Letter to the Editor:
In the wake of the Joe Biden debacle, corrective legislative actions and transparency are required by Congress now to prevent future occurrences.
I write to respond to one of the lead articles in the May 23, 2025 issue of Westchester Rising (“We’re Looking Forward Ain’t Good Enough”) with respect to recent revelations that former President Joe Biden’s staff covered up instances about lapses in the former President’s mental acuity during last year’s Presidential campaign.
Like most Americans, I pray for President Biden’s speedy recovery and continued years of service to the nation as a former President.
In my opinion, there is a “rush to judgement” about the former President’s ability to simultaneously run an effective campaign and handle the burdens of the Presidency in 2022-2024. Clearly, we will have to wait for the former President to present his side of the story so that historians will have a more balanced and complete picture of what occurred during his Administration.
Until that history is written, Congress needs to focus on taking corrective actions to assure the American people that the possibility of what happened does not occur again. I suggest the following:
· Mental competency tests should be mandated for many executive level-elected positions such as President, Governor, etc. Last year, former South Carolina Governor/Ambassador Nikki Haley (whose candidacy I actively supported) made such a proposal for candidates aged 75 and older;
· The 25th Amendment (TFA) to the U.S. Constitution, which became law in the wake of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, addressed issues of Presidential incapacity due to injury, illness or other reasons. But the Amendment does not address, in the opinion of many scholars, the issue of mental incapacity – given that mental incapacity involves a spectrum of cognitive and psychological conditions. Congress needs to step up and seriously consider a modification to TFA to handle such situations;
· Congress needs to consider a legal requirement that the President’s physician be required to annually certify that POTUS is physically and cognitively fit to serve. Such a proposal has the support of Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a noted internist and cardiologist at George Washington University and who served as White House Medical Unit consultant for the last 4 administrations.
This is a priority matter that needs to be addressed, the sooner the better so that there is less of a chance of a repetition not only in the 2028 election cycle, but thereafter. Congress also needs to take its job seriously in this area as well.
STEPHEN R. ROLANDI
Larchmont, New York
(The writer is an adjunct professor of public administration and formerly served in the administrations of New York City Mayors Edward I. Koch, Michael Bloomberg and Governor David Paterson. A life-long Republican, he is active in the Ripon Society, Principles First, and Moderate Republican PAC).
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Letter: Don’t let Trump sell off our public lands to Big Oil!
Dear Editor
Donald Trump is offering a massive public lands giveaway to the fossil fuel industry.
He’s ordered the U.S. to “drill baby drill” on public lands, and he’s fast-tracked new oil and gas projects, bypassing environmental and public review. His allies in Congress are even pushing to open Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.
If they get their way, the fossil fuel industry will wreck our national landmarks for profit and pump millions more tons of planet-warming pollution into the atmosphere in the process.
So if we don’t want to see drilling rigs the next time we head outdoors, we need to send a clear message: Don’t sell off our public lands to Big Oil!
Sincerely,
Gregory Spock, New Rochelle
