“:City To Study Literacy Rates,” (Boston Herald 6/24).

What’s there to study?  Every year millions of foreigners immigrate to the United States where they are given financial aid, health care, housing, and driver’s licenses.  At no point are they encouraged to learn English.

Progressives have repeatedly rejected the notion of assimilation, including English immersion, arguing that it harms immigrant identities.

If Julia Mejia really wants to improve literacy rates, she would support mandatory English immersion for immigrants.  Studies have shown that English immersion not only provides much needed language skills to non-English speakers but can also improve cultural literacy and cognitive skills.

It seems too often that city government defaults to a task force to deal with every problem that comes up.  It would be refreshing to see the council take some responsibility and deal with an issue directly.

Sean F. Flaherty

Charlestown

The Boston Herald’s excellent reporting about the disturbing conditions described by the Boston Fire Department following a response to  the Mary Ellen McCormack Housing complex requires more than hand-wringing and calls for hearings from public officials. Because children were allegedly exposed to those horrific conditions, criminal charges should be filed.  At the very least, a charge of reckless endangerment of children should be brought by the Boston police and the District Attorney’s office against the adults present and the children’s caretakers. Anything less would rightly suggest that exposing children to such a risk-laden environment is inconsequential and of little importance here in Massachusetts.

Jason Smith

Norwood

Most people had no idea who Antony Blinken was, but John McCain did.  Senator McCain said of Blinken in 2014, “This individual has actually been dangerous to America and to the young men and women who are fighting [for] and serving it.”  As an Afghanistan veteran that witnessed in horror as Blinken architected the largest failure of American policy – without being fired to this day – since Saigon, I’d say John McCain was spot on, doubly so considering his comments were specifically in regards to the Afghanistan policies Blinken held back then, which horrifically and presciently came to fruition in October of 2021.

Nick McNulty

Windham, NH

Donald Trump is a vigorous fellow without patience, discernment or judgment when it comes to criticism. He is as thin-skinned as a newborn. He pursues unlimited aims with limited means, notwithstanding his claim that he is a very stable genius. His former companions irk him and no longer find his antics amusing. He has written, directed and acted in a swashbuckler that has become boring with repetition and encumbered with legal difficulties. His megalomania is ruinous. It is irrelevant that Hillary Clinton’s behavior was just as odious or that Joe Biden’s statements about his actions are questionable. All that matters now is Trump’s alleged criminality as detailed in the indictments against him.

Paul Bloustein

Cincinnati, Ohio