On ‘Good Mourning, Baltimore’ “There’s no way to measure the damage the great TV series ‘The Wire’ has done to our city. The pessimistic view belies reality. Baltimore’s problems with poverty and crime are real, to be sure, but no different from other major U.S. cities.” Richard R. Espey Baltimore, MD.
A Voice for Change We Iowans examined the presidential candidates for months, and the majority of us turned out in record numbers to support Sen. Barack Obama (“Inside Obama’s Dream Machine,” Jan. 14). We’re behind him because he is not like any other candidate and because he is the one who can lead us to a new America. Our country hungers for fundamental change. Obama’s unique experience as a community organizer, as a constitutional lawyer, as a legislator who brings people together, as a man of courage who spoke out against the invasion of Iraq—plus his ability to lead—make him our best hope. Cathy Bolkcom Leclaire, Iowa
I’m 23 years old and I heard much about John F. Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sen. Robert Kennedy when I was growing up, but for me they exist only in stories. I’ve never seen an American political figure who connected to me to their extent, or one I’ve found so inspiring. In the last election, I knew the candidates and their positions and voted for John Kerry. I’ve been working in China for a year now and have been following this election intently. However, I’ve decided that if Barack Obama wins the Democratic nomination, I will fly back and work for his general campaign in whichever swing state and in whatever capacity necessary. I can’t explain how I feel about Obama or what’s brought on this change in attitude. But I think I’m beginning to understand what those stories were all about. Karlo Dizon Shanghai, China
I worked in John and Ted Kennedy’s campaigns. Barack Obama is no Kennedy. He is an inexperienced senator: long on lip, short on accomplishment. We elected a “likable” president seven years ago, and close to 70 percent of us live in daily regret and hardship for that monumental mistake. In a time when Iran threatens, AT&T and Countrywide falter and recession looms, Hillary Clinton alone manifests the experience and unmitigated toughness to see this country through the threats ahead. Fran Natale Parente Clark, N.J.
Forget all the infighting over who said what—it’s politics. What Democrats want to know is: will the Obama campaign promise to go after the GOP in the general election when attacked, and with a vengeance? Barack Obama’s campaign is about change, hope, staying above the fight and taking the high road. I don’t think it is going to fight back immediately and be as vicious as the GOP. If that is the case, voters will run screaming from the Obama campaign to Hillary Clinton. No one wants a repeat of the John Kerry Swift Boat episode. Stephen Moore Snohomish, Wash.
Those who cannot make a substantive case against Barack Obama for president charge him with being naive. Anyone who believes that a former state legislator who became a senator from Illinois is naive knows nothing of the rough-and-tumble politics of that state. Obama is no political neophyte. After only a few years in the Senate, he is known for being able to work effectively with members from both sides of the aisle. He’s a skilled politician with character, integrity and vision, a phenomenon in U.S. politics. Geraldine Beckford New York, N.Y.
Commitment to Marriage? Bonnie Eslinger tells us she does not need “a piece of paper from the state” to strengthen her commitment to her partner (“Yes to Love, No to Marriage,” My Turn, Jan. 14). That piece of paper, however, represents one of society’s rituals that hold us together. Do we need a piece of paper that says we have been educated before it’s true? Do we require a document from the state to prove we’re alive? It’s not the paper, it’s the ritualistic and accepted process it makes tangible and legal. Is Jeff just some guy Bonnie is living with, or is he someone she is committed to and whose children will have the legal stature afforded to those of a marriage—insurance, citizenship, inheritance? John Gholdston Cedar City, Utah
I read Bonnie Eslinger’s essay with the smile of someone older and wiser. My first marriage lasted 32 years, and then I lived with someone for six years. I too experienced “intense, affirming love.” But when he died, the consequences of shacking up hit home hard. No matter what conventional wisdom says these days, the reality is that most family and friends are uncomfortable with this kind of prolonged uncommitted relationship. I married again four years ago. The comfort, security and honorable, lasting love that can grow out of marriage cannot be compared with the uncertain outcome of an uncommitted love. Eslinger should accept Jeff’s proposal while the offer is still good. Susan Thompson Bakersfield, Calif.
As wife to a partner with whom I lived for six years prior to marriage, I appreciate Bonnie Eslinger’s belief that a marriage license is not a requirement for true love and intimacy. However, Eslinger overlooks the legal rights and protections marriage offers, such as ensuring government benefits like Social Security and the right to make medical decisions if the other partner is incapacitated. And while I support marriage rights for homosexuals, this should not impede heterosexual couples from allowing themselves the securities and safeguards that marriage provides. Ayne Ray Austin, Texas
Measuring How Smart a Child Is I read your article on parents’ obsession in pushing their children to be “gifted” with a combination of bemusement and sadness (“They’re No Baby Einsteins,” Jan. 14). I was home-schooled in rural Maine and spent the first 10 years of my life running around in fields and playing with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle action figures. What sort of underachieving life has my intellectually deprived upbringing given me? Well, by middle school I had started to get more serious about academics, and I am now a senior at MIT. Parents should calm down and tell their young kids to go play. Jamie B. Edwards Cambridge, Mass.
Possible Perils of Baby Bottles As a nurse who educates expectant and new parents, I feel that the concern over BPA, a chemical found in many plastic baby bottles, is legitimate, especially when parents are microwaving these bottles to warm baby’s milk (“The Baby Bottle Blues,” Jan. 14). Whether the chemical leaches out in amounts that are harmful to an infant seems debatable, but why take the chance? While it’s great that consumers have driven the market to produce alternatives, such as glass and BPA-free bottles, why not mention an even safer, more ecofriendly option than expensive bottles—namely, breast-feeding. This is a great option for parents who will accept nothing but the very best for their baby. Molly Veltz, R.N., B.S.N. St. Louis, Mo.
What May Well Be TV ’ s Best Drama It may indeed be the case that “The Wire” has been overlooked or ignored by Hollywood (“Good Mourning, Baltimore,” Jan. 14). But it is certainly worth noting that the second season (2003) of this outstanding series was honored with a George Foster Peabody Award, the oldest award for electronic media in the world and, for many, the most prestigious. The citation accompanying the award reads, in part, “The intensity of the series rises not so much from crimes committed and solved as from the moral struggles faced by those people whose entire lives are being transformed.” The show’s relentless critical dramatization of America’s urban crises has remained central to the series. Horace Newcomb,Director George Foster Peabody Awards University of Georgia Athens, Ga.
Corrections An item in the Periscope section of the Jan. 21 issue mischaracterized New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s use of the phrase “shuck and jive” as a direct reference to the political style of Sen. Barack Obama. In fact, Cuomo, a Hillary Clinton supporter, was speaking in broad terms about how candidates interact with voters in Iowa and New Hampshire, according to a review of the transcript by The New York Times.
In “The Pilot vs. The preacher” (Jan. 14), we said that former John McCain political consultant Mike Murphy had once been a Navy pilot. In fact, he has never been a Navy pilot, nor has he ever served in the armed forces. NEWSWEEK regrets the errors.
