Letters to the Editor
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

‘Veterans Day’
I love The New York Sun and read it cover to cover. Every now and then a specific article or editorial prompts me to write to you – such as “Veterans Day” by Senator Robert Dole and Captain Lonnie Moore [Opinion, November 10, 2005].
I am so appreciative for the introduction to the America Supports You Web site and spent a good hour glued to this well executed, user friendly, and – dare I say – patriotic Web site which provides so many practical and tangible ways to support our troops around the world as well as many of the less fortunate citizens of these war beleaguered countries.
My family and I are especially excited at the prospect of using this weekend to pack school kits for the Iraqi school children through the Operation Iraqi Children program – just one of the many worthwhile causes linked to this Web site. As a mother of a 7-year-old daughter, I am grateful to have such a timely and age appropriate means of teaching my child something about our good fortune as American citizens, our civic responsibilities to others, and the meaning of Veterans Day.
Thank you for publishing this well timed article.
ANDREA GRIFFIS INGLIS
Manhattan
‘France’s Balance Sheet’
It is interesting, apropos the recent rioting in France, how many theories have been hatched to account for it. On French television the other evening, a Michel Foucault look-a-like – a sociologist specializing in troubled youth – explained that the root of the problem was car envy [“France Facing ‘Horrendous’ Balance Sheet,” Michel Gurfinkiel, Page 1, November 8, 2005]. On American television, another French sociologist gave as his theory that the cause of the rioting was Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy’s use of the good old French word, racaille, which has been translated on English and American television as scum. (The more accurate translation would be rabble, or riff-raff.) Still others incline to the Rodney Dangerfield explanation: The young of the Islamic ghettos are rioting because they get no respect. This is the explanation that President Chirac and Prime Minister de Villepin seem to credit. But are they right? I wonder if they’ve considered a far simpler theory and yet one which might explain a good deal. It comes from Noel Coward, and it’s summed up in a song he sang in a revue called “Ace of Clubs” in the 1950s, which includes this immortal lyric:
Three juvenile delinquents, Juvenile delinquents, Happy as can be – we Waste no time On the wherefores and whys of it We like crime And that’s about the size of it … Mental doctors try to civilize us, Psychoanalyze us, Blimey what a game! They don’t know how to treat us, For if they should beat us That would never do. When they say, “Go steady!”
We’ve the answer ready:
_____ And the same to you!
Coward’s theory may not have the sparkle or the elan of the French theories, alas, he never went to university – but it does come with a song and a smile and it shows exemplary respect for the usages of polite society by inserting a decorous blank where the interior minister might use something altogether less polite. In any case, I commend it to Mr. Chirac and his hapless ministers. If nothing else, it will give them something to sing while Paris burns. The tune of the song is remarkably catchy.
EDWARD SHORT
Woodside, N.Y.
‘Port Authority Is Held Liable’
The jury’s conclusion (regarding the 1993 World Trade Center attack) that the Port Authority was 68% liable as opposed to the terrorists being 32% liable is laughable at best. How many concrete barriers or security guards could have prevented the September 11 attack? This is just another example of a legal system run amok [“Port Authority Is Held Liable in Bombing That Killed Six in 1993 Attack on WTC,” David Lombino, Page 1, October 27, 2005].
Also, regarding President Bush’s decision to reinstate the Davis-Bacon rules for the Katrina cleanup, as proud as I was of him for standing up to labor unions and their minions when he originally suspended the rules that is how I am now disappointed to read that he now caved in [“Bush Administration To Reinstate Prevailing Wages on Katrina Contracts,” National, October 27, 2005].
Any objective person would agree that a cleanup of such a magnitude which the federal government (yes, that is us, the taxpayers) can’t afford as it is, should at the very least be done in the most cost-effective way. To any objective observer, anyway.
HENRY GELB
Brooklyn
‘Bush Is Back’
Despite liberal attempts to belittle the nickname “Scalito” (by which Judge Alito is known by some) and use it derisively, we consider any resemblance and comparison to Associate Justice Antonin Scalia to be a major plus, just as we consider Senator Schumer’s whining criticism of Judge Alito, to be proof positive that President Bush has picked the right man for the job [“Bush Is Back” Editorial, November 1, 2005].
GENE COSGRIFF
Staten Island
Mr. Cosgriff is the Staten Island Right to Life Committee public relations representative.
‘Smoking & Civilized Commute’
What a perfect heading for your front-page story about the ferry exhibit at the Staten Island Museum.
“Smoking as Part of a Civilized Commute” reminds us how far we’ve fallen from such civilized times [“On the Water,” Drawing by Cecil C. Bell, November 8, 2005].
Human beings have enjoyed tobacco for thousands of years, long before advertising, big tobacco companies, and now, nattering scolds who demand that we stop enjoying this remarkable plant. We’ve let the prohibitionists win. It’s a shame.
GIDEON FOUNTAIN
Greenwich, Conn.
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