Inbox

The End of Shinzo Abe
Thank you for your depressing report on the departure of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe [Sept. 24]. I appreciate his honesty, but regret his lack of political stomach. I hope the next Japanese leader will effectively stand tall on the international stage as well as over the chaotic domestic arena, riddled with so many problems. It’s our sincere, but desperate, wish.
Masaaki Otani
Kagawa, Japan

Of First Ladies and Laddies
Political spouses are very important [Sept. 24]. The American voter is looking for a candidate whose significant other is intelligent, compassionate and, most important, an asset to the U.S. We don’t want a President’s spouse to be outspoken, domineering or suffering from Leona Helmsley syndrome — an inflated sense of superiority. Judith Giuliani is a classic example. If Rudy is the Republican nominee, she will be a deficit to him. Elizabeth Edwards and Michelle Obama mean well for their husbands but probably would not be so outspoken if it were a closer race. Everyone knows Bill Clinton — and either loves or hates him — so he doesn’t have to say much.
Robert S. Katz
Stamford, Conn., U.S.

It is interesting that the only person speaking pejoratively about her spouse is Michelle Obama, the wife of a leading contender for the job. She may think she is humanizing Barack by calling him “stinky and snore-y,” but these embarrassing comments make me wonder if she feels a bit threatened by her husband’s success.
Sally Jorgensen
Santa Cruz, Calif., U.S.

I would not have thought it possible to write about the role of the President’s spouse without mentioning the remarkable partnership forged between Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt. But I guess that would have spoiled your simplified story line reporting an orderly progression of liberation from then to now.
Dick Scott
Stanford, Calif., U.S.

How unfortunate for Hillary Clinton to be forever linked to Bill’s distasteful legacy of immorality and scandal. The weight of that baggage might keep her from rising to the presidency.
Joseph M. Kosanovic
Camp Hill, Pa., U.S.

My only interest in the candidates pertains to their positions on the Iraq war, accessible health care and the environment and whether they will work to transfer political power from the wallet to the ballot. Considering whether a wife is a divorcé, CEO or stay-at-home mom is more of the pageantry of personality that characterized both the 2000 and ’04 elections. The past seven years are a reminder of the consequences of thinking more about the candidates’ families than what their platforms mean for our families.
Jacqueline Carrick
Haddonfield, H.J., U.S.

Grilling a General
Joe Klein eloquently expressed his disgust over the General David Petraeus dog-and-pony show before Congress [Sept. 24]. But Klein failed to mention the real reason the Senators didn’t press Petraeus for legitimate answers: the military-industrial complex that President Dwight Eisenhower warned us about is a sinister weave of self-interest involving the nation’s corporate, military and political powerhouses.
Ken Hicks
Lincoln University, Pa., U.S.

Reading Earth’s Danger Signs
I appreciated Nancy Gibbs’ column about several recent warnings delivered on the state of the environment [Sept. 24]. Yet even with an awareness of the crisis, I am at a loss to know what the solutions might be. Gibbs noted that even drastic reductions in greenhouse gases would not be enough to prevent the melting of the Arctic ice cap. We need to know the maximum amount of harmful waste that can be tolerated globally and devise a concrete plan to stay within that limit. This may necessitate enormous changes within our society.
Claudia Schaer
Calgary, Canada

“How fearsome must the headlines be about tomorrow before people change their ways today?” Gibbs asked. Our brains are hardwired to respond to immediate dangers, not ones that are years or decades away. A term like global warming is too benign, especially for those like me who live in a cold climate and might welcome an increase of a few degrees. Perhaps we should use the term global boiling, like the proverbial experiment in which a frog stays in a gradually warming pot of water and eventually dies. Maybe we all need to visualize the destruction to make us feel a sense of immediate danger.
H. Steven Moffic, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, Medical College of Wisconsin
Milwaukee

Sometime in the 22nd century (if we get there as a species), schoolchildren in a new dark age will read about all the sirens going off at the same time — “ice melting, species vanishing and cities choking the people who live in them” — and no one in power ever giving these life-or-death matters the full, single-minded attention they so desperately deserved.
Carlos A. Leo
Hollywood, Fla., U.S.

Remembering a Master’s Voice
I mourn the passing of the world’s greatest tenor, Luciano Pavarotti [Sept. 24]. We are lucky to have his recordings, which are his legacy. I saw all his operas at the Met and was allowed to go backstage to meet him. He was gracious and kind and autographed many pictures and posters for me. I will miss him.
James J. LaRosa
Albany, N.Y., U.S.

What Would Jesus Censor?
It is hard to believe that the TV academy yielded to the Catholic League and censored Kathy Griffin’s Emmy Awards speech because she said she didn’t thank Jesus Christ [Sept. 24]. It is a very painful reminder that we are losing our democratic freedom of religion, speech and the press and are moving toward a dictatorship in which organized religion controls what we hear and see. Next, the Catholic League will censor the media from reporting sex crimes by priests and the resulting multimillion-dollar lawsuits.
Alton Hardman
Altus, Okla., U.S.

Isn’t this the same mentality that Westerners fault — indeed, ridicule — in Muslims who are offended by references to Muhammad? The old saying “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander” comes to mind.
Jeanette F. Huber
Kinsale, Ireland

Let’s Be Reasonable
Kudos to Michael Kinsley for highlighting the relevance of leaders’ religious beliefs [Sept. 17]. Literal dogmatic beliefs of any kind can lead to behavior ranging from the benignly bizarre to the frighteningly dangerous. When people seek truth based on faith rather than evidence, their decisions are connected to reality only coincidentally and are often divorced from it. The risks that we all face when powerful people act on untested beliefs should be obvious. I can only hope that one day the majority will embrace candidates for whom reason, rather than God, is their adviser.
Brendan Cameron
Vancouver

An Anniversary of Hope
On every anniversary of Sept. 11, I think of how much trust was lost among so many Americans and Muslims [Sept. 17]. Yet not long after that tragic day, one seemingly delicate American woman with an iron will and amazing intellect trusted my family and me with her most precious treasures for a week: she left her two teenage daughters with us in Montreal when she went to a conference in the U.S. In that moment of difficulty, she trusted a bearded Muslim colleague at her university and his veiled wife. God knows I would have given my life to safeguard that trust. While they were with me, her daughters were as precious to me as if they were my own. My friend reaffirmed a lesson I had learned back home: although it is our right, indeed our duty, to be reasonably prudent and careful, the hate shown to us by a few people should never completely stifle the possibility of building bridges with others who sincerely offer us their love and friendship.
Asif Iftikhar
Lahore, Pakistan

Rugby, a Means to an End
Re: “The Black Arts” [Sept. 17], it is diffi-cult to understand why your reporter Daniel Williams should single out the Springboks for being “brutal.” After all, both the South Africans and the New Zealanders were originally taught this game by Scottish Presbyterians. The dour Scots obviously never fathomed the English humor in the ridiculous 16-man scrum. It was all meant as a joke, to keep robust adolescent schoolboys occupied during winter — when they could not play cricket.
Deon Thom
George, South Africa