Letters

Som

e readers found our pictures, reflecting a year marked by natural and man-made disasters, too gloomy. But for others, the images underscored photography's power to capture reality

How often do those who have the good fortune to be comfortable, safe and secure take their situation for granted? Your collection, "The Best Photos of 2005," serves as a humbling reminder of the fragility of the human condition [Dec. 19]. In juxtaposing our vulnerability to Mother Nature's wrath with our suffering and violence at the hands of our fellow human beings, those images of death and destruction do more than etch a small piece of history into our minds; they carve out in our hearts a warning for the future.
Jeff Michaud
East Hartford, Connecticut, U.S.

What striking photos you picked! What an amazing year! I don't remember being so affected by a series of magazine pictures since the tumultuous year of 1968. The image shown on the cover, of the New Orleans Garden District aflame, reminded me of a Currier & Ives lithograph.
Alexander Wells
Los Angeles

I cannot recall another year that brought such human misery. Whether caused by nature or man, the events depicted in your collection reminded me how truly awful 2005 was. May the human family look forward to some small measure of joy in 2006.
Robert D. Rauch
Bayside, New York, U.S.

Your Photos of the Year prove that 2005 was a devastating time for most of the world. My eye was caught by the picture of the London bus mangled by a bomb explosion. Ironically, the remains of a theater or movie advertisement on the side of the bus read, OUTRIGHT TERROR ... BOLD AND BRILLIANT.
Emilio A. Schlabitz
Culver City, California, U.S.

Your editors enhanced the nation's misery index in smashing style with the overwhelming number of pictures that were a stark visualization of ugliness, suffering and pain. Didn't any of your photographers catch a pear tree blossoming? A wren scolding? A schoolboy playing?
John F. Waldron
Virginia Beach, Virginia, U.S.

As I looked at the photos over a cup of gourmet coffee, I thought I should never again complain about having to wait in line an extra minute or two or having to shovel the walkway after a snowstorm or gripe when a store is out of my favorite item. The next time I get upset over trivial, everyday things, I should step back and look at the big picture.
Jeffrey N. Achber
Laconia, New Hampshire, U.S.

The Elusive Father Figure
Your piece on Joseph's relationship with Jesus, "Father and Child," was timely [Dec. 19]. Joseph plays a great role in the season of Christmas and in Jesus' family. I am grateful for the article. In contemplating Joseph's role, you quoted author Jerry Jenkins, who got it just right: "We can make him work for whatever we want him to work for, as long as we stay within the intent of Scripture." Let us explore Joseph's hidden virtues.
Ramon C. Santos Jr.
Pasig City, the Philippines

As a Christian who believes in the miraculous birth of Jesus, I have deep respect and affection for Joseph and Mary. Their lives were sacrificial and worthy of their great calling. Nevertheless, by focusing on speculations and possibilities about those two worthies, people lose sight of the fact that there is only one King of Kings, and that is Jesus Christ. I believe Joseph and Mary would be the first to cry, "Enough! Worship Jesus."
Fran Wheeler
Knoxville, Tennessee, U.S.

The human penchant for telling stories unfettered by facts is remarkable. It is sad that many people accept those accounts as truth. I wish the promise of the Enlightenment would be fulfilled—that supernaturalism would be replaced by scientific investigation and reason.
John Moorman
Tifton, Georgia, U.S.

A Leader's Reach
The detailed interview with Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew was quite educational and thoughtful [Dec. 12]. It was all the more interesting to read how the onetime autocratic leader of Singapore's 4 million people would like to determine the affairs of countries with more than 1 billion people. I take satisfaction in the fact that Lee's comments about radical Islam will not be read by most Muslims.
Mohammad Nasir
Peshawar, Pakistan

A Moment in Time
In his new film, Munich, director Steven Spielberg attempts to identify the terrorist act at the 1972 Olympics as the starting point for the cycle of violent events being played out today [Dec. 12]. But that cycle started in the 1940s, when Jews fleeing Europe occupied Palestine and drove its people into exile. Spielberg's use of his great talent in making deep and meaningful cinematic material has been a delight to his fans, myself included. But when it comes to the Middle East, it is categorically biased to take a snapshot of events in 1972 and have that define a conflict.
Khaled Radwan
Cairo

Spielberg said he and screenwriter Tony Kushner didn't "demonize" the terrorist characters in Munich, since he felt that "many of them [were] reasonable and civilized." If Spielberg had been making a film about Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler and Adolf Eichmann—another gang that slaughtered Jews—would he portray them with the same degree of generosity and tolerance?
Al Ramrus
Pacific Palisades, California, U.S.

I hope Munich is a big success. The story of the Israeli athletes who were cold-bloodedly murdered should never be forgotten. I wish there were more brave people like Spielberg. He is willing to tell the truth in his movies and make a difference.
Elena Shumsky
Orlando, Florida, U.S.

Pulpit Patrol
Re Andrew Sullivan's essay "The Vatican's New Stereotype": I am sorry about Pope Benedict XVI's rules excluding gay men from the priesthood [Dec. 12]. But they are not the first Catholics to be identified and told that "regardless of how they behave or what they do, they are beneath serving God" as priests. That distinction belongs to women.
Lynn Mostafa
Salinas, California, U.S.

Jesus befriended sinners and out-casts, but he never told them to continue sinning. He befriended an adulterous woman, then told her to sin no more—and repeated that pattern again and again. Since Sullivan is so quick to draw examples from the Bible, he should read up on the parts that specifically call homosexuality a sin instead of picking and choosing the parts that bolster his case.
Katie Hepburn
San Antonio, Texas, U.S.

Keep Cool with Trees
In "Is Europe Due for a Big Chill" [Dec. 12], TIME mentions that climate experts have some reservations about the effects of global warming on weakening North Atlantic Ocean currents. I am surprised that they have not taken into account the speed of global deforestation. Warmer oceans absorb less atmospheric carbon dioxide, so we depend increasingly on the world's remaining vegetation to filter the air for us. Because vegetation is the only means by which carbon dioxide is converted into life-giving oxygen, we need to start seriously thinking more about controlling deforestation. We should establish a massive international reforestation program to reverse global warming.
Ian Vincent
Nairobi

Book vs. Movie
I don't see how Richard Corliss could pick the movie version of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire over the book [Dec. 5]. While I really liked the movie—it was fast and action-packed—none of the film adaptations of J.K. Rowling's books, that one included, have been able to fully capture the essence of Harry. They cannot put us inside Harry's head the way Rowling so deftly does.
Marianne L. Adams
Diamond Bar, California, U.S.

Sweating the Details
Steven Spielberg's Munich is about the terrorism at the 1972 Olympics and the revenge that followed [Dec. 12]. In 1997, TIME talked with the director while he worked on Amistad, the story of a Spanish ship that took abducted Africans to the U.S. [May 19, 1997]:

"'I'm deciding whether to use my castle or my second bishop,' he says as he prepares a shot. 'How am I being threatened here? How can I advance? Directing is about seeing 20 moves ahead while you're working on the next five.' He'll do all the work himself, if the person assigned to the job can't hack it. In one scene the faces of the slaves are to be lighted by a lantern carried by one of the crew. But it isn't working. 'Let me do the light myself,' Spielberg says, holding the lantern so that the slaves' tortured faces are perfectly illuminated. He even shoots a second-unit 'insert' scene of a crumpled letter tossed onto a table. 'I like to sweat the details ... The second-unit stuff is what makes the audience eat the popcorn faster.'"