Letters to the editor 

To The Editors:

Thank you, David Walters ("A City for Learning," October 12) for pointing out that I and tens of thousands of other University area residents are living in a "dystopia" of ugliness that's "typical of the tawdriness of our throw-away consumer society." I had no idea I was raising my children in the "wastelands" of suburban isolation, let alone reinforcing in them the "societal mindset that clings to this community-sapping sprawl."

Now that you've enlightened me, I feel kind of silly for moving here after spending 13 years in the greater Boston area (the urban and educational mecca which you never tire of visiting).

I guess I was snookered by the opportunity to escape Boston's soul-crushing rat race, nasty winters, horrendous rush-hour commutes, impossibly high cost of living (housing, day care, insurance, transportation) and other benefits of world-class city living.

What was I thinking? How could I have made a conscious choice to give all that up in exchange for University City's "sea of suburban schlock"? I mean, now that you've opened my eyes, it's so damn obvious that things like affordable housing, a backyard, friendly neighbors, quality elementary schools, excellent medical facilities, a terrific library, convenient parks and recreational opportunities -- all within a 30-minute commute of downtown Charlotte -- add up to nothing more than a "nowhere land." The hardest part is going to be explaining to my children how lousy their life is after all, since we live in University City. "Sorry, kids. Turns out this sucks. David Walters said so."

Pete Moore

Charlotte

No Historical Perspective From Media

To The Editors:

In the wake of September 11, I'm struck by the lack of real information coming to us from our mainstream press on events past and present in Afghanistan. We can start by looking at the 1980s and 90s when the Soviets were fighting their version of Vietnam in Afghanistan. During this little Soviet-Afghan war, the United States sent more than $4 billion in lethal weapons and training to seven different Afghan resistance groups. The war against the Soviets and their successor, President Najibullah, claimed 1.5 million lives and savaged Afghanistan's economy, but throughout, US media portrayed the mujaheddin (Taliban) as "freedom fighters," no matter how anti-democratic or anti-female they may have been.

The Taliban have been called Islamic fundamentalists by everyone from Peter Jennings to Oprah. In fact, they are far from being a traditional Islamic state. The religious schools the Taliban came from developed out of a 19th Century movement founded in India that rejects many fundamentalist texts and teachings of Islam. The 55-nation Organization of Islamic Conferences has withheld recognition of the regime.

Throughout the recent media orgy, reporters have yet to follow the lead of Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), a Republican administration veteran who says the US bears responsibility for fostering the extremism in Afghanistan. Osama bin Laden was the recipient of a large chunk of that $4 billion in American tax dollars. So just as we did with Saddam, we coddled them, financed them, then when it suits us, turned them into evil ones, or should I say "evil doers"! It makes it extremely difficult keeping up with whom to hate from one year to the next!

What bin Laden or his group did was horrendous, and it's just as horrendous to deny us the right to gain perspective through knowledge of all the facts. As they've withheld so much information about our covert role in Afghanistan, don't you wonder what they haven't told you about our dealings in say, the Middle East? This kind of hate is not born of jealousy of our possessions and material wealth. We've left bloody footprints all around the globe, many for good reasons and many for bad; both sides of the story should be told, or how can we ever understand how someone could do something like what happened on September 11? So before giving the gift of hate, ask yourself who deserves that special gift that costs a person as much or more hurt to give it, as it does the person who receives it. And demand from our government and media the information necessary to make rational decisions after seeing the whole picture, not just enough of the story to make us jump and ask how high!

Kelly Pauley

York, SC

Where is Muslim Outrage?

To The Editors:

For all the preening blather about religious tolerance for the Muslim-Islamic community since the atrocities of September 11, there are some glaring inconsistencies. The evil of September 11 and the culturally imbedded violence against women perpetrated by Muslims dwarfs even the sickest imaginations in Hollywood, yet we are implored to differentiate -- the "peace loving" Muslims are somehow different from the more fervent Muslims who murder and maim "infidels" of other faiths. Yet they all read the same book -- the Quran.