Readers sound off on prescription addiction, Lenny’s Pizzeria and Jimmy Carter

Morris Plains, N.J.: To Voicer Harvey Kaplan: You are absolutely correct and I have been saying it’s the doctors all along. I’m a victim. I was a very good athlete but had a painful back issue I dealt with my whole life. In my late 40s, my back went. I went to the doctor and he started me on Percocet 10. He gave me 120 pills a month.

Stupid me, thinking it’s fine because a doctor would never do anything to intentionally hurt his patient but I forgot about greed. About two months later, my back was fine again and I figured I’d stop now, but it was too late. I was already addicted, which is exactly what they want, and it’s pure greed by doctors and Big Pharma. People say it’s immigrants crossing the borders so that it incorrectly supports all these non-factual statements that are said about immigrants. People more than ever make stuff up to support their theories and whether it’s fact or not appears to be irrelevant. It’s not as hard to look up facts these days as it was in 1983 when I was at Rutgers University.

Coming off of opioids was the hardest thing I did in my life. I had to go to rehab, one that had hardcore drug addicts. It wasn’t five days and I was fine again. I was sick and laid up for one full year and I will be on Suboxone for life. All this for going to my doctor for pain. They all belong in jail. It’s disgusting. Joe Tierney

Margate, Fla.: The ultimate Brooklyn thin and crispy pizza is no more (”A pizza history ending,” Feb. 19). RIP Lenny’s of Bensonhurst. We will always have the memory of John Travolta strutting down 86th St. enjoying those two Lenny’s slices in “Saturday Night Fever.” Richard Sherman

Fort Lee: To Voicer Frank Mauceri: The answer to your question as to what happens if President Biden loses his faculties is pretty simple. The vice president steps in. This is true even if he is temporarily disabled — for example, if he undergoes a surgical procedure where he is unconscious for a period of time. Joan L. Weisberg

Homer, Alaska: After hearing the sad news of Jimmy Carter now in hospice care, I am thinking how special this man is. Within a decade or maybe much less, Carter will be celebrated as the equivalent of a Protestant/evangelical saint. History will recognize his genuine accomplishment of delicately balancing the imperatives of faith with public policy. In time, we will realize that the tenor of our present partisan comments is simply a symptom of a passing affliction of hyperpolarized acrimony. Events will surely arise that will cause many more of us to behave like adults. In time, more of us will also honor real human progress rather than ingrained biases and cherished political ideologies. Gary Carter

Bronx: To all you people in Congress, in the media and on TV, you are all playing into just what George Santos wants — to be in the limelight and get all this attention. Leave the guy alone and let him see what it feels like to be on the outs with no attention at all. Maybe he will get the message and leave — or just maybe say why he did all this crazy stuff. Jimmy Durda

Somerset, N.J.: To Voicer Dorothy Krasiker: While the vaccinations did not completely stop the spread of the virus, those who did take them greatly reduced the impact of the disease. If everyone took the vaccinations, the disease may have been eliminated altogether. Instead of apologizing to those who did not get the vaccinations, those people should be assessed a tax for all those lives that were lost because of their ignorance. Arthur Bressler

Bayside: Re “Gay teen’s mom calls slay hate crime” (Feb. 17): Parents, you have got to start doing a better job of raising your children! Teach them not to hate other people because they’re different. We are all different from each other when it comes down to it. DeAndre Matthews was murdered because he was different and the ones who did it, I’m sure they thought they were right. Too bad they were wrong — all so wrong! Karen Sabatini

Manhattan: It happened about a week ago, but it is still embedded in my mind (“Rihanna bowls ‘em over,” Feb. 13)! It was a technical wonderland! I am a set designer and art director and I think major kudos go to the person who came up with the concept and designed that set! It was perfect for her fragile condition, although it could not have been easy to balance herself on those floating moving platforms! That is why I can’t fathom the comments some people make about how stoic Rihanna was compared to other shows she has performed! It was a very classy way to announce to the world that you are “in the family way” and to pay tribute to André Leon Talley, one of her closest style collaborators, by wearing his fabulous red cape. Never having been a head-over-heels fan, I give her high marks for this amazing 13-minute show! Michael DeSouza

Flushing: Football was pure entertainment but now it is an excuse to give social lectures. I don’t need them. When I was in the U.S. Air Force we had a lot of Black airmen. They were all volunteers, the only way you can get into the Air Force. They were proud to defend America. Like me, they always saluted the flag every day at 5 p.m. as the bugle sounded retreat and the American flag was lowered for the day. We had to stop wherever we were and whatever we might be doing and salute one flag for one country. I am sure that my Black fellow airmen would feel upset that a second national anthem was invented, separating them from the country they love and swore to defend with their lives. How about all the Black servicemen who died defending one country, one flag and one national anthem. What an insult! John Procida

Rochdale Village: I saw in your Mets Insider column in the sports section (“Alvarez could start season in Triple-A; Rivera, Thor’s catcher, retires,” Feb. 18) that the Mets hosted 75 Florida Special Olympics athletes both on the field and at a nearby ribbon-cutting at the first fully ADA-accessible playground in the area that they funded. Does Gov. DeSanctimonious know about all this Special Olympics activity? Making these athletes in-your-face obvious might be breaking the anti-woke laws he put in! Saul Rothenberg

Yonkers: Con(man) Ed has a pending rate increase agreement with the Public (dis)Service Commission, an agency supposedly created to protect the public from being ripped off by utility companies like Con Ed (“Get ready, New Yorkers, Con Edison set to raise rates,” Feb. 18). As a kid, I was always asked if I owned Con Ed stock when I failed to turn off the light or TV when I left a room. Considering the cozy relationship between PSC regulators and Con Ed, customers need to know how much Con Ed stock is owned by PSC members and their families. Maybe this transparency will force the regulators to fulfill their purpose and actually help the public. Mark Bloom

Port Jefferson Station, L.I.: Ask any teacher what a teacher is and I’m sure the response would not be simple. We are leaders, instructors, mentors, caretakers, disciplinarians, counselors, parent substitutes, curriculum developers and so much more. We teach our students how to read, write, comprehend, analyze and problem-solve. We are role models. We aid in social-emotional growth, guide instruction, strive to have our students reach their full academic and social potential, prepare them to become productive members of society and guide them towards a successful future. Behind every successful person, there’s a handful of teachers who contributed to their success. We shape the future. We matter! We get neither the praise nor the respect we deserve. We are tired, overworked and seriously underpaid. We deserve a fair contract now! Elena Piazza