The New Yorker - USA (2020-05-04)

THE NEWYORKER, MAY 4, 2020 3

bereft at his loss, you have enlarged our

comprehension of what is happening

behind the numbers. Truly, the only

thing spreading more rapidly than the

virus is grief.

Elizabeth M. Swift

Sylva, N.C.

1

MISSION IN UGANDA

We, as the No White Saviors team, are

writing in response to Ariel Levy’s arti­

cle about Renée Bach, whose organiza­

tion operated a dangerous, unregistered

medical clinic in Jinja, Uganda (“The

Mission,” April 13th). A core tenet of

our work is holding missionary and de­

velopment organizations, such as the

one run by Bach, accountable for their

unethical actions in local communities.

It is unfortunate that The New Yorker

seems to feel that Bach, who is cur­

rently under investigation for her role

in the deaths of multiple children, is

more worthy of a sympathetic profile

than those Ugandans whose lives were

irreversibly affected by her choices. The

article represents a missed opportunity

for the magazine to show how the hor­

rific actions of Bach, like those of oth­

ers who abuse their power and privi­

lege, harmed the very people she was

claiming to help.

We hope to make it clear that this

case should never be boiled down to a

personal issue between N.W.S. and

Bach. Our organization was formed out

of a collective desire to put justice first

and to insure that human rights are up­

held. Levy’s piece seems to privilege

Bach’s feelings over the lives of Ugan­

dans. This is a disservice not only to

your readers but to those whose voices

are so often ignored.

Alaso Olivia Patience, Kelsey Nielsen,

and Lubega Wendy

Kampala, Uganda

A HIGHER LOVE

Casey Cep’s sophisticated analysis of
that quintessential New Yorker Dorothy
Day made me forget the virus, at least
for a few minutes, and look forward to
reading John Loughery and Blythe Ran­
dolph’s biography of the would­be saint
(Books, April 13th). But it also made me
want to put in a good word for Forster
Batterham, who is sometimes miscon­
strued as the villain of Day’s story. The
usual understanding is that Batterham
was an atheist cad who “did not believe
in marriage,” as Cep notes. But Robert
Ellsberg, in his collection of Day’s let­
ters, reveals that the emotional relation­
ship between the two persisted for years.
Why didn’t Batterham marry Day, de­
spite her entreaties? Surely their uncon­
ventionality as a couple was a signifi­
cant roadblock, as were their religious
disagreements. (Batterham’s relatives,
whom I know through my academic
endeavors, have told me that he lamented,
wryly, that Day “left me for another
man—God.”) Perhaps a third factor
was that Day had already been married
once, to Berkeley Tobey, whom she wed
shortly after her abortion, and whom
she abandoned a year later, in Europe.
Nevertheless, the letters between Day
and Batterham show that they remained
connected, if at a distance, for the rest
of their lives.
Jack Selzer
State College, Penn.
1
THE DIMENSIONS OF GRIEF

Thank you for publishing Jonathan
Blitzer’s beautiful eulogy for Juan Sana­
bria, a New York City doorman who
passed away from COVID­19 (Postscript,
April 20th). During this time of con­
stant statistical updates about numbers
of cases, I.C.U. admissions, available
ventilators, and deaths owing to the
pandemic, it is easy to lose sight of the
magnitude of the human tragedy. By
telling the story of one man who be­
came ill, and of the people—his family,
his colleagues, and the residents of the
building where he worked—who are

•

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address, and daytime phone number via e-mail to

[email protected]. Letters may be edited

for length and clarity, and may be published in

any medium. We regret that owing to the volume

of correspondence we cannot reply to every letter.

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