In a recent letter to the editor (“Liberal empathy is lacking,” Our Readers’ Views, April 1), a local resident complained because during the president’s address to Congress, Democrats didn’t stand to honor a 13-year-old cancer survivor. It’s not that Democrats weren’t empathetic; it’s that they were appalled at the president’s use of this kid as a photo op when the president was cutting funding for childhood cancer research “hugely.” We have empathy. But we don’t cheer for empty photo ops. We have empathy for all the people the president is hurting with his misplaced funding cuts. For many of us, the president is an employee of our country who is doing a lousy job and should be fired.