Why is it that whenever Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez opens her mouth, there is a horde of media types with microphones to put in her face in order to catch every word? 

Why does she have anything to say or that we should listen to?  After all, her working experience has been that of bar tending.  The qualifications for bar tending do not by any means rise anywhere near to the level of the qualifications for representing a constituency in the U.S. Congress House of Representatives. 

She has nothing at all to tell us.  Except, perhaps, how to make a good cocktail such as a martini.

Lawrence S. Nagle MD

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I want to say I have the uppermost respect for anyone working in the medical field, especially doctors and nurses. I've worked around many in years past and know most of some of the most humble, caring, non-judgmental people anyone could meet. The medical field, no matter what level, can be very demanding. However, Dr. Nagel's attack on U.S. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez is a punch below the belt line.

It's shocking that someone in the medical field would show such an outwardly negative assessment of someone. Maybe it's just one of those days where everyone is sitting around talking shop and guzzling a few beers and folks can get kinda giddy, or cranky even, in those moments. 

Rep. Ocasio-Cortez may have worked as a bartender, but she's nobody's dummy. She graduated cum laude from Boston U with double majors in both International Relations and Economics. Granted, there's no requirement to have a college degree to become a member of the House of Representative of the U.S. Congress. In fact, a recent profile show at least 18 members of the U.S. House of Reps had no education beyond a high school diploma. 

A little more on Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: In high school she showed an interest in microbiology. There she won second place at the ISEF fair in the microbiology category. MIT Lincoln Laboratory, so impressed with her, they actually named an asteroid in her honor, 232380-Ocasio-Cortez, according to SNOPES. 

We old folks won't be around forever. Let's not be so quick to shoot down our young people. They're our only guarantee the world will either fail or continue. And much of that depends on how we prepare and encourage them. Let's cheer them on and provide them the necessary tools in hopes the world will continue and one day become a better place for all mankind. 

I, myself, often find today's involved young generation awesome. Whether I wholly agree with them or not. 

Brenda Washington 

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Dr. Nagle, your diagnosis is spot on.  Well done, sir.  

Michael Burns

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Could I trouble you, Ms. Washington, for a link to Dr. Nagle’s “attack on U.S. Rep. Ocasio-Cortez”, or evidence of another kind, if a link isn’t available? After all, attacks on members of Congress cannot be tolerated.

On an unrelated note, Dr. Nagle’s statement regarding Rep. Ocasio-Cortez is accurate, dangerously flirting with overly-kind.

Dallas Cole

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Ms. Washington seems to be in awe regarding Ms. Ocasio-Cortez's educational accomplishments, but I am reminded of a great quote by William F. Buckley Jr.

"I'd rather entrust the government of the United States to the first 400 names in the Boston telephone directory than to the faculty of Harvard University."

If Rep. Ocasio-Cortez is as intelligent as her résumé indicates, she would not be beclowning herself on what seems to be a daily basis.  If she is representative of the younger generation, we are in deep trouble.

Jim Nelson

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How is wanting to add fresh, new ideas and diversity to the Senate and House a bad thing?  What does youth or age have to do with it?

The poster child for old, horrible Congressional management falls strictly on ol’ Mitch McConnell.  He, of the old guard. He is the leader of the Senate Swamp. He is the reason that there is such a bottleneck of bills not passing because he, and other older, white men, want absolute control.  Their archaic thinking and absolute support of a tyrant “President” who loves dictators and oligarchs.  They are the reason our country is in the shape it’s in. We have lost the respect of the world due to this circus of epic failures.

There is nothing wrong with new ideas.  There is nothing wrong with change.  The younger generations are coming. Nobody can stop that. Nobody lives forever. Just because you don’t like someone, in this case, a strong, intelligent, educated, and albeit younger woman of color speaking her mind, you discredit her and try to slander her because it ruffles the feathers of the very older, white men that obstruct any advancement of our country. The old sexist and misogynistic ways of the Swamp are antiquated and need to end.

AOC is equal to McConnell in the degrees. She has two. He has two. Just because she’s young, doesn’t mean she isn’t right.

Also, there are four percent of Congressional Representatives that don’t have a college degree.  Are they less than?

Everyone has to start somewhere with experience when they choose to go into politics and public office. There is no rule that says there is a lower office that must be held before being elected to Congress.

Richard Smith