Letters

The New Age of Terror

Re The reports of people bracing for a terrorist attack [AMERICA ON GUARD, Oct. 8]: A waitress at my local diner had a Middle Eastern man escorted out because he made her uncomfortable. Listening to the radio, I heard a woman say she is going to buy an expensive couch because it's the only way she knows how to help the country. I believe the U.S. has become a nation of idiots. Gas masks won't help, nor will flying that American flag you just bought. We must concentrate on peace, love and equality. STELLA BLUE Chicago

I took comfort in reading about the extreme difficulties of using chemical or biological weapons in an attack on the public. But I keep thinking of how a similarly reassuring article describing the unlikely odds of simultaneous, multiple-airplane hijackings could have been written just a few short weeks ago. There is one inescapable fact we all must take away from the events of Sept. 11: if something can be thought of, it can be done. JOHN R. CARVER Long Beach, Calif.

More people are reaching out to friends and family, singing patriotic songs, giving money, donating blood, praying and doing anything possible to help others. That it took a tragedy for people to forget themselves and remember family, freedom and God is a sad commentary on Americans. Maybe we have learned something from this. Do I want to return to the selfishness and complacency of a "normal" life? No! MINDY CARLSON Provo, Utah

If Americans are serious about shopping for protection, they should contribute to the congressional leaders who call for strengthening the U.N. and oppose U.S. covert operations that cause damage in the Muslim world. When the U.S. consistently demonstrates a foreign policy commitment to universal human rights instead of its own short-term interests, Americans will no longer need to purchase security. "Liberty and justice for all" isn't supposed to be limited to U.S. citizens. VIVIANA GEORGESCU Chantilly, Va.

--Our reporting on gas masks, vaccines and disaster kits made many of you feel that we added unnecessarily to people's jitters about biological attacks. "Not only are you helping fuel hysteria," complained a Wisconsin man, "but you are promoting the flawed logic that if you have enough money, you can keep your family safe." From San Antonio, a Texan warned, "Sensational journalism does little more than cause inevitable panic buying and doomsday fears." A Nebraskan declared, "Gas masks won't help against an anthrax attack," and urged TIME to "stop scaring people and tell us how to protect the country." And a reader from Maine imagined "the terrorists laughing their heads off as Americans frantically wave the flag and shop for gas masks. We should thumb our nose at these criminals and get back to everyday life."

Security vs. Liberty

I was appalled that 31% of those surveyed in a TIME/CNN poll favored holding American citizens in camps solely because they happen to be of Arab descent [AMERICA ON GUARD, Oct. 8]. That is blatant racism at its worst! Is the U.S. to become the next Nazi Germany? The Constitution guarantees us certain rights, such as a speedy trial, security from unreasonable searches and seizures and so forth. We cannot allow terrorists--or our own government--to take away those rights. If that happens, the terrorists win. EDUARDO GONZALES Bailey, Colo.

The most dismaying consequence of the Sept. 11 terrorist acts is the zeal with which America is rushing to abandon its democratic values. The FBI, we learn, will have expanded wiretapping and surveillance powers. The U.S. has spent much of the past century struggling against governments that monitored the actions of their citizens, restricted their movements and engaged in ruthless policies beyond the reach of morals, ethics or the knowledge and consent of their people. So why surrender now? Law, liberty, justice, freedom and fair play are not luxuries that we must regretfully abandon when the American way of life is threatened. They are the American way of life. R. ANDREW SEWELL Worcester, Mass.

Something as small as a box cutter tore the World Trade Center from our skyline, yet the terrorist threats will only get smaller still--germs, molecules, split atoms--and become the more menacing for it. Americans' greatest undoing, however, will be the gargantuan steps taken by our government to fight these almost imperceptible dangers. In the name of protecting freedom, we'll watch our civil liberties diminish to near nothing. And what good is fighting for freedom if the freedom's gone? MICHAEL J.E. HANSON Sioux Falls, S.D.

The damage from the terrorists' attacks is ongoing. Every freedom that Americans must give up for the sake of safety and security perpetuates the terror. The U.S. is in danger of creating a safety zone that feels like a prison. RAFAEL HARO Mexico City

Assyrians Aren't Arabs

In the chart that accompanied your article on the scapegoating of Muslims and Arabs in the U.S. [BACKLASH, Oct. 1], you referred to Assyrians as Arab Americans. Assyrians are Christians who were originally from the land of the Tigris and Euphrates, where Iraq is today. The Assyrian people are not Arabs. Readers can find out more about us at www.aina.org/aol/peter/brief.htm ATORINA ZOMAYA Skokie, Ill.

Maintaining the Coalition

Before Sept. 11, President Bush's message to the world was one of American isolationism. The U.S. was going to ignore global concerns about the environment, arms treaties and missile defense and do what it wanted. Now Bush is wooing the support of other countries, some of which had been ignored by the U.S. [INSIDE THE HUNT, Oct. 8]. Today the talk is of cooperation. No doubt Bush will succeed in winning the backing he needs, but this is an opportunity to end an era of selfish isolationism. The U.S. is accountable to other nations, just as it now needs their support. SAM CHAN Deerfield, Ill.

Freedom Sings

As abhorrent as I find the very idea of the white-supremacist "hate-core music" promoted by neo-Nazi William Pierce's Resistance Records [MUSIC GOES GLOBAL, SPECIAL ISSUE, FALL 2001], I am strangely comforted by living in a society strong enough to tolerate such idiocy. It would be worse to live in a country where the enjoyment of music is prohibited, as in Afghanistan under the Taliban. Of course, Pierce dreams of a day when he and his mediocre clan can have Taliban-like power over the masses, but until then people like me are free to denounce him publicly. As a singer, I rejoice that I would be equally unwelcome under the Taliban or in Pierce's postrevolutionary "utopia." CYNTHIA CLAYTON VASQUEZ Santa Maria, Calif.

One Viewer's Must-See TV

Re the fall crop of TV series [TELEVISION, Oct. 8]: I cannot bring myself to watch my former favorite shows, like Law & Order or E.R., because they are full of bad news and sad stories. Nor am I watching the more intense programs that air truly bad news and sad stories about real life. My TV watching now consists of feel-good movies, good-old-days documentaries and mindless sitcoms. Three cheers for I Love Lucy! CLAIRE M. COLEMAN South Bend, Ind.

Clarifications

Our story on rumors and hoaxes in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks [REALITY CHECK, Oct. 8] included a photograph of a cloud of smoke at the World Trade Center in which some people perceived the face of Satan. Because of the context of the story, some readers might have thought this effect was an intentional manipulation of the photographic image. However, the picture, taken by Mark D. Phillips, was not altered in any way.

The report on airline security [AMERICA ON GUARD, Oct. 8] mistakenly said that the lockable steel doors used by Israel's El Al airline are made by Boeing, which will also produce domestic versions for U.S. carriers. Boeing does not make El Al's doors, nor will it manufacture them for U.S. airlines. It will, however, be involved in retrofitting American aircraft.