1/15 Letters: The effort to impeach Donald Trump was a mistake from the start.

Impeachment folly

The current impeachment process is sheer folly. In the midst of foreign relations, environmental and societal crises, Americans should not be battered and distracted by the vicissitudes, questionable premises, and ultimate futility of attempting to remove a president 10 months before an election.

As columnist George Will has stated, it is frivolous to undertake “truncating a presidential term that is almost 75 percent over.” The endeavor to impeach was a mistake from the start. What a waste of time and resources.

Nancy Swisher, Raleigh

Sen. Thom Tillis

In his latest op-ed in The Hill Sen. Thom Tillis indicates he would have Senate jurors render a verdict in the impeachment while blind to part of the evidence.

No House action or inaction relieves the Senate of its responsibility to bring all evidence to bear in rendering a fair, impartial judgment as required by our Constitution.

If senators believe evidence to be lacking, they are obligated to pursue it. The Senate’s conduct of a sterile trial void of critical and attainable witnesses and documents is not the House’s malpractice. To render a fair and impartial verdict, jurors in the Senate must demand all witnesses and documents.

Senator, your state and nation deserve better, much better. Your profile in courage won’t be written without this chapter.

David Smith, Raleigh

Mocking Muslims

On Monday, President Trump retweeted a fake picture of Nancy Pelosi wearing the Muslim headscarf in front of the Iranian flag. This is a new low for this presidency.

It is beneath the office of the president to engage in vitriol or belittle different cultures. It is his moral duty to respect the beliefs and sentiments of people he represents.

As a Muslim and a U.S. citizen, I expect better from my president. I am a law-abiding citizen who has given back to this country in many ways. I respect the law and I’m loyal to my nation. The president should not mock our beliefs and cultures.

I hope the culture in White House changes for the better. I hope we are able to elect leaders who serve us with dignity and tolerance.

Huma Munir, Morrisville

Protesting war

A Jan. 7 Forum letter referred to the words “No War” on a sign at a Raleigh anti-war event. I am responding because I was holding a sign stating those exact words. As a Quaker, I am morally opposed to war. I see war as mainly resulting from failures of diplomacy. I favor policies that tend to reduce the causes of war and unfairness.

Martin Hubbe, Raleigh

Oil thieves

We are and have been oil thieves ever since the invention of the combustion engine. Rashid Khalidi’s Jan. 12 op-ed highlights our reprehensible behavior over the years. It clearly shows that we think everything we want is ours to take when in fact it makes us no better than the puppet dictators forced upon them. Our hands-off Saudi Arabia policy simply makes it worse. How many more casualties will we suffer engaging in needless wars approved by cowards and draft dodgers?

Charles Schroeder, Cary

Australia fires

The people of Australia have been badly served by Prime Minister Scott Morrison. His party has long contended that effective measures to address global warming would result in “economic ruin.” And what have people who’ve lost land, livestock, homes, and jobs to fires, floods and other climate change-related disasters experienced?

Morrison went on vacation to Hawaii as the catastrophe began. His fellow citizens did not have that option. Less able to flee the inferno were the animals, including many unique to the country and part of its national identity. The brave and compassionate first responders, doctors, veterinarians and others moved by the plight of the fire’s victims, deserve better.

Lynn Mitchell Kohn, Durham

NC forests

The Cooper administration is right to reject the burning of wood pellets as part of the N.C. clean energy plan, as mentioned in the Slow Burn series.

Unfortunately, that alone will not protect our forests or slow climate change. We could and should enact state or federal legislation that would empower the DEQ to refuse permits for facilities that purchase clear-cut timber for wood pellets.

Replacing a mature bottomland forest with a pine plantation will not help our climate change predicament. By the time the new trees absorb the carbon emitted by burning the old ones, we’ll have already passed the 1.5-degree benchmark. Meanwhile, we’ll lose species diversity and valuable flood mitigation.

Stopping the use of NC forests for wood pellets is essential both to protecting the special natural character of our state and to achieving a true global commitment to stopping climate change, rather than green-washing extractive business practices.

Kimberly Israel, Durham