WHAT AILS US

Regarding Krestia DeGeorge’s two-part series with CornellUniversity urban planning professors
Rolf Pendall and Susan Christopherson (“Ailing in Upstate,” October
27, November 3):

            Professor
Pendall hits the nail right on the head by saying: “Why is it so necessary
for Syracuse and Rochester to compete with each other? They really are within
the same economic region. The fate of Syracuse is the fate of Rochester and
vice versa.”

            Yes,
indeed, and Buffalo and the smaller cities of western and central New York as
well. This is the reason that two organizations — the Power of Three and Advance
Upstate — were formed as collaborations of different business, government,
and economic-development organizations from all three metro areas of the
region. Hopefully, they and their member organizations can continue working
together for the betterment of the three cities and the surrounding region.

            The
possibilities in this are endless.

            Kevin F. Yost, Middle Road, Rush

DOES BUSH READ THE LIST?

Thank you for publishing the weekly Body Count. I strongly urge
all readers to read those names and ages to themselves each week. They will
begin to realize how young these soldiers were and how they came from all over America
to fight in a tragic war that serves no useful purpose for the United
States.

            I wonder if
George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Donald Rumsfeld read the same list. If they do, I
don’t know how they can live with their conscience and continue to pursue their
war policy.

            These young
people will never have the opportunity to raise a family, pursue a non-military
career, have grandchildren, or grow old gracefully. How sad!

            Kenneth Hendel, Tall Tree Drive, Penfield

COUNTING LIVES

First, thank you for giving space to the Body Count each
week. I feel compelled to read the entire list, mainly for place names. My home
state of Maine has the
third-highest number of active-duty reservists in the nation.

            It is
difficult not to pause at each name and wonder about the person’s past — and
the future that might have been. The age of each demands attention: Most are
between 19 and 24.

            Second, in
“Fight Back! Rice, No; Gonzales, No!” (Urban Journal, November 17), you make it
clear why Condoleezza Rice should not be secretary of state and Alberto
Gonzales should never be attorney general.

            Let us hope
that your prediction about the senate agreeing to both nominations proves
wrong. How could anyone who heard Condi avoiding questions from the 9/11
Commission ever expect leaders of foreign countries to believe her? Considering
Mr. Gonzales’s past advice to President Bush, how can anyone expect his future
advice to be any better?

            Finally, do
Mr. Bush and his cabinet members read the body count provided by the Department
of Defense? Do they consider how they would feel if one of the dead, or merely
maimed, was a relative? I guess it would make no difference. Gotta stay the
course, no matter who dies.

            Byrna Weir, Chelmsford Road, Brighton

PACE AND POP

Thanks for Jennifer Loviglio’s most recent column (“Read It
and Sweeps,” The XX Files, November 17). The POV is always fun, but for me it’s
the writing”: just excellent. Pace, pop, and the occasional snarl makes her
work one of the few must reads in Rochester.

            Tom Burke, Birch Crescent, Rochester

WHO COUNTS?

I enjoyed Jennifer Loviglio’s article on the Nielsen surveys
(“Read It and Sweeps,” November 17), but one thing was not noted: If you live
in a nursing home, you will not be eligible to be counted.

            Another
question: As the US government debt is rapidly increasing, will we eventually
encounter the same problem that Germany
did in the early 1920’s when it tried to pay off the massive debt from World
War I reparations and was caught in overwhelming inflation?

            Bernard A.Yablin, Winton Road South, Brighton

WRITING TO CITY

We welcome and encourage readers’ letters for publication.
Send them to: themail@rochester-citynews.com or The Mail, City Newspaper, 250
North Goodman Street, Rochester14607.

            Our
guidelines: We don’t publish anonymous letters — and we ask that you include
your street name and city/town/village. We don’t publish letters that have been
sent to other media. While we don’t restrict length, letters of under 350 words
have a greater chance of being published. We do edit letters for clarity and
brevity. And in general we don’t publish letters (or longer “op-ed” pieces)
from the same writer more often than about once every two months.

This article appears in Dec 1-7, 2004.