Letters

Sunday, June 09, 2002
    • Did the U.S. Ignore 9/11 Warnings?

    It seems that the White House was aware of unspecified terrorist threats prior to Sept. 11 [SPECIAL REPORT, May 27], but is it right to blame the President or his staff? They didn't know exactly when these attacks were to take place or where or how. Has everyone forgotten who the true terrorists were that day? The most important thing to remember is that thousands of lives were lost. People should stop blaming those who, even if they had done everything in their power, probably wouldn't have been able to stop the attacks. We should now focus on how to keep this from ever happening again.
    CAITLIN LOUGHEED
    Glasgow

    So the information available prior to Sept. 11 did not justify grounding commercial air traffic. But what about tightening security? Were intermediate measures inconceivable? Why is everything in this Administration always one extreme or the other? Good or evil; for us or against us; fly planes or ground planes?
    JEFFREY SAINIO
    Milwaukee, Wis.


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    I agree with the apologists for the Bush Administration; no one could have envisioned the atrocities of Sept. 11. But logic dictates that at the very least, intelligence information about suspicious activities should have been conveyed to the security authorities at airports. It's not that we expected perfect foresight, just common sense.
    ERNESTO VALDES
    Houston

    With all the blame being thrown around, distracting the President from his job and dividing us all, maybe we should blame the car-rental companies whose autos let the terrorists get to the airports; or the architect of the World Trade Center for not foreseeing that a fully fueled airplane might crash into the buildings, melt the girders and cause a collapse; or the landlords who rented to terrorists. How silly is that? Forget "shoulda, woulda, coulda," and focus on "what are we gonna do from now on?"
    SANDRA HOCHSTEDLER
    South Bend, Ind.

    Monday-morning quarterbacking makes people think we could've done better. Poppycock! No one could have predicted Sept. 11. To sit back and scream "How could you miss this? You failed!" is stupidity at its worst. The complainers should come up with a procedure that would treat all threats with equal concern.
    MARCIA KULP
    York, Pa.

    We must stop trying to blame any one person or group for Sept. 11 while we attempt to prevent further attacks. We should take a look at what happened during the attack on Pearl Harbor and afterward and then work as a country to accomplish our goals. As with Pearl Harbor, we were all complacent, thinking we were immune and not realizing the potential of our enemy. Everyone is accountable: the news media, the CIA, our military, Congress and the general public. But instead of working as a team, everyone is pointing fingers. How soon we forgot the lessons of Pearl Harbor and became complacent once more.
    BOYD BARKER
    Colonel, U.S.A.F. (RET.)
    Ogden, Utah

    The question America needs to ask itself is not why weren't we told? It is why didn't we expect this? The Western world seems determined to try to destroy a perceived enemy, instead of attempting to come to terms with it. The West should ask itself why so much of the world finds unacceptable and seeks to change its materialistic dogmatism.
    BOB HARVEY
    Royal Tunbridge Wells, England

    What to Do with Ground Zero

    As I read of the plans for rebuilding on the site where the World Trade Center stood [SPECIAL REPORT, May 27], I wondered what has happened to the American spirit that built those magnificent structures. I hope it is not a casualty of the terrorists' attack. My vision is for a single, taller, 125-story tower. The top floor could be a special, quiet shrine, closer than even the Twin Towers were to heaven. This idea would honor the memories of all involved, within the framework of a true rebirth of a financial powerhouse. Come on, New York, come on, America. It is time to rebuild bigger and better than before!
    STEVE GONTO
    Savannah, Ga.

    Apology Given

    Your article on Dontee Stokes' shooting of the Rev. Maurice Blackwell, whom Stokes accused of sexual abuse in 1993 [SOCIETY, May 27], included a reference to me as the Archbishop of the Roman Catholic diocese in which Father Blackwell served. You said I had no plans to apologize personally to Stokes or his family. To complete your story, I would like to add that on Friday, May 17, at Mass in the basilica here, I publicly apologized to Stokes and his family. I later spoke with his mother and grandfather, expressing my apologies and renewing the church's offer, extended in 1993, for appropriate counseling.
    CARDINAL WILLIAM H. KEELER
    ARCHBISHOP OF BALTIMORE
    Baltimore, Md.

    Learning While Black

    In your report on racial profiling in America [EDUCATION, May 27], you described a 16-year-old black high school student, Kenneth Russell, who was suspended from school for fighting. Russell's father then filed a civil rights complaint that the suspension was unjust. You reported, however, that Russell had a "filthy mouth" and a habit of sauntering into class "on his own schedule"--factors that surely contributed to his suspension. Polite, respectful behavior does make a difference in how other people judge you. I suspect Russell's teachers were happy for a reason to get rid of him.
    BRUCE JACKSON
    Sacramento, Calif.

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