Readers Write: Feb. 7

We’re still seeing too many stories in the paper about persons injured or killed by bizarre distracted driving, such as cars jumping curbs and mowing down innocent school kids. Texting is a worse addiction than smoking.

JOHN OTTLEY JR., ALPHARETTA

Travel ban will have reverse effect

I am a Georgia native who has recently gotten engaged to a wonderful man from Iran. We were devastated when Trump was elected in November, but hopeful that his rhetoric wouldn’t turn into action upon assuming office. We continued planning our pending nuptials in both the States and with his family in Iran. Now my partner is banned from even applying for entrance to the U.S. not because of something he’s done, but because of the region of the world he was born. And, unsurprisingly, Iran has reciprocated the gesture. We are being denied a chance to meet each other’s family members, one another’s friends, and experience each other’s respective cultures. This ban on seven Muslim-majority countries, purportedly to improve the world’s already most rigorous vetting process, will have the reverse effect intended. Like Guantanamo, the ban will be used as a calling card by the very terrorist groups it was supposedly created to target. And the most marginalized peoples in our community will be impacted the greatest. Refugees that have fled terrors unimaginable to us privileged enough to have been born an ocean away from the horror will be, once again, abandoned in a perverse game of political chess.

If the campaign and the first week of his presidency tells us anything about the next four years, it’s that this president will be remembered for being a coward — a simple-minded man with injudicious decision making skills.

DANA GALLATY, ROME