Word: june
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...TIME's cover story on Sonia Sotomayor [June 8]: Richard Lacayo made a disparaging remark: "Nobody expects you to make it to Princeton when you come from a public-housing project." I grew up in the 1960s in a public-housing project in Brooklyn, N.Y. Although I did my graduate work at Georgetown not Princeton, several of the kids in our project did go on to Ivy League colleges. In fact, many of the kids I grew up with became doctors, lawyers, college professors, social workers and journalists. A lot of kids who grow up rich never learn to develop...
Thank Heaven for Gates Gates is a pragmatic professional. Al-Qaeda had already committed four separate acts of war against the U.S. before George W. Bush was sworn in [Gates Unbound, June 8]. The ideology-based policy of that incoming Administration downgraded the project to "get bin Laden," so FBI information about suspicious flying lessons stayed in the field until after 9/11. If counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarke had had such intel when it was fresh, there might have been time to figure out the plot and forestall the attacks. Novelist Tom Clancy, after all, published the idea in 1994. Unlike...
European Democracy I disagree with your article "Postcard: Utrecht" [June 8]. When people refuse to vote it is not necessarily a sign that democracy doesn't work. It is actually the other way round. Most people in Europe are not interested in removing political power from the national parliaments to the European parliament, where they have no influence over the decisions. This attitude actually strengthens democracy. Dennis Brinkeback, STOCKHOLM...
...Torture I welcome the "soft approach" to interrogation explored in your article "How to Make Terrorists Talk" [June 8]. Without empathy there can never be peace, and reporting has a role to play. "Hardened terrorist," "insurgent," "captive," "subject": it's a revealing exercise to read the piece replacing these terms with the word person. A person is easier to talk to - and you're much less inclined to waterboard him. Robert Maslen, BRADFORD, ENGLAND...
Health-Care Provision As an American who has lived in France for 20 years, I read "Health Lessons from Europe" with the usual delight and guilt-ridden schadenfreude typical of us expats who enjoy the health-care system here [June 1]. Fourteen years ago, I received a letter from the Sécurité Sociale informing me that I had to book a pelvic X-ray for my then newborn daughter - or risk losing out on future reimbursements and coverage. Several days later, when the results revealed everything to be normal, I asked the radiologist how many infants were diagnosed...