To the Editor:

Re “Let’s Wage a War on Loneliness” (column, Nov. 10):

Nicholas Kristof urgently reminds us that these days social isolation is leading, at least in part, to increasing heart disease and death rates. He warns of a “loneliness epidemic,” and notes that Britain has taken the lead with the recent appointment of a minister for loneliness. Here in the United States, we seem to be doing nothing about it.

Yet I wonder if the individuals who have committed mass shootings at our schools, temples, bars and Walmarts are also, to a certain degree, a product of this loneliness epidemic. Decades ago the Beatles asked through their song “Eleanor Rigby”: “All the lonely people, Where do they all come from? All the lonely people, Where do they all belong?”

Identifying the multiple factors behind the existence of so many lonely people will help us understand that ultimately they belong to all of us. When it comes to the erosion of our society, we’re all responsible.

Alejandro Lugo

Las Cruces, N.M.

The writer teaches anthropology at New Mexico State University.

To the Editor:

After describing the serious dangers of loneliness, Nicholas Kristof describes attempts to lessen those dangers. All of those attempts, however, suggest that a lonely person would be less lonely if he or she joined a group of people and participated in a shared event. For some lonely people, however, the idea of participating in a group activity provokes a terrible question: What if they went and felt even more lonely than when they are alone?