Letters to the Editor: If a federal stockpile isn't for states, then what is it for, President Trump?

To the editor: In the event that we are attacked by a foreign enemy, is each state going to be required to buy their own missiles and bombs in order to defend themselves? Instead of every state vying with each other to secure needed goods, they could join together to form a union. ("Trump administration tries to narrow stockpile's role for states," April 3)

They even could give it a snappy name, such as the "United States of America."

This U.S.A. could have a federal government that would procure and disseminate necessary supplies in an emergency. We could even elect a chief executive, someone called "president," to see to it that these vital supplies are distributed evenly and compassionately to the entire nation.

Or we could just stick with the punitive, third-world system we have now.

Steve Berliner, Venice

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To the editor: When President Trump and his son-in-law advisor Jared Kushner describe the Strategic National Stockpile as "our stockpile," it suggests that they want to be first in line for masks and ventilators. And when Trump says that "our" means the United States, without implying that the United States is indeed the states, he reinforces his irredeemable ignorance on the structure of our government and nation.

Yet when the Department of Health and Human Services website is changed to reflect the administration's fun-house mirror perspective of the stockpile, it is unabashed autocracy. Elected officials who do not condemn it become accessories to the breakdown of American democracy.

Judging by the Republicans' efforts to prevent the use of mail-in ballots in November, it would seem that the elimination of representative government may well be the president's goal. If we allow that to happen, the coronavirus will be viewed as a simple annoyance.

Peter Altschuler, Santa Monica

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To the editor: Trump once said that he could walk down 5th Avenue, shoot someone and not lose any political support. That is not too far from what he is actually doing right now.

By not releasing supplies from the national stockpile as needed, he is needlessly putting thousands of lives at risk. The president needs to be stopped and held accountable for his actions.

Sheryl Kinne, Van Nuys