Letters to the Editor

Someone was missing

Former FBI Director Louis Freeh testified before the September 11 commission that he had frequent meetings with then-National Security Adviser Sandy Berger and Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet to discuss terrorism, foreign and domestic (“Panel hits FBI terror strategy,” Nation, Wednesday). Mr. Freeh also said that Richard A. Clarke never attended these meetings. Mr. Clarke also failed to attend the meetings current National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice scheduled (several a week).

Mr. Clarke has been projected to be the authority on terrorism and by his own words he had the answers. My question, then, is, why wasn’t Mr. Clarke at Mr. Freeh’s or Miss Rice’s meetings? Why doesn’t the commission recall Mr. Clarke and Mr. Berger and ask them this question in a public hearing?

JIM ESTEP

Owings, Md.

An unrealistic analogy

Regarding your editorial “Penalizing the poor” (Friday): The hypothetical family of four living on $18,566 with a sport utility vehicle valued at $18,000 does not make any sense. How can I feel sorry for this family? Did they win the SUV? Did a relative bequeath the SUV to them? And if so, what about gas, insurance, registration, tires, etc.? How do you expect to elicit sympathy from your prudent readers for this hypothetical family? Next time, try a Toyota Echo.

E. KATHLEEN KING

Tracy’s Landing, Md.

Miserable medicine

Sen. John Kerry’s “misery index” refers to the skyrocketing cost of the following: health care, college tuition and gasoline (“Kerry’s misery,” Editorial, April 14).

Health care is financed primarily by Medicare, a government program, and tax incentives encouraging employers to pay the bulk of health care insurance premiums on behalf of patients.

College tuition is in many ways supported by government grants and loans. The more government pays for tuition, treating it as an entitlement, the more colleges will charge for tuition.

Gasoline prices are subject primarily to the whims of Arab dictators who preside not over free-market economies, but fascist or totalitarian regimes. This includes, most particularly, Saudi Arabia, the nation that gave us Osama bin Laden and that drives up oil prices by artificially restricting supply at times of peak demand.

All of these facts would suggest a need for less government involvement in health care and education, yet Mr. Kerry proposes still more government subsidizing of these enterprises, on top of the billions already spent by President Bush.

Exactly how will more of the same relieve our misery?

MICHAEL J. HURD

Chevy Chase

Building a resume

I hope Sen. John Kerry keeps attacking Vice President Dick Cheney and Bush advisor Karl Rove for questioning his patriotism even though they never did, only his voting record (“Kerry’s attack,” Inside Politics, Nation, yesterday).

If he does keep attacking, I see my opportunity for a big job in Washington. I served in combat for nine months in Korea in 1952 in a tank company. Unfortunately, since then, my record has been quite ordinary, similar to many other folks. But now I can challenge anyone questioning my record by replying, “I’m a combat vet; shut up.” Now, admittedly, my combat time does not match Mr. Kerry’s heroics, but I’m only looking for the Treasury secretary post.

So if Mr. Kerry keeps attacking those questioning his voting record, my only problem will be how to keep my wife’s mouth shut, since she knows my dismal record handling money.

JEROME M. COHEN

Boynton Beach, Fla.

The PC straitjacket on terror

Regarding Helle Dale’s April 14 Op-Ed (“Hindsight troubles”): Could September 11 have been avoided? Of course it could have been, but at the politically unacceptable price of racial profiling.

Assuming, for the sake of the argument, that 19 would-be air travelers had been refused boarding rights at Logan International Airport in Boston on September 11 merely because they were obviously Middle Eastern males, the twin towers would still be standing, 3,000 infidels would still be alive and hundreds of businesses would still be functioning. And 19 frustrated kamikaze-jihadists, instead of enjoying the company of 72 virgins each in perpetuity, would, instead, be loafing around in some air-conditioned motel in Florida, while their lawyers would demand (and get) millions of dollars in damages. The security personnel who refused them boarding passes would be hounded out of their jobs (if not face prison time), pontificators of a certain mind-set would suffer apoplexy while cursing the rest of us for being racist, and the mainstream media would in their editorial columns admonish us severely for our prejudiced assumptions.

E. DAVID LITVAK

San Leandro, Calif.

More political than educational

My wife has been a life member of the National Education Association since the mid-1960s. In 1971, she retired from teaching to become a full-time mother and a teacher of one. In 1976, she suffered a massive stroke and has been unable to teach since then. Although she is unable to write this letter, we have discussed it, and she is in full agreement with the sentiments expressed.

Over the years, we have received numerous mailings from the NEA, mostly offers of unneeded life insurance or, on a more sinister note, offers for yet more credit cards (which, it should be noted, often lead to poor financial-management skills). We have regarded the NEA as the premier educational organization for teachers, especially in its competition with the American Federation of Teachers for union representation in institutions with which I have been affiliated. We have also read the numerous accusations of the NEA as being more political than educational but so far have resisted taking any action.

Monday’s paper brings us the last straw. The headline reads, “Pro-life teachers angered by march” (Page 1). Reading further, one notes that this action aligns the NEA with Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Organization for Women and NARAL Pro-Choice America. This alignment could not be further from either the goal of education or our desires. All of these groups, and the pro-choice rally itself, clearly support abortion.

Evidence has also shown that “pro-abortion,” and not “pro-choice,” is the appropriate label. Logic no longer has any bearing, as the logical conclusion of this action is the reduction (and eventual elimination) of the number of children. At this rate, the NEA will eventually rally itself out of existence, as it is children for whom it primarily exists.

Accordingly, we are withdrawing my wife’s membership in the NEA, effective immediately. She no longer wishes to be associated with a political organization, especially one that so blatantly condones the destruction of its primary beneficiaries.

SHERRILL F. LAMBERT

RICHARD B. LAMBERT JR.

Rockville