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To the Editor:
Re “It’s Time for a New Term,” by John McWhorter (Opinion, Nov. 19):
“Woke” is too important to let go of without a replacement. What better way to say actively aware — not asleep, or closing one’s eyes to plain facts or just ignorant?
The idea of wokeness has become politically charged only because one major party has made it its business to ignore facts about climate change, gun violence, etc., and now promotes violence in place of debate. In today’s political climate we need an uplifting alternative to ignorance. Long live “wokeness”!
John Pitkin
Cambridge, Mass.
To the Editor:
Looking for a new term for “woke,” John McWhorter is talking about people who favor programs and policies that strive to achieve social justice and equity. I’m used to calling those people “thoughtful,” “just” or even, simply, “kind.”
Deborah Cabaniss
New York
To the Editor:
Any new term designating progressive thinking and action is going to suffer an “overlay of snark” by those inclined to attack or belittle “left-leaning enlightenment.”
I suggest we go back to “liberal,” which has a far more distinguished historical pedigree than “woke” anyway. Wear the label with pride, and remind naysayers that it is liberalism that has improved America in more substantive ways than I have room to list here. Let us not traffic in cowardly, hand-wringing euphemisms.
David English
Acton, Mass.
To the Editor:
Re “Why Wokeness Will Fail,” by Bret Stephens (column, Nov. 10):
Mr. Stephens argues that unlike the civil rights movement, “wokeness” is doomed to fail because it alleges that “racism is a defining feature, not a flaw, of nearly every aspect of American life.”
Why can’t it be both? Our country is defined not just by our achievements and values, but our failures to live up to them as well. Today’s Americans shouldn’t feel guilty for the injustices of their ancestors. But if we see those injustices as just hiccups that aren’t worth our attention, we may miss how they live on in the present — in patterns of policing, housing or education, say — in ways that we can still work to fix.
To take that aspirational, always improving character out of our national life would be un-American indeed.
Joshua Edelman
London
To the Editor:
Bret Stephens brings clarity and a rational perspective to this issue, and it is long overdue. While loud, angry and sanctimonious progressives on Twitter and in the media have commandeered the microphones, there has been, until recently, a dearth of voices exposing the underpinnings of those who basically require that others bow to “oath taking” to save themselves from being canceled.
Thank you, Mr. Stephens, for exposing the cultlike nature of the woke ideologues and for opening the road for a return to sanity.
Albert Repicci
Riverside, Conn.
To the Editor:
Re “Without Parental Leave I Might Be Dead,” by Bess Kalb (Opinion guest essay, Nov. 15):
I am not sure how Ms. Kalb arrives at her dubious conclusion — that had she not had maternity leave, she might have died of her postpartum complication — and that women who don’t have a generous leave policy are at greater risk of dying.
I can assure you that women don’t hide symptoms of dangerous problems because they’re back at work, and they will get the same care whether or not they’ve already ended their maternity leave. One can head over to an emergency room or the doctor’s office just as readily from the workplace as from home.
As an obstetrician, I have yet to have had a patient fail to notify me of troubling symptoms after birth, whether or not she’s had to go back to work or school. The unreasonably and tragically high maternal mortality and morbidity rate in the United States is absolutely unrelated to whether or not a patient has had to go back to work too soon.
Believe me, when the blood is pouring out after a birth-related complication, such as what Ms. Kalb is alluding to, one would rush to the emergency room from anywhere — and get the proper care.
Jessica Jacob
Great Neck, N.Y.
To the Editor:
Re “What We See in the Shameful Trends on U.S. Maternal Health” (Opinion, Nov. 17):
I am sick and tired of American exceptionalism and all the sins that it justifies. Lousy health statistics, high gun deaths, gridlocked government, gerrymandered electoral districts, crooked politicians with a free rein, a half-baked response to Covid, repeated failures in foreign policy, a politicized Supreme Court and a mediocre response to global warming. The list could go on.
It is time for the United States to look elsewhere, learn from others and develop a lot more humility. The alternative increasingly looks like movement toward a failed state.
Carl Meilicke
Vancouver, British Columbia
To the Editor:
Re “Facebook Is Targeting You,” by Shoshana Zuboff (Opinion guest essay, Sunday Review, Nov. 14):
Facebook and other companies are providing a service in exchange for the information they gather. If people don’t like the terms of this deal they should not use the service.
I don’t use Facebook; I don’t find it useful. I do use Google, as I do find it useful. The outrage seems absurd since most of the “victims” of this “weaponization” seem happy with the situation.
Matt Noel
Boulder Creek, Calif.
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