Quotes of the Day

Josef Joffe, Professor at Stanford, wrongfully insinuates in the article "Gloat at Your Peril" that the E.U. indulges in schadenfreude about the U.S. financial crisis [Oct. 20]. We all know what the global economy is about. Would anyone be stupid enough to ignore the fact that the entire human body suffers if just one organ gets sick?
Helmar W. Kühn, FRANKFURT, GERMANY

Joffe claims that Europe has "no will, no purpose, no power," that it does "less than required" and does it "slowly." I find this point of view pretty mistaken since on the day I received that issue of TIME, European leaders decided to put in place a rescue plan that includes lending $2.25 trillion to the European banks. The $700 billion Paulson plan seems a bit weak compared to that. And after the announcement of the rescue plan, European share prices soared. Who is emerging from the wreckage first now?
Stanislas Bertrand, LYONS, FRANCE

How Voters Decide
I resent David von Drehle's implication in "The Limits of Race" that whites who vote against Obama do so for racial reasons [Oct. 20]. Obviously race influences some voters, but what about blacks? Certainly some African Americans will vote for Obama because he is black. How many of these voters will cancel out white voters who vote for the wrong reasons?
James C. Perley, LITTLE SIOUX, IOWA, U.S.

Americanness at Issue
In response to Peter Beinart's question "Is He American Enough?" [Oct. 20], my question is: What is an American? My idea of an American is one who upholds the laws of the land and leads a morally convicted life free of prejudices of any kind.
A.B. Madyun, OAKLAND, CALIF., U.S.

The characterization of conservatives' thinking as uneducated, racist and antiforeigner is insulting. Conservatives welcome immigrants of all cultures to America's shores just as liberals do; they part ways on who should foot the bill and how immigrants should be integrated into society. If Obama loses the election, rather than revealing our views on race or our lack of receptiveness to other cultures, it will show that Americans prefer governance from the middle — not from the far left.
Kathleen Sliwiak, GAITHERSBURG, MD., U.S.

I am a British national living in the U.S. Upon discovering where I am from, countless Americans reply with "Oh, I'm Irish/Scottish/quarter-English/ half-French Canadian," etc. Given that a lot of Americans are proud of their non-American ancestry, why do some people use it as a negative point for Obama?
Tim Parkinson, SOUTH BURLINGTON, VT., U.S.

Beinart refers to a poll indicating that many white voters who lack college degrees would not vote for Obama because he is too "globalized," too "multicultural," too "cosmopolitan." I have news for Beinart. Many of the emigrants from the U.S.S.R. who came to the U.S. in the '70s and '80s support John McCain. A lot of us have undergraduate or graduate degrees. There is a simple reason for our choice: we already lived in a socialist country and left it. The U.S. surely would move in that direction should Obama win.
Mikhail Godkin, SAN DIEGO

"Is he American enough?" was an excellent review of the hidden reason why Obama could lose the upcoming election. The author was quite correct that the problem goes beyond race and, instead touches on the cultural differences this candidate seems to represent. My only disappointment is that the precise word for this hidden element in the campaign — xenophobia — never appeared once in the article. People should be given the word that applies to this ugly situation, even if they are proud of living in their "melting pot."
Max Gordon Lee, ECHIROLLES, FRANCE

Criticizing Obama by suggesting he isn't American enough is absurd. America is a nation of immigrants; they built it and thrived in it. I would say that because Barack Obama exemplifies this melting pot, he is more American than many of us. But this brand of attack is not new, as the article implies. I think of the 1920s and the red scare and the extreme nationalism that led to immigrant quotas. Don't we all look back at that time and shudder at how we treated those who came from another place? Our incredible ingenuity, our innovation, our ideas, our universities — all these are the product of our ability to attract the brightest minds from all over the world. The Statue of Liberty? A gift from France. "God Bless America"? Written by an immigrant. Why do we continue to submit to an antiforeign ideology?
Emily Feder, ST. LOUIS, MO., U.S.

Airing the Facts on Ayers
Claire Suddath's article "A Brief History of: The Weathermen" implied that Bill Ayers' terroristic activity was ancient history and that he reformed his ways long before his relationship with Obama [Oct. 20]. Quite the contrary: in 2001, Ayers said of his domestic bombings that he felt his group didn't do enough. Not to report this salient fact was misleading and biased.
Andy Horvath, ELVERSON, PA., U.S.

Who cares what Ayers did nearly 40 years ago? It's what he's doing now that matters. Let us not forget that at least two major Watergate figures — Jeb Magruder and Charles Colson — rehabilitated themselves as respected members of the clergy.
Stephen V. Gilmore, CHARLOTTE, N.C., U.S.

The Candidates Onstage
Joe Klein would like Obama to tell the truth to the American people regarding the sacrifices they will need to make during this economic free fall [Oct. 20]. But it is clear that such truth-telling is not what the American people want to hear, nor does such directness help the candidate during an election campaign. In August, in the midst of the oil-price surge, Obama tried to suggest to Americans that maintaining inflated tires could conserve fuel. The suggestion, backed by experts, was mocked by the McCain campaign. Clearly Obama learned the lesson of Walter Mondale's attempt to tell the truth in 1984 about the need to raise taxes.
Steve Charing, CLARKSVILLE, MD., U.S.

In his otherwise excellent column, Klein made a significant omission. The reason employer-based insurance is failing is not that employees fail to act in their enlightened self-interest or that employers are "slouching away from that responsibility." Costs have risen to the point that most employers cannot afford to provide insurance, and individuals cannot come up with the $27,000 a family must pay on average for annual coverage. The only long-term solution is to eliminate insurance companies through a national single-payer health plan, or "Medicare for all." Without the profit motive and with Medicare's demonstrated efficiency, enough would be saved to insure everyone.
Richard K. Staggenborg, COOS BAY, ORE., U.S.

Does Size Matter?
In his article "Sizing Up Your Body," Sanjay Gupta writes, "One healthy response [to body image] has been programs that promote ... the idea of loving yourself as you are" [Oct. 20]. But he immediately negates that by citing a health professional's claim that these programs can result in people "accepting that they're overweight." So apparently it's healthy to love yourself as you are, but only if you're thin; if not, better keep up with that self-loathing! A study on dieting by the National Institutes of Health showed that virtually all dieters regained all the weight they lost within five years. Until the medical community can offer people effective solutions to obesity, I suggest that Gupta does not knock the self-acceptance route.
Kelly Murphy, HUNTER, N.Y., U.S..

Family Politics
I found Elizabeth Gilbert's essay "A Family Divided" to be eminently sad [Oct. 20]. An Obama supporter, Gilbert tells us she is "losing sleep" over the possibility that her father will vote for McCain. She worries that it "could somehow threaten our affection." Really? I understand that many people are passionate in their political beliefs, but to obsess over your own father's political preferences to the point where you want to "scold him or force him to accept [your] worldview" strikes me as rather extreme and narrow-minded.
Salvatore Astorina, BROOKLYN, N.Y., U.S.

Like Gilbert, I have found myself in anguish over the fact that my dad and I will vote differently in November. Why does it seem so intolerable? I fear that something cultural — and quite dangerous — is at work. In our public discourse, Americans can't seem to discuss and debate issues with anything approaching respect or intellectual honesty. We oversimplify, we distort, we dismiss. We turn the challengers into enemies. And when that madness infects our private discourse, our family members become foes. Not good for family harmony — and not a very wise way to go about choosing a world leader.
Mitch Neuger, SAN FRANCISCO

I admire Gilbert's ability to "quietly" endure her father's views; some of us cannot reach that level of mature acquiescence. We give in to our political passion, albeit childishly. I waited until my McCain-lovin' parents left town, then put Obama signs all over their front lawn. True, there was a verbal barrage when my father returned, stunned by the signs of Obama love. But for this 40-year-old liberal, it was well worth it.
Jennifer Loman, CHICO, CALIF., U.S.

This is not the America I have known and loved since the '60s and have visited dozens of times. That a loving family can be emotionally disturbed by party politics, in America of all places, shows how tolerance is being destroyed, leading the civilized world to disaster. I live in a country where real democracy was suspended for two generations, but where for the past almost 40 years, loving and united families voted for opposite political extremes, and where groups of opposing political supporters crossed the street to greet each other. May God bring back sanity to America.
A.J.R. Soares de Mello, LISBON

Unknown Africa
I have bitten my tongue several times as your reporters, including Alex Perry and Vivienne Walt, glibly write about growing poverty in South Africa. This "conventional wisdom" is repeated in "Verbatim" [Oct. 20]. It simply isn't true. Measures of income generally show that poverty has fallen by as much as 20% over the past seven or eight years. One reason has been that employment rose considerably during the mid-2000s; another is that social-assistance programs now reach 12 million South Africans. It is true that inequality seems to have increased, but that is because of the rising incomes of the wealthy and the professional and managerial classes.
Alan Hirsch, PRETORIA

Accepting Blame
Why do we hear so many Americans blaming their government for the financial crisis [Oct. 20]? Observing from the southern tip of Africa, with my little salary of $1,500 a month, I cannot help but ask when will Americans themselves accept responsibility for the problem and recognise that they have been living beyond their means for much too long? Are you adult, responsible people, or should your government also wash your ears in the morning?
Henri du Plessis, CAPE TOWN

• How Voters Decide; Americanness at Issue; Airing the Facts on Ayers