LETTERS

(2 of 3)

Although the Schiavo case was tragic, the reality is that life-and-death decisions are made every day around the country. That this situation rose to such notoriety was shameful for everyone involved. The folks on both sides of the bitter controversy should cease all their ax grinding and let Terri rest in peace.

SCOTT THOMPSON Dallas

A suspected eating disorder many years ago may have led to the brain damage that landed Schiavo in the middle of a national debate. When the dust settles, I hope politicians and the media will turn their attention to the potentially fatal effects of eating disorders.

MARK REESE Draper, Utah

Perhaps Schiavo's most lasting legacy is greater public awareness of the importance of a living will. If composed with clarity and breadth, the document facilitates death with dignity and can ease the pain of survivors.

ARNOLD MORI Fairport, N.Y.

Terminating Special Interests

In "The Reform Action Figure" [April 4], on California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's war against the public employees' unions, columnist Joe Klein characterized them as "special interests" protecting their "unaffordable fringe benefits and antiquated work rules." But Klein should have noted that some states made the kind of pension-plan changes favored by the Governor--and then switched back to the original plans when it was realized that the changes left retirees without enough to live on. If this issue ever reaches voters, I'm hopeful that Californians will have seen enough Terminator movies to recognize the difference between reform and destruction.

CARL LEVINGER Los Angeles

To Schwarzenegger, all interests that are not his own are "special interests." He goes after the benefits of nurses, teachers, fire fighters and cops but never attacks international corporate conglomerates.

BARRY GREENE Santa Ana, California

Troubled and Armed

"The Devil in Red Lake " [April 4] said, "Jeff Weise lost his parents but had close friends. So why did he shoot and kill his granddad and eight others?" He did it because he had access to guns. Without the guns, his difficulties might have ended in a playground fight. Weise's admiration for Hitler might have faded, or, in the best of scenarios, it might have been addressed by counseling. Too many fights--between husbands and wives, parents and children, siblings--wind up with someone dead rather than with just dishes thrown and doors slammed. So long as weapons are easily available, this horror will continue.

MARISA SAMUELS Walnut Creek, Calif.

I disliked the title of your piece on the school shooting in Red Lake, "The Devil in Red Lake." The ultimate responsibility obviously lies with the young man who fired the guns, Jeff Weise. But because he was a boy growing up poor and from a shattered family, with a confused and bitter outlook on his racial heritage and no one to counter the myths of Nazism and racial hate groups, we have to admit that in some way society failed him, and nine other people paid the price. Because TIME brought up the devil, as if a supernatural being were to blame, the reader is tempted to discount all the social problems that contributed to the tragedy.

BRANDON LAMSON Minneapolis, Minn.