Mail Call

Al Gore Puts Faith In Joe Lieberman Our Aug. 21 cover story on the Democratic candidates for the White House led readers to ponder Al Gore's choice of Joseph Lieberman. One reader said a Jewish vice presidential candidate means an "unstated barrier to government service has been torn down." Some questioned if Lieberman's faith will make his administration lean toward Israel; others believed Americans have a preoccupation with Lieberman's ethnicity. One reader simply asked, "What's the big deal--he is American, isn't he?"

Gore Picks a Running Mate The choice of Sen. Joseph Lieberman as the vice presidential candidate of the Democratic Party is a proud day for all Americans, not just for Jewish Americans ("Praying to Win," U.S. affairs, Aug. 21). Jews can feel proud that one of their own now has a realistic opportunity to become the vice president of the United States. But all Americans can join in a sense of pride that in the United States, Americans of varied backgrounds can truly reach for such an honor. The choice of Senator Lieberman has shown that yet another unstated barrier to government service at the highest level has been torn down. It is a real step in achieving the ideals of the U.S. Constitution, which describes the prerequisites for the office of the president (and, by extension, of the vice president) not by imposing limitations of gender, race, religion or ethnic background but by focusing on the most important trait shared by the potential candidates: being a natural-born American citizen.
Rita J. Jeremy
San Francisco, California

Wow, Lieberman on the democratic ticket! What is a conservative, Republican, Orthodox Jew like me supposed to do? Al Gore and Joe Lieberman will be the best friends Israel ever had, but George W. Bush and Dick Cheney will be better for America, as they will clean up Bill Clinton's squalor. I'll go by ideology and vote for Bush--but I won't feel too bad if he loses.
Abe Krieger
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

U.S. citizens should do what is right for their country and the world. They should vote for Al Gore, who is elegant, experienced and, most important, intelligent. We in Europe need a wise America to lead us through this new century. Wake up, guys, vote logical--make Gore our next president!
James McDonald
Milan, Italy

I am one of many non-U.S. citizens who understand how presidential races are run and won in America; we are fascinated by the quantity of material that you have been providing on the background, upbringing and formative influences of each candidate. But everyone knows the only thing that is going to count for the person elected is who bought and paid for him. It would be informative for readers if you did some background investigation into who finances the candidates, especially which corporate donors.
Jon Cloke
Masaya, Nicaragua

Your extensive articles on vice presidential nominee Joseph Lieberman provide no insight into how he might influence U.S. foreign policy. It seems to me that Lieberman's Jewish faith will really be significant if it convinces the leaders and peoples of the Middle East that a Gore-Lieberman administration will be favorably disposed toward Israel in the conflicts there.
Lew Rabenberg
Austin, Texas

NEWSWEEK sums it all up with its preoccupation, concentration and emphasis on the background and ethnicity of Sen. Joseph Lieberman. If I were an American citizen I would ask, "What's the big deal--he is American, isn't he?" But perhaps we in the Arab and Islamic world should be worried. The United States is selling its heart and soul to the Jews in order to win votes. What next?
Majid Said Nasser Al-Suleimany
Muscat, Oman

I'm perturbed by Senator Lieberman's frequent references, exhortations and thanks to God. If these expressions were uttered by members of the Christian Coalition, I would be equally offended, since religion must be separate from government. If the senator wants the country to accept him as a candidate, he should curtail his continual references to God and the Bible.
Cyrus P. Schoen
Sarasota, Florida

How interesting that both presidential candidates picked running mates who are the equivalent of political spackle. Bush chose someone to fill in the gaps in his intellect, while Gore selected someone to smooth over the holes in his administration's morality.
Michael Wagman
Hidden Hills, California

You say that "stylistically," Gore and Lieberman may be wholesome but perhaps too serious for the age of MTV and that voters may prefer Bush's "sly smile, a reformed sinner's riveting story line and just enough honky-tonk in his blue blood to be unpredictably entertaining." I hope you are wrong. These men are not running for president of some college fraternity. They are running for president of the United States. For that, serious is good; MTV is of little value. And a sly smile and being unpredictably entertaining are of no value. Your comment underscores America's continuing devaluation of substance and elevation of style over content and ability, as if campaigns were popularity contests.
Honey Kessler Amado
Beverly Hills, California

I'm proud to be a Democrat. The party nominated the first Roman Catholic--John F. Kennedy--to be president of the United States. It nominated the first woman and the first Jew--Geraldine Ferraro and Joe Lieberman--to be candidates for vice president. When an African-American is nominated to one of these high offices, it will surely be the Democratic Party that does it.
Lawrence O. Aasen
Westport, Connecticut

As the daughter of a Jewish father and a Protestant mother, I was raised with the traditions of both religions ("A Look at Jewish America in Transition"). I choose not to practice either, but it doesn't mean I have no morals, ethics and values. Compared with others, I think I have a greater sense of religious tolerance.
Robin Pam
Menlo Park, California

May the Force Be With Sir Alec Sir Alec Guinness held the "Guinness record" of dissimilar movie characters (Society & the Arts, Aug. 21). His diverse acting roles ranged from a Jedi to a POW, from a prince to a pickpocket. He could play any part, although he was rarely cast in the role of lover. His portrayals were so real and different in each movie that the audience often failed to recognize him as an actor. For me, his most unforgettable performance was in the epic "Lawrence of Arabia" as Prince Faisal, which your article did not mention. Perhaps this letter can serve as an addendum to your "Remembrance" of this truly marvelous actor.
Edward B. Fan
Upper Marlboro, Maryland

Mamma, I'm Home--to Stay Your article Staying Home With Mamma" (Society & the Arts, Aug. 14) unfairly judges cultures through an American prism. I am Latino, and we do not stay close to our parents for material needs only. Our culture emphasizes the parent-child bond as a lifetime commitment, which children reciprocate as the parents grow older. I bet a serious study would show that the drug Prozac sells better in countries where children take the easy way out and value their own pleasures over the caretaking of their parents--who need them now but have loved them always.
Enrique Escobar-Gattas
Santiago, Chile

While you cited cultural, social and economic reasons for the young Italian people living at home, you failed to mention the inadequate teaching system, which doesn't focus on practical market-oriented subjects. This is the reason that Italy's potential work force is full of talented and educated youths who are inexperienced and can't find their place in the labor market. In addition, my first-class university degree doesn't help when I am faced with high rent, a housing crisis and a two-digit unemployment rate. I am forced to live with Mamma.
Giulio Cicconi
Teramo, Italy

Not Necessarily Nazi In the article " 'As Good As Anybody Else', " you say, "Taking the town cost 100 Nazi soldiers their lives" (World Affairs, July 24). But many did not deserve such a description. It would be wrong, for example, to label Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and all the Red Army soldiers communists.
Rudolf Hackl
Vienna, Austria

Kosovo's Continuing Crisis By heaping opprobrium exclusively on Serbian rapists, the well-reported article "A War's Hidden Tragedy" (Europe, Aug. 14) misses half of its own point. While Western countries don't want to condemn practices of another's culture, there is a prevalent Albanian belief that a woman is a chattel whose value as a human being can be nullified by an enemy soldier's assault. Even women have internalized the warped logic of blaming the victims of rape. As the details reveal, the Serbs' use of rape as a war tactic derives its power from the stigma attached to sexual defilement of female Albanians.
Whitney Mason
Istanbul, Turkey

Your article raises a number of serious issues regarding rape, war crimes and the recognition of what actually goes on when mass violence hits. However, the problem is not really analyzed and taken to its logical conclusion. Rape has clearly not been accepted as a crime in most societies. Trying to punish the culprits is an oversimplification. We must sexually educate the world so that people know what is right and wrong. As long as this basic principle is not understood, rape and its terrible consequences will be with us.
Rene Gardea
Prague, Czech Republic

Is "unearthing the truth" literally discovering massacred bodies of poor mistreated Albanians in Kosovo ("Unearthing the Truth," Europe, July 17)? Obviously, on a metaphorical level it is much more. I consider the Kosovar Albanians brutal in their ripping off of Kosovo. Kosovar Albanians held entire villages that Serbs were forbidden to enter. What kind of will for peace or will to live with the Serbs is that? This and much more, which I hope NEWSWEEK will reveal soon, is what I would call unearthing the truth.
Jelena Popovic
Tel Aviv, Israel

I read "The Truth About the Kosovo War" with interest (Periscope, July 10). So France, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands now have second thoughts about this "war"? Pity they didn't think of this during the early days. When Prime Minister Tony Blair suggested sending ground troops to Kosovo, President Bill Clinton almost had a heart attack and wouldn't risk the lives of American soldiers. As a result, this first "virtual" war was a test of America's weaponry waged from the stratosphere.
Kurt Redisch
Sao Paulo, Brazil

Whatever the crimes of the Serbs, if you consider self-defense a crime, nothing can justify a genocide unprecedented in human history.
Piera Graffer Hall
Trento, Italy

Unfair Attacks In the article "targeting immigrants," the author says that in the former East Germany there were virtually no foreigners and that this is the main reason for violence against foreigners (Special Report, July 3). But 1 percent of the East German population was foreign--from Vietnam, Mozambique, Cuba, Angola and Poland. The East German state reacted to violence in a far stricter way, and people with right-wing attitudes were not tolerated by the state either. It was hardly possible to get hold of "fascist" rock music. Unemployment was not a worry--the right of work was guaranteed by the state. There was less pressure on parents, so they had time to care for their children. Youth organizations offered leisure activities free of charge; music lessons were cheap. There were hardly any reasons to attack a foreigner. A government that approves right-wing demonstrations on May 1, as in Leipzig two years ago, should not be astonished by right-wing violence.
Jana Schubert
Panitzsch, Germany

You report that "Dessau's authorities have vowed to fight racism," but official statements often blame the victims for not integrating into German society. How integrated do we have to be? Jews who had converted to Christianity, served in the German Army and considered themselves to be German were still killed in the Holocaust. It's not a question of integration so much as one of acceptance and tolerance; don't blame the victim.
Geoff Carver
Dresden, Germany

There's hate and violence against people in most countries. Being openly gay in Thatcher's Britain, I felt some hostility. But while in other countries such violence is discussed in the media, people march to protest it and everybody is aware of the problems of racism, anti-Semitism and homophobia, in Germany the media do not highlight such incidents. On television, news of a racist attack is covered in 15 seconds. Most Germans are not bothered. Have we got used to such attacks, or do we not care about our neighbors? I suspect it is both.
Hartmut Eckert
Alsfeld, Germany

Jerusalem's Divisions I was most interested in your July 24 Special Report, "The New Jerusalem." The Israelis insist that Jerusalem must not be divided, when it already is! In East Jerusalem, rubbish literally covers the ground you walk on. You have to stand in lines for hours on end for something as paltry as a stamp. On the west side, however, you walk on clean streets where everything is conveniently available. Yes, that means no standing in lines! So how can Ehud Olmert, the mayor of Jerusalem, talk about a unified city when the city's inhabitants are not treated equally. Talk about racial discrimination.
Nadia Awad
Jerusalem

Lessons From Sri Lanka Any understanding of Sri Lankan Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabhakaran's motives is incomplete without a direct meeting with the man himself. In this sense, your reporter Ian MacKinnon's sketchy profile ("'You Will Have to Die'," Asia, May 29) faces a credibility problem. Also, as a Tamil who is well read in the Tamil Tiger literature (published predominantly in the Tamil language), I can assure you that Prabhakaran has never stated that his inspiration comes from Hitler, though he has acknowledged the influence of other historical personalities such as Napoleon, Mao Zedong and Che Guevara, as well as Clint Eastwood.
Prof. Sachi Sri Kantha
Gifu University
Kamigahara, Japan

Prabhakaran is fighting for all Tamils all over the world and not for a particular caste, so why did your correspondent think it necessary to refer to Prabhakaran's caste? In any case, the correct name of Prabhakaran's caste is Kurukulam, not the inaccurate and pejorative English "fisherman." The Kurukulams were naval commanders, warriors and mercenaries. The traditional caste system of Sri Lanka got inverted during the colonial period. Agricultural serf families rose by serving Europeans as guides, spies and interpreters. They propagated the use of inaccurate English translations such as the one used by your correspondent in order to denigrate their countrymen. The use of such terms even in this day and age, and even by your correspondent, goes to illustrate the widespread effect of false propaganda. The root of the Sri Lankan problem is the attempt by the cultivators--the agricultural class--to subjugate all others.
K. Arulkumar

Wellawatta, Sri Lanka

I'm perturbed by Senator Lieberman's frequent references, exhortations and thanks to God. If these expressions were uttered by members of the Christian Coalition, I would be equally offended, since religion must be separate from government. If the senator wants the country to accept him as a candidate, he should curtail his continual references to God and the Bible.
Cyrus P. Schoen
Sarasota, Florida

How interesting that both presidential candidates picked running mates who are the equivalent of political spackle. George W. Bush chose someone to fill in the gaps in his intellect, while Vice President Gore selected someone to smooth over the holes in his administration's morality.
Michael Wagman
Hidden Hills, California

You say that "stylistically" al Gore and Joseph Lieberman may be wholesome but are perhaps too serious for the age of MTV, and that voters may prefer George W. Bush's "sly smile, a reformed sinner's riveting story line and just enough honky-tonk in his blue blood to be unpredictably entertaining." I hope you are wrong. These men are not running for president of some college fraternity. They are not candidates for best boyfriend. They are running for president of the United States. For that, serious is good; MTV is of little value. And a sly smile and being unpredictably entertaining are of no value. Your comment underscores America's continuing devaluation of substance and elevation of style over content and ability, as if campaigns were popularity contests.
Honey Kessler Amado
Beverly Hills, California

Correction Due to a technical error, an image used on the cover of the Sept. 4 issue was inadvertently reversed. The image should have appeared as shown above.