Letters to the Editor 6/19

Amidst the Horror, Goodness Still Shines
Editor, Times-Dispatch: When the United States Memorial Holocaust Museum opened in 1993, the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City had not been bombed and 9/11 had not taken place. Terrorist acts had not come to America yet. However, when I went to visit the museum, I noticed something different from any other museum I had ever toured. There were traffic barriers out front, security cameras, metal detectors, X-ray machines, and armed guards. I thought to myself, why does this museum need so much security?

Part of the mission statement of the museum states the following objectives: "confront hatred, prevent genocide, promote human dignity, and strengthen democracy." All of these seem like worthwhile goals to me. Then the answer to my question became crystal clear. The museum documents the "Final Solution" to the Jewish question and there are still people out there who wish Hitler had been successful. They still deny facts and are motivated by blind hatred. Unfortunately, one of these people attacked the museum recently and killed guard Stephen Johns.

When the news broke, I was filled with anger toward the gunman. Then I looked at all the rescue workers and the police officers helping people. It reminded me of the room at the end of the museum tour that allows people to reflect on the horror they have seen while looking at the many monuments to our freedom in this wonderful country of ours. I decided then to shift my focus. The good in people will always outshine the evil in others.

Martin Plotkin.
Richmond.

Republicans, Democrats, independents, and "we the people" need to hold him to his word on that matter.

Paul Magill Smith.
Richmond.

The examples Little gave of people who did not use torture in eliciting information from the enemy are fine -- maybe. (For example, Orin Deforrest, the CIA agent, who did not use torture in Vietnam because his subjects knew that if they did not cooperate they would be turned over to the South Vietnamese who would.) There are plenty of cases where torture was used to make the "enemy" talk and the information was extremely valuable. As an aside, why would Abu Zubaydah be tortured if he was providing "good" information? It sounds suspiciously like the individual making the claim that Zubaydah was cooperating until torture was used has a personal agenda to serve in making a statement that cannot be confirmed. (We will not know the answer to this conundrum unless the transcripts and records of what he divulged are made available and include under what conditions he divulged the information.)

The point here is to try to end this political discussion on torture. This issue, like global warming, has become politicized and truth has consequently suffered. I am not advocating the widespread use of torture; it should and must be used in extreme cases. Does anyone believe the Obama administration -- or any administration -- would not use torture if it had someone in custody who it knew or suspected had information that would avert an attack within the U.S. that could result in thousands of deaths? Would anyone like to be the president who had to stand up in front of the nation and families of the dead and say he did not use every means to avert the attack?

Andrew M. Brantley.
Williamsburg.

I grew up in New York City -- so, yes, I was living with a lot of different nationalities, and yes, they called each other funny names -- but we were all Americans. I have no idea what the background of FDR (the first president I remember) was, or most of the other public officials to whom I have been exposed since that time.

Why, all of a sudden (the past few years), have we become a country full of descriptive adjectives? American politicians are -- or should be -- Americans. The country they or their families came from is not why I elect or listen to them. The people they are, what they accomplish, what they believe, and what they are doing (or will do) for their country is why I put them in a position where they can make decisions for the rest of us. Am I missing something?

Pat Lorimer.
Richmond.