Quotes of the Day

As a man, I know I'm not supposed to shed tears except for deaths in the family, but I've got to admit that reading Nancy Gibbs' article on Barack Obama in this week's commemorative issue made my eyes misty [Nov. 17]. These were tears not of sorrow but of sheer appreciation for a wonderfully expressed essay about this transcendent moment in American history.
Hervie Haufler, SHELBURNE, VT., U.S.

Ladies in the House
You missed a very important "thing" in your article "10 Things That Never Happened Before" [Nov. 17]. For the first time in U.S. history, women make up a majority of one of the U.S.'s state senates — New Hampshire's. The Granite State makes me very proud.
Lisa Groux, PORTSMOUTH, N.H., U.S.

Hey, Rudy: Organize This!
Joe Klein's "Passing the Torch" was a tonic for me [Nov. 17]. During the Republican National Convention, when Rudy Giuliani sneered that he didn't even know what a community organizer is and Sarah Palin — with sarcasm that made my skin crawl — remarked that she guessed that a "small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities," the insult was personal and deep. For the first time in my life, I donated financially to a political campaign — Obama's. My mother, a beloved longtime community organizer, has been gone for 10 years, yet her accomplishments in the communities she loved are still lauded and taught to a new generation. Klein's comment — "This is who [community organizers] are: they are the people who won this election" — was a balm.
Julie Yugend-Green, OAK PARK, ILL., U.S.

The Race Factor
I was incredulous at T.D. Jakes' statement that "most blacks have not been blinded by race" [Nov. 17]. Virtually every black man, woman and child who has been interviewed has plainly stated the positive impact a black candidate had on mobilizing the black community to vote and become involved. I am a middle-aged white woman who voted for Obama because I believe him to be the best candidate. I do not pretend to empathize with the pain of racism, but to tell whites that Obama's race didn't have that much to do with why blacks voted the way they did is what is really "disingenuous." Am I not allowed to also hope for an end to racism and its effects? I may not have suffered from them directly, but my country has and does.
Jennifer Mather, FLINT, MICH., U.S.

As a non-U.S. resident I think that Obama is an excellent choice for President. In January you will have a mixed-race President for a mixed-race country. This sounds ideal. But why do so many people speak of a "black" President? The fact that Obama's father was black does not make him black. I wonder how many people in Kenya are celebrating because they now have a white President (because his mother was white). None, I suspect.
David Burdett, YORKSHIRE, ENGLAND

Winds of change are blasting. First, Kofi Annan became the first African Secretary-General of the United Nations, and now Obama is the first African-American President of the United States. My pride is not because these men are African like me, it's because mankind now sees the folly of racism, and people are judged not by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. Stories like Obama's make people see the greatness of America. America's greatness is not projected when she attacks pariah states which do not threaten her and I am confident that President-elect Obama holds this view.
Kodwo Amissah Benyi, LOUIS TRICHARDT, SOUTH AFRICA

Heartland Heartache
I am a libertarian and can't abide free government handouts, so I agree to an extent with Michael Grunwald's argument for farm-bill revision [Nov. 17]. However, I must contest some of his findings. He states, "The median farmer's net worth is five times the median American's." Of course it is — farmers own tons of acres; but let's see you try to operate your business when all that net worth is tied up in land. In addition, he claims, "the biofuel boom is also jacking up the price of grain." Yet the price of corn has fallen at least 50% since its peak. Revising the bill is a good idea, but in doing so, we must realize that we will make food more expensive, since some farms will go broke. Sometimes these issues aren't so black and white.
Matthew Bernhardt, LINCOLN, NEB., U.S.

Proud to Be ... You and Me
Pico Iyer's essay in which he says the U.S. needs to be "in tune" with the rest of the world was quite apt [Nov. 17]. A little over a month ago, while my family and I were having dinner in Coullier, France, and discussing the upcoming election, a British woman overheard us, and very seriously she told us, "The whole world is watching." I regarded the statement as a little overdramatic until I saw how the international community reacted when Obama was elected. I now look back on that night in France and on the night of Nov. 4 and realize that this country has demonstrated to itself and to the rest of the world that it has taken another step toward fulfilling its great potential on a global stage.
Charles Dunn, BEACON, N.Y., U.S.

Iyer arrives at one incorrect conclusion. I have traveled to more than 90 nations. The global disapproval has not been aimed at Americans as individuals but, rightly, at the U.S. government.
Roland Bunch, PALO ALTO, CALIF., U.S.

The Sole of the Man
TIME photographer Callie Shell defined the American ethos with her poignant photograph of the soles of Obama's shoes [Nov. 17]. Lots of us have many pairs that look just like his, whether because of pounding the pavement looking for a job or simply walking to one's place of employment because gas is unaffordable. The photograph also defined what Obama stands for: hard work, determination and never giving up.
Melissa Clarke, BEAR, DEL., U.S.

As TIME's photographer on Obama's campaign trail, Shell must have taken hundreds of pictures. What a shame that in your feature "Obama's Journey" you used two photos that had been printed previously. Weren't there any others available?
Gill Green, KFAR SAVA, ISRAEL

Trout-Fishing
As a recreational trout fisherman for some years, and a regular visitor to the Dullstroom waters referred to in Alex Perry's article "The Cull of the Wild," I must take issue [Oct.27]. It is rainbow trout, not brown trout, that are the dominant species in most dams and rivers throughout Mpumalanga. Secondly, as both species almost never breed in still water such as dams, these dams (as well as most fished rivers) have to be stocked on a regular basis on a "put and take" basis. Stocking is an expensive exercise, and usually the club or farmer involved has to either raise purchased fingerlings to a suitable size (due to the cannibalistic nature of trout) or stock with a suitably sized fish which will not be taken by larger fish or birds. Regarding the "poisoning the trout in its lakes and rivers" statement, it is true that the government has introduced the nem:ba Act, in which the Federation of Southern African Flyfishers has been involved on a consultative basis. A pilot scheme has been put in place on an 18-km stretch of a trout stream in the Western Cape in this regard. The idea of "lakes, dams and rivers overflowing" with trout (of any species) is in itself ludicrous, and the idea of poisoning them in dams is equally so, as simply not restocking these contained waters would ensure the trout just disappeared.
Rod Leech, SANDTON, SOUTH AFRICA

Overlooked History
Like many articles about the history of the U.S., Ishaan Tharoor's piece about the writer Washington Irving's setting for his stories in the Hudson Valley makes it sound like Native Americans never existed [Nov. 3]. Why is it that the media so often neglect them as if they were not humans, and imply instead that the Europeans were the first to walk and talk in America? Just because the Indians did not write with Latin letters does not mean they should be omitted from the record.
Douglas Eivind Hall, FUENGIROLA, SPAIN

Lost America
Regarding America's lost leadership role: America could probably regain a measure of moral authority if only it showed an inclination toward accountability [Nov. 3]. Taking a country to war, motivated by imperialism and profit, with a casus belli of fabricated evidence and lies is a monstrous crime. It is naive to think that Bush would ever stand trial, but Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and others could. This would show the world that America does not, in fact, always act with impunity. However, in reality, we have yet to hear any kind of admission or apology from the Administration in its waning days, and the Pentagon's attitude toward the civilian casualties caused by its troops leaves a lot to be desired. Without actively seeking moral (and legal) accountability, both retrospectively and looking to the future, America will never regain the trust and authority it has lost.
Barry Meggs, DUBLIN

Obama Victory
The new agenda facing Obama couldn't have been better summed up than by Michael Grunwald's five crucial steps [Nov. 17]. Obama's victory has the hallmarks of a landslide, even though, with 52% of the popular vote and a turnout of 64%, less than a third of the U.S. population actually voted for him. But this is still much more than most previous Presidents could claim, and with majorities in Congress and the Senate, there will be no excuse for not having the back-up for even the most daring new legislation. But a word of warning: Obama will not have the luxury of starting his "first 100 days" on Jan. 20, 2009. He will have to start making his presence felt during the transitional period. The electoral mantra "Yes we can" will quickly have to be replaced by a new mantra: "Yes we will."
Karl H. Pagac, VILLENEUVE-LOUBET, FRANCE

I wonder how a man who uttered almost no word of substance during a two-year campaign for President became the world's obsession. Maybe it's precisely this absence of any clear stance (that's flexibility in Obamaspeak) and an abundance of phrases like "hope," "brotherhood" and "change" that "inspires" people to project all their wishes onto Barack Obama. It looks more and more like a cult of personality: T shirts, magazine covers, TV shows, posters accompanied by propagandistic slogans declaring Obama prophet, messiah, revolutionary. We've seen it all before. Change? Sounds more like business as usual.
Gerhard Moser, INNSBRUCK AUSTRIA

• Ladies in the House; Hey, Rudy: Organize This!; The Race Factor