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Your article on the switch from hand-drawn to computer-generated [CG] animation at Disney [Sept. 26] mentioned me and my colleague Andreas Deja as "respected animators ... [who] resisted making the switch to CG." I won't speak for Andreas, but in my case, that statement just isn't true. First, I'm not a Disney employee, even though I continue to work for the company on numerous projects. They include a test with Roger Rabbit animated in CG to prove we could do a squashy-stretchy character, a stereoscopic CG version of Aladdin's genie and, most recently, CG animation for Disneyland's 50th-anniversary TV spots. Is my first love hand-drawn animation? Absolutely. Am I going to continue animating and directing in hand-drawn whenever possible? You bet. But as for resisting the switch to CG? Puh-leeze.
ERIC GOLDBERG
Glendale, Calif.
Friends in High Places
Your article on President Bush's disturbing habit of placing unqualified individuals in critical government jobs [Oct. 3] again illustrates what has become quite clear: Bush is more concerned with maintaining an insular bubble of yes-men than with running the country. It's too bad thousands of our poorest citizens have had to pay dearly for his cronyism.
ANGELA TEATER
Seattle
What you see in top management positions in government agencies is no different from what you see in the private sector. There, as in government agencies, incompetence rises above capability. Promotion is more about who you know than what you know. After 30 years in the business world, and the past 15 at a management level, I have watched empty suits move up the ladder because of their politics and presentation rather than their productivity and competence. We are losing our edge in the global-business arena because of that, and the nation is suffering.
BILL WILDE
Carol Stream, Ill.
Water Worries
Your report "Western Water Wars," on the plans of the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) to diversify its water resources, contained an unfortunate implication [Sept. 5]. The foundation of Nevada's water law is that the state's water belongs to all its citizens, not just to residents of a particular community. All the SNWA is proposing is to utilize an unused, naturally replenished groundwater supply. The SNWA has also expressed a willingness to go beyond the legal requirements to address the concerns of all stakeholders about having an adequate supply of water and ensure that their communities and lifestyles are protected. Your article did not adequately represent our commitment to be both a good neighbor and a responsible steward of water resources.
PATRICIA MULROY, GENERAL MANAGER
SOUTHERN NEVADA WATER AUTHORITY
Las Vegas
Alienated and Enraged
The portrayal in your story "Generation Jihad" of Muslim youth in Europe and other parts of the Western world made me uneasy [Oct. 3]. You described young Muslims as frustrated by lack of opportunities in Europe and motivated by the idea that the West is waging an assault on Islam. As a Pakistani student studying in the U.S., I would like to point out that the vast majority of Muslim youth in the West are working against ideas of jihadist violence and hatred.
ARSALAN USMANI
San Francisco