at me and said “Why, Mommy? Why would somebody do such a thing?” And I thought about the many intellectual, historical and political arguments I might provide — trying in vain to articulate a response that would explain a suicide bomber blowing himself up in a crowd of kids, but in the end I just said, “I don’ t actually know. I don’ t know why.”
And I think I’ m not alone. How can we combat what we don’ t understand? We lament and wring our hands and weep, not just for the dead and the loss of innocence of the survivors, but because we all so desperately want this to stop and we don’ t know how to make it end.
— Michelle in New Jersey, reacting to an article about a bombing after an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, that killed 22 people.
This comment received more than 700 reader recommendations.
2. This week the city that is my home has taken a beating. As for the aftermath, the good people of Manchester have pulled together in shared grief. This will only make us stronger. Together we stand.
— Robert Grundy in Manchester.
3. I know this is a divisive issue and there will be those who feel this story romanticizes assisted suicide, but so be it. To me, it paints the most beautiful picture of how death can be, even in the face of a cruel disease, in a modern, enlightened age.
This is how I would want to go, were I to contract a debilitating illness late in life — honestly, openly, with friends and family at my side.
— Daughter in New England, reacting to an article about John Shields, a Canadian man with terminal cancer who planned his own wake before proceeding with a physician-assisted suicide.
This comment received more than 750 reader recommendations.
4. When I was 13, I went to see “The Spy Who Loved Me.” It felt like seeing a film for adults. It seemed like an important moment. I’ ll always associate Roger Moore for the moment in my life when I felt like I wasn’ t a kid anymore.
— Allison Addicott on The New York Times’s Facebook page, responding to an article about the death of Roger Moore, who played James Bond in seven movies.
5. The brand also forgot about the average American woman who wears real sizes 10-14 (not their adorable measurements for these sizes) . Haven’ t walked into a store in about 5 years… even when I have money to burn on retail.
— Nicole Peckumn on The Times’s Facebook page, responding to an article about chaos within the preppy retailer J. Crew.
6. This story is a microcosm of American competition these days: do anything to win at all costs regardless of the means.
— Pete in Holly, Mich., reacting to an article about alleged doping violations at Nike’s Oregon Project.
7. No amount of fabricated alarm over racial dynamics will improve viewership.
— Monie Lee Lappier on The Times’s Facebook page, responding to an article about Rachel Lindsay, the first black woman to be the focus of ABC’s “The Bachelorette.”
8. Maybe it’s time to consider the possibility that violent people who justify their violence as motivated by ideology or religion, are really just plain violent, and political and religious ideas have nothing to do with it.
— Alfredo Louro on The Times’s Facebook page, responding to an article about a Florida man accused of murdering his two roommates, whom he said were neo-Nazis unaccepting of his recent conversion to Islam.
9. In Finland parents get 10 months paid maternity leave. In the U. S. parents get none. In Finland pregnant women get a free box full of baby items as an incentive for seeking prenatal care by the fourth month of pregnancy. In the U. S. many government officials have and would like to continue to reduce access to prenatal care. In Finland babies are significantly less likely to die from SIDS than in the U. S.
Someone grasping at straws decided to give American parents boxes too because they know there’s no way we can fix the real problems and likely disparities causing SIDS in this country.
— Ann in New York, reacting to an article about a practice in Finland where new parents are given a cardboard box of baby supplies that doubles as a baby bed.
10. I salute these brave women and their quiet, historic achievement. I assure you like their male counterparts they wish no more than to serve their country and be undivided in their loyalty to their brothers (and sisters) . I was a pencil pusher in the regular Army back in the 80’s and I knew many women who could serve in many ways given the chance.
— Kate Vaughn on The Times’s Facebook page, responding to an article about the first group of women who graduated from United States Army infantry training last week.
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