Letters to the Editor

Appoint a Gore-led panel for action on global warming

In response to your Oct. 16 editorial, "Gore as peacemaker in Congress": Al Gore should indeed work with Congress on global warming and national energy policy. However, Congress itself has to act.

The creation of a bipartisan Commission on Global Warming with Mr. Gore as its chair would be one way to start. Form this commission now, while the Nobel Prize is still in the news.

The commission would report to Congress in early 2009.

This would secure global warming as a major item for the next Congress, regardless of who wins the election.

The commission's work would continue outside the fray of hyperpartisan rhetoric of election-year politics.

With two members from the House and Senate on the commission and Gore, with his extensive government experience, such a report could submit nearly "bill-ready" proposals for immediate congressional debate and action.

The United States would finally join the international community and move away from the denial and obstructionism of the Bush administration.

Gore should continue to resist the temptation to endorse a candidate or run for president.

Congress needs to lead by joining the large majority of Americans who want immediate action on global warming. Appoint Gore to head a commission on global warming.

Roger Chambers
Utica, N.Y.

Recognize all episodes of slaughter

In response to the Oct. 18 article, "How 'genocide' vote lost steam": For seven years I have lived and worked in Turkey and I have heard all sides of the Armenian genocide question.

My Turkish friends, colleagues, and students agonize over this issue constantly.

Of course the Turks are caught on their own interpretation of the word "genocide" and their understanding of what happened in 1915.

What puzzles me is why the US Congress does not put all the major events of mass slaughter together into a single bill of recognition.

They could start with the mass killing of native Americans and the massacre of noncombatants in Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Dresden by Americans during World War II.

And let us not forget the million Circassians that the Russians killed at the end of the 19th century. Or the Gulags. Or Bloody Sunday.

Why do we only remember the massacres of groups that have powerful lobbies in the constituencies of US congressmen?

Livingston Merchant
Ankara, Turkey

Senior lecturer, Bilkent University

Interfaith dialogue can work

In response to the Oct. 15 article, "Moderate Muslims speak – to Christians": Thank you so much for publishing this article.

It and the letter it refers to are inspiring to us all.

Muslims and Christians will make progress in finding common ground, and thereby peace, as they look to their respective scriptures.

I love the last paragraph: "They aren't bringing in the historical baggage," Esposito says. "They're saying, 'Let's look at our scriptures, and the fact that our two traditions share in a common love for God and neighbor, and then let's build from that.' It's brilliant."

Rachel Robertson
Fremont, Calif.

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