Regarding the Dec. 15 editorial “Courage and cowardice in Bondi Beach”:
The Bondi Beach shooting could have followed a grimly familiar script, one group pitted against another, one identity cast as villain, another as victim. Instead, something rare happened. The focus shifted to the actions of one man, Ahmed al Ahmed.
During the attack, Ahmed intervened and disarmed one of the shooters. He then stood in a moment of absolute consequence: a rifle in his hands, the attacker retreating before him. In circumstances where lethal force would have been widely understood, even celebrated, Ahmed chose restraint. He lowered the weapon and allowed the man to flee. Minutes later, Ahmed was shot multiple times by the attacker’s son.
This sequence raises a question rarely asked after acts of mass violence: What does courage actually look like?
Violence does not begin with religion or weapons; it begins with a narrowing of moral vision, when another life becomes expendable. Peace, by contrast, does not arrive through slogans or allegiances but through individuals who resist that narrowing when it matters most.
Ahmed’s actions remind us that morality is revealed not in what we condemn but in what we refuse to do, even when the world tells us we are entitled to do it. In choosing restraint over retaliation, he broke a cycle history insists is inevitable.
Sometimes, the most radical act is not pulling the trigger.
Lindsay Bodanza, Nixa, Missouri
As I was lighting a menorah on the first night of Hanukkah with friends and family beneath the darkling mountains of Glorieta, New Mexico, our joy was diminished by the suffering of so many people in the wake of attacks in Sydney and at Brown University.
A 2023 KFF poll found that 54 percent of U.S. adults have either personally been impacted or had a family member who has been impacted by a gun-related incident. At least two Brown University students had previously survived school shootings.
Our hearts are perdurable, made to be filled with love as they are made to be broken, but resilience is the key to our survival in the face of loss and horror. Our capacity to feel and to grieve is our strength as human beings.
The news of the deaths of Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner — with their son, Nick, charged with murder — has also broken hearts among generations of people who were entertained, solaced and touched by their gifts.
Stripped of everything — even of hope during the darkest of times — we can still choose our attitude in facing pain; this was one of Viktor Frankl’s great moral insights from surviving Auschwitz and losing his parents and brother to the Nazis.
Frankl also taught that we are compelled to act when it is possible to improve an outcome. Ahmed al Ahmed, who stopped one of the killers of Jews at Bondi Beach, manifested that moral principle.
Christianity teaches that if we act as if we have faith, faith will be granted us. Having faith does not imply the certainty of any particular outcome — but to not act diminishes our own humanity. We must act, because without action, our world is eclipsed by indifference and cruelty.
Eric Radack, Santa Fe
Setting this record straight
I have been reading The Post’s coverage of President Donald Trump’s demolition of the White House East Wing in preparation for construction of a 90,000-square-foot ballroom to be completed before his term expires in 2029. Trump has insisted that every presidentfor the past 150 years has dreamed about having a ballroom at the White House. That didn’t sound accurate to me, so I asked the Congressional Research Service to review any and all records that might shed light on the issue. Its report to me is that no president in the past 150 years has sought to build a ballroom.
Steve Cohen, Washington
The writer, a Democrat, represents Tennessee in the U.S. House.
Everyone deserves legal representation
Regarding the Dec. 9 news article “Democrats struggle to counter Trump on immigration”:
As Democratic lawmakers who have long championed legal representation for people facing deportation, we have been vocal from the start about the Trump administration’s systematic destruction of due process. We have been fighting boldly for our communities, including by introducing the Fairness to Freedom Act and the Access to Representation Act in New York, enacting AB 1261 in California to help immigrants get legal representation, and securing a $64.2 million budget allocation for immigrant legal services in New York.
This administration is weaponizing the immigration system to achieve its mass deportation goals, bringing devastation to our nation’s families, neighborhoods and economy.
In our states and districts, we see that legal representation is often the only thing standing between someone remaining at home and being disappeared.
We urge our colleagues to join us in affirming a simple principle: No one should have to face life-altering proceedings in immigration court alone. Our work and victories for legal representation prove that this need can be met when leaders have the courage to act and make due process a priority at every level.
Norma J. Torres, Washington
Catalina Cruz, Albany, New York
Mia Bonta, Sacramento, California
Norma J. Torres represents California in the U.S. House, Catalina Cruz represents District 39 in New York’s State Assembly and Mia Bonta represents District 18 in California’s State Assembly.
Post Opinions wants to know: Have you ever gotten an opportunity to set the record straight? Tell us what happened, and your response might be published in the letters to the editor section. wapo.st/record
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