Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

Here.

Black Sabbath is on its final tour. Katherine and I will see the band in September.

The appalling casualties of the entire battle totalled 263 killed, 59 wounded, and 25 missing in action (the four Crows and twenty-one Rees, all of whom survived). Only 359 persons remained on Reno Hill.

The 7th Cavalry had clearly suffered a disastrous defeat. As to how it happened there is no mystery whatever. The regiment of 31 officers and 566 men tackled two thousand warriors resolved to defend their women and children and their tribal existence. Man for man, the brave was a more experienced and skillful fighter than the soldier. The regiment was divided into four columns, only two of which attempted attacks, and then at separate times and places, each, therefore, against crushing odds. It was a classic defeat in detail.

But why had Custer attempted so much with so little? The ultimate reason was simply inadequate enemy intelligence. Custer, like Terry and Gibbon, underestimated both the strength and temper of the Indians. Up to the very last minute, the evidence Custer was so assiduously gathering seemed to conceal the true strength of the hostiles, and to indicate that they were in flight. Yet, Custer was keener on intelligence than his fellow-officers, a fact that will become more obvious as we follow this campaign.

But why did Custer not keep his regiment together? He tried to, but could not afford the delay necessary to achieve it. He detailed more men than he could spare to hurry the pack train along, but it was an amateur outfit. It was Benteen's dawdling, contrary to orders and common sense, that held his battalion out of action. And Custer attacked separately from Reno because he thought the village was in flight, and then terrain features delayed and displaced his attack. What the outcome might have been, if the regiment had been together, no one can say. But since fewer Indians had stopped Crook with more troops, only a week before, no one can defend anything better than a check instead of a checkmate.

Custer's decisions, judged in the light of what he knew at the time, instead of by our hindsight, were neither disobediant [sic], rash, nor stupid. Granted his premises, all the rest follows rationally. It was what neither he, nor any other officer, knew that brought disaster.

(John S. Gray, Centennial Campaign: The Sioux War of 1876, Volume No. 8 in the Source Custeriana Series [Ft. Collins, CO: The Old Army Press, 1976], 182-3 [italics in original])

I Advance Masked (1982). Summers was a member of the Police. Fripp was a member of King Crimson.

To the Editor:

Re “Supreme Court Abortion Case Seen as Turning Point for Clinics” (front page, Feb. 25): In New York City, we are committed to providing access to safe and legal abortions for all women. While the Supreme Court case involves a Texas law, its impact is broader. The abortion restrictions in Texas and other states threaten women’s rights everywhere.

In the early 1970s, before the Supreme Court protected women’s constitutional right to choice, New York City was one of the few places in the country where women could obtain legal abortions. During that time, hundreds of thousands of women, from every state, traveled to obtain safe abortions in New York.

If the Texas law is affirmed, states would be empowered to blanket the country with restrictive abortion laws, turning back the clock four decades and again forcing women to travel out of state to exercise their right to reproductive freedom.

As New York City argued in its amicus brief to the Supreme Court, reducing women’s options jeopardizes public health. It burdens women, particularly poor women, who lack the resources to travel long distances to obtain an abortion. An influx of women from states with restrictive abortion laws also threatens to overwhelm clinics in other jurisdictions, increasing wait times and delaying women’s access to time-sensitive health services.

The Supreme Court has never conditioned the exercise of a fundamental right on a person’s ability to travel hundreds of miles. To do so for women’s right to reproductive choice would not only be wrong, but it would also harm women’s health nationwide.

MARY BASSETT

Commissioner, Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

New York

Note from KBJ: No aborted fetus could be reached for comment.

It's all over but the shouting. Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee for president, and he will defeat Hillary Clinton in an electoral landslide. Marco Rubio is on the campaign trail beclowning himself. Next to Trump, he looks like a kindergartner. If he had any sense, he'd get right with Donald now, so as to have some influence in the Trump administration. The American people can see that he is bought and paid for by wealthy donors. They know that he will give them what they want: cheap labor (via amnesty), free trade (which enriches the rich but impoverishes everyone else), and low taxes. If you want George W. Bush all over again, vote for Rubio. I'm a Trump man. Trump is beholden to nobody except the American people, many of whom have been screwed over by Republicans for their entire adult lives.

Addendum: This man is delusional if he thinks Rubio "won" the debate. Trump made him look small and insignificant. Rubio hasn't won a single caucus or primary, and I predict he won't win even one. What he's doing is destroying any presidential prospects he once had.

Here.

Here.

I am sick of hearing it said that Donald Trump is destroying the Republican Party. The Republican Party is deathly ill and he is saving it. Those in the Republican establishment had better get right with Donald or they will be rendered impotent and irrelevant. Yes, that includes you, Karl Rove, George Will, and Charles Krauthammer.

To the Editor:

I applaud The Times for publishing Susan Jacoby’s Sunday Review article decrying the grip that religion and superstition have on public discourse and politics in the United States: especially that so many people accept “God bless America” as sacrosanct when it is no such thing (“Sick and Tired of ‘God Bless America,’ ” Feb. 7).

It denies our country’s tradition of tolerance for different beliefs. People laugh dismissively when I confess that I have no religion. They think that my views are simply a passing lapse.

It used to be said during World War II that there are no atheists in foxholes. I am a veteran of World War II. I fought in Europe. I was an atheist then and I am an atheist now.

BERNARD GOODMAN

Glen Cove, N.Y.

To the Editor:

While I yield to no one in my scorn for religion’s ability to explain the natural world, I’ve never considered my atheism especially important. Supernatural gods and life after death simply seem implausible to me, as do elves and unicorns.

Susan Jacoby suggests that these views should draw me to a budding movement—one that involves joining a lobby and demanding attention from politicians.

Thanks, but no. If ending speeches with “God bless America” is an example of the problems the new godless bloc will tackle, any number of issues threaten us with more harm. One of them, from my perspective, is the proliferation of dubious grievance groups.

MICHAEL SMITH

Cynthiana, Ky.

Note from KBJ: Is there anything more insufferable than an atheist with an attitude?