A Final Farewell
As I followed John F. Kennedy Jr.’s burial at sea and his family’s grief (“America’s Sad Goodbye,” Special Report, Aug. 2), it made me think that the national obsession with his death was not so much with John Jr. as it was with his father, and not so much with his father as it was with the last days of American idealism. Layne Marshal Campbell River, British Columbia
First, and most simply, we loved John Jr. because we loved his father. But even more important, the decade of the 1960s was so seminal for late-20th-century history, so incredibly wounding for Americans as a people, that JFK Jr.’s death has reopened that national wound, a wound that comprises not only JFK’s assassination but those of his brother and of Martin Luther King Jr., the Vietnam War, the Nixon presidency and a total loss of trust in America’s national institutions. Linda Regensburger Westminster, Colorado
I’d like to thank Ellis Cose for his eloquent message in “The Trouble With Virtual Grief” (Special Report, Aug. 2). I take no issue with the fact that people might feel sympathy for a grieving family, or that we have a very real capacity to grieve through a secondary experience. The concept of virtual grief is what I find truly disturbing. How can I shed a tear for Carolyn Bessette Kennedy after holding my weeping friend whose mother has just been diagnosed with cancer? Do we need to grieve so desperately that we’ll shed tears over beautiful strangers in order to experience some cathartic release? Tracy McGillis San Francisco, California
Ellis Cose makes an unfair criticism of what he calls “virtual grief.” Our grief in response to the death of a gentle young man who could have been our son, husband or brother is neither hollow nor virtual. It is a foreshadowing of what will happen in our own lives and forces us to think about our very existence and that of our family and closest friends. Adrienne G. Cannon Alexandria, Virginia
The world grieved for John F. Kennedy Jr.? I felt compassion for his family over his sudden and tragic passing, but I certainly did not grieve, nor did the rest of the world, as far as I know. Helen Michelle Lam Hong Kong
More than virtual grief, maybe it is an expression of the hope that President Kennedy gave to so many people around the world that his son was carrying. Now it is lost with JFK Jr.’s death. Dominique Michelin Embrun, France
Complementing Classes
In your article “Who Cares About the Chattering Classes?” (Europe, Aug. 2) you say that the British government is meeting its class-size pledge without providing “the extra funding needed to build enough new classrooms or hire enough new teachers.” In fact, we are already funding 1,600 new classrooms and an extra 4,000 teachers from this September, with more of each next year. The result is that in net terms, an extra 12,000 places will be provided for children in popular and oversubscribed schools–increasing, not reducing, parental choice. Estelle Morris, M.P. School Standards Minister
London, England
Wanted: A Church for Our Times
Thanks for the excellent interview with Leonardo Boff (“A Priest and His Message” Interview, June 28). He correctly points out that “the great theme of our day is not about the future of Christianity or the future of the church, but the fate of the planet, and of humankind. Christianity ought to have something to say about this.” We stand on the edge of a new millennium, asking afresh the fundamental questions of life and death. But the Christian Church is absorbed by in-house concerns. It is fiddling while the world burns. Tan Soo Inn Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
A Pakistani Perspective
Tony Clifton’s report “Bloody Reward” (News of the Week, July 19) is biased against Pakistan and distorts the facts. He creates the impression that the freedom fighters (termed “Pakistanis”) suffered massive casualties compared with the Indians. It has been widely acknowledged by military observers that India’s forces suffered a humiliating blow at the hands of a few hundred ill-equipped but highly motivated freedom fighters during the recent conflict. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s efforts to avert a full-scale war with India, and to find an enduring solution to the thorny Kashmir issue, are characterized as weakness. The word “begged” to describe the Pakistani government’s efforts to arrange a meeting between the prime minister and President Clinton was disturbing, and the protocol that the prime minister received in Washington, including President Clinton’s call on him at Blair House, was not mentioned. Azmat Ali Ranjha Consul General, Islamic Republic of Pakistan Hong Kong
The Defining Moment
I’m troubled by the essay “The Legacy of Generation N” (U.S. Affairs, July 12). The moment when American men learn how to dance or when McDonald’s serves Big Macs with rice and beans is not “pivotal.” A pivotal moment for me was experiencing the live broadcast last January on a Spanish-language network of the president’s State of the Union address, in lieu of the regularly scheduled Spanish-language soap opera. Candidates may speak in Spanish, but unless we insist on viewing translated debates and reading political-platform analysis in Spanish-languages magazines, we have no one to blame for our condition but ourselves. We have a responsibility to educate ourselves on the issues that affect us. E. Achile Via Internet
