Quotes of the Day
Lessons from Flight 253
The recent attempted attack on Flight 253 gave me a feeling of déjà vu [Jan. 11]. The information about the suspect was available; U.S. agencies didn't coordinate. Wasn't the Department of Homeland Security created precisely to prevent such situations?
Adam Brostow
Emmaus, Pa., U.S.
The best thing we can do is increase security and intelligence — but in a way that makes sense. Having to sit for part of a flight will simply mean an adjustment in plans for a terrorist. And if we focus too much on Afghanistan, where our intelligence agencies say there are only 100 or so al-Qaeda operatives, we run the risk of taking our eyes off the prize and playing into the hands of the forces we are trying to defeat.
Roland Nicholson Jr.
Mont-Tremblant, Canada
Sept. 11 was certainly a tragedy, yet more people are killed on our highways each month or two than were killed on that day. One deadly airplane crash is about a day's worth of highway fatalities. Maybe the press should cover highway safety more and rare incidents less. We'd all be safer.
Bill Koch
Pittsburgh, Pa., U.S.
Let's Get Practical
I wanted to stand on my rooftop and read out Amanda Ripley's "Please Remain Standing" with a bullhorn [Jan. 11]. Not only is our climate of victimization mocked by our enemies, it gives our government justification for spending more and gives us another reason to feel powerless. Terrorists perceive and want to exploit us as soft, arrogant, self-righteous targets. Ripley's article shows us how, despite heroism by the likes of Jasper Schuringa, our government is still happy to oblige them. When did being proactive become so politically incorrect?
William Gilchrist
Whittier, Calif., U.S.
Thank you, Ms. Ripley! I am grateful to law enforcement, but members of the public need to realize they also have working minds and bodies — something folks like those on Flight 253 have shown us time and again.
Courtney Schaefer
Maple Grove, Minn., U.S.
While I applaud the courage of the passengers on Flight 253, the government has no choice but to adopt a paternalistic approach. It cannot step up security without risking invasions of privacy. Nor can it place its trust in the public and risk another calamity for which it will be blamed.
Eric Chang
Owego, N.Y., U.S.
Madam Chancellor, You Look Marvelous!
I was jarred by some of the descriptions of the German Chancellor in "Merkel's Moment" [Jan. 11]. While the article does a nice job of summing up Angela Merkel's rise through the sexist ranks of German politics, it contradicts itself by using such outdated gender stereotypes as diminutive, frail and kittenish to describe the first female Chancellor of Germany. Though subtle, this sort of language is damaging. One step forward, three steps back. And to think, the writer is a woman.
Kate Karczewski
Chicago
Dumb Is as Dumb Does
Re Verbatim [Jan. 11]: Before attacking General Anthony Cucolo in Iraq as "dumb" for dictating that female soldiers who become pregnant — and the male soldiers who impregnate them — be punished, perhaps National Organization for Women president Terry O'Neill should have studied military law. It prohibits male and female service members from having sex in a combat zone. Accountability may be a foreign word to O'Neill, but it's not to the vast majority of our brave servicemen and -women.
Major Paul Johnson, U.S. Marine Corps
Crofton, Md., U.S.
The Jury's Still Out
Your naming Ben Bernanke as Person of the Year reminds me of the Nobel Peace Prize given to President Obama: both men are being congratulated in advance of any results [Dec. 28 [EN] Jan 4]. Don't forget that Bernanke could be wrong, and then we might find the medication is worse than the illness. The final judgment will not come for a couple of years.
Jean Claude Pivot
Vourles, France
