Top 10 Letters

*1*
It’s worth pointing out that the only reason we Boomers were so successful in screwing up the world is because there were so darn many of us (Joel Engel, No WE’RE the Greatest Generation). We overwhelmed every body else by numbers alone–certainly it wasn’t our half-baked, nonsensical ideas regarding morality or behavior. We opposed the Vietnam because it interfered with our partying; we supported abortion rights and non marital sexual relationships because we were spoiled brats who never learned to take responsibility for ourselves; we glorified drug and alcohol abuse because we couldn’t tolerate any kind of restrictions on our appetites, and our parents let us get away with all this nonsense because of all the suffering and heartbreak they had experienced during the Great Depression and World War II.

Our parents wanted to make life easier for us and let us avoid the sort of unhappiness they had to endure, and we ended up little more than neurotic materialists, drugged up, unable to make commitments beyond one or two nights, and selfish beyond belief. I will mention just one more of our accomplishments: the near total destruction of the best educational system in the history of the world. Now our children not only can’t read and understand anything but comic books, they don’t even want to.

–Kenneth Besig

*2*
At a USC film school class, Dennis Hopper screened a prerelease of “Easy Rider.” We were impressed. In the midst of techie film questions, someone asked what the message of the film was. Hopper said it was contained in the campfire scene at the end when Billy says to Captain America, “We blew it.” Most people don’t think of Hopper as prophet, but I believe he saw something then about Boomer culture that remains unchanged even today: Like Billy and Captain America, the Boomers’ pointless quest for sensation is coming to end with nothing to show for it but frequent flyer miles.

–Bill Webster

*3*
Joel Engel has come to his realization of Boomer greatness rather late. Had he arrived at Berkeley a few years earlier, he would have seen the Free Speech Movement culminate in the Filthy Speech Movement, during which one aspiring Alfred Jarry stood in Sproul Plaza not speaking about voting rights or ending the war in Vietnam, but merely holding up a sign with the “F” word written on it.

–Edward Azlant

*4*
At the end of Europa, Europa, Lee Bockhorn states that the French are “economically, and culturally” opposed to U.S. interests. This is not entirely correct. Does Paris have more in common with New York or Tehran?

I would think Bockhorn might see beyond the superficial nature of the conflict between France and America. But instead he tends to use “French” and “Frenchness” in the same way his predecessors a generation ago referred to “Communism.”

Europe has had hundreds of years of bloody conflict and would not wish to intercede in more than a political way against American imperialism. They are simply pursuing their interests, something the U.S. has done with impunity for the past 50 years.

Enjoy your country’s current dominance. Because it won’t last forever.

–Phil Labonte

*5*
I agree with Larry Miller that “Sponge Bob” is a great show (Would You Please Take Off That Hat). Our family’s favorite, actually. It has more insight into ethics and basic human nature than anything on, say, PBS.

–Tom Picard

*6*
With all due respect to Terry Eastland, suggest that the Office of Civil Rights has an extremely bad history when it comes to constitutional protections as either driving or limiting its regulatory power (Is O’Connor’s Ruling an Oncoming Train . . .).

My own experience with the drumbeat of horror stories at colleges and universities over the last quarter century tells me that the Department of Education’s OCR will take those parts of O’Connor’s opinion it likes, run with them, and ignore the rest.

–Michael McCanles

*7*
I don’t disagree with anything Lee Bockhorn says about the new Europe, but I take exception to the exclusive emphasis he places on the supposed threat such a European superstate would pose to American power.

A unified Europe could well be a threat to American power. More fundamentally though, the E.U. is an evil thing in itself which is bad for Europe and bad for civilization.

–Lawrence Auster

*8*
Peter Berkowitz writes that Kuwait is “liberal” and “in many ways, the most democratic of the Arab states in the region.” (Democracy in Kuwait)

Well sure, relatively speaking.

Certainly, one should never forget that Kuwaiti women, even if they can’t vote, are allowed to drive. (Got to give credit where it’s due, I guess.) But don’t go around telling anyone how references to “Ann Frank” are excised from Kuwaiti school books, as some might get the wrong impression.

In any event, just how “liberal” Kuwait continues to be should become clearer within the next year.

–Barry Meislin

*9*
Perhaps Martin Sullivan and Gary Vikan can disguise their deep red faces by promptly hightailing it to Iraq and standing guard in the desert sun at the museum (Katherine Mangu-Ward, Never Having to Say You’re Sorry). The neurological connections between jerking knees and flapping gums might also be improved from a few hours of standing at attention while carrying an M-16 and wearing a Kevlar vest.

–Dan Jaracz

*10*
As I write this from Baghdad International Airport my thoughts drift to an upcoming 4th of July, a time when American Muslims feel that sense of duality a little more strongly than usual (Mansoor Ijaz, Supporting Our Armed Forces: An American Muslim’s Perspective): An appreciation for the freedoms we enjoy coupled with a longing for the lands of our heritage; proud of our advancements on these shores and bemoaning the inability of our homelands to re-visit the more glorious days of our past.

It’s easy in our skepticism to look at cursory reports from the media and dismiss the events now unfolding in Iraq as either just another example of American imperialism or a catastrophic mess in the making. Yet doing so does no justice to the nation being re-born before my eyes. Every day more and more decent and hardworking Iraqis are standing up for themselves, learning that, as one Iraqi teacher lamented, “for every six steps forward we take five more back.”

Now is the time for the American Muslim community to build bridges and tell the Iraqis that they will not be forgotten. We can help nurture a sense of ownership that the Iraqis have lost after years of being degraded. American Muslims are in a unique position to couple their education and knowledge to help Iraqis help themselves. We can act as liaisons between groups, advocates for rights, and fundraisers for needs no one else has yet to identify. For every American NGO there should be 10 American-Muslim NGOs working with Iraqis.

While skepticism given America’s foreign-policy record in this part of the world may be warranted, on an interpersonal level I see the U.S. military treating Iraqis with respect over and over again. I see commanders asking me and other American Muslims for advice on how to deal with religious and cultural sensitivities and taking very seriously any real or perceived abuses by troops. I see Iraqis risk their safety and the safety of their families to inform on rogue elements. I see soldiers who’ve never left places like Kansas City understand and use the word inshallah. I’ve seen food distribution that was slow and methodical because U.S. soldiers there wanted to make sure that older mothers got what they needed first. Afterwards community leaders and elders who normally would have cursed these foreigners thank them for treating their people with dignity.

There is an Arab proverb that says a thousand days of tyranny is better than one day of anarchy. It’s time we kick that proverb to the curb.

–Omar Amin, Specialist, U.S. Army