Letters: What Cuomo said, and what he meant

Re “Illiberal liberal values,” Opinion, Jan. 21

In his tirade against an offhand comment by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Goldberg gives examples of “liberal intolerance.”

He misleadingly cites a pending Supreme Court decision on whether nuns “have the right to opt out of Obamacare’s birth control requirements.” The nuns clearly do have the right to opt out; their claim is that even opting out violates their religious liberty.

Finding this position dubious hardly equates to “intolerance.”

Second, he claims that New York City’s prohibition on indoor use of e-cigarettes is intolerant because they produce no “smoke” and do not use tobacco.

In fact, e-cigarettes deliver nicotine (the active ingredient in tobacco) and emit vapors that may be harmful. Indoor use is banned in New Jersey, Utah, North Dakota and Arkansas — hardly bastions of “liberal intolerance.”

John Hamilton Scott

Sherman Oaks

Cuomo said that “extreme conservatives” have “no place in the state of New York.” What if he said the same thing about gays or Muslims?

It’s amazing how we as human beings can see the intolerance in others but not in ourselves. It reminds me of the line from a Tom Lehrer song: “I know that there are people who do not love their fellow man, and I hate people like that.”

Alan Sworski

Thousand Oaks

Goldberg would have you believe that Cuomo would run half the Republicans out of his state. Listen to two minutes of Cuomo’s interview, and it is clear that what he means is that “extreme conservatives” will never be elected to high public office in New York.

Maybe Goldberg’s writing makes for good infotainment, but it makes for lousy editorial journalism.

Jonathan Moore

Claremont

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