Inbox

A Race to the End
Is there not a fourth option for the end of the battle for the Democratic nomination [May 5]? If Barack Obama wins the majority of pledged delegates and the Democratic National Committee decides to hand the nomination to Hillary Clinton, he could declare himself an independent candidate. That would guarantee a loss for Clinton but could result in the building of an all-inclusive New Democratic Party.
J. Gerard Janssen,
Toronto

I think the current race is the best, most riveting election campaign I have witnessed as an adult. I'm 56. Never before have I seen a primary campaign come down to the wire like this year's Democratic contest. Sure, hard-fought contests are bruising for all concerned, but I believe America will be better off next January, when the new President takes office, because of the election fights that took place this year. Now if only we could shorten the campaign season.
Dave Peterson,
Tucson, Arizona

A Bias Against China?
Like other western journalists, Simon Elegant tries to attribute the anti-Western protests in China to xenophobia [May 5]. But he fails to explain why people in the U.S. and other countries share the Chinese people's outrage. Unless the West can come to terms with the fact that China is going to be a major global power, the notion that China will be a destabilizing force is more a self-fulfilling prophecy than an inevitable outcome.
M. Loo,
Washington

Your excellent article speaks of a wave of nationalist fervour sweeping China ahead of the Olympic Games. The Western media seem to view love of country in different ways. In the developing world it is labeled nationalism, while in the West the same sentiment is termed patriotism.
Frank Yu,
Melbourne

Using the Olympics as a forum for criticizing China is both counterproductive and unfair. The Chinese people are proud of their achievements of the past couple of decades and, though much still needs to be done, they are progressing at an impressive pace. Engagement is the only way to influence both the people and their government. While muted in their public criticism of their political leaders, the Chinese people are surprisingly frank in admitting their shortcomings, though they tend to accept restrictions on political freedom as a necessary trade-off for the economic gains they have achieved. Given time and patience, the West's more positive values and practices will osmose into their collective social consciousness. Unfortunately, so will our less desirable and wasteful ones.
Sigmund Roseth,
Mississauga, Canada

Deathday Wishes
Nancy Gibbs' eloquence on the death of her father left me breathless [May 5]. Yet the concept of a Deathday is not merely a quirk of J.K. Rowling's literature: Jewish culture has celebrated the Yahrzeit for centuries. It is a day of joyous yet sorrowful memory of those gone, during which people gather to support the bereaved with sweet recollections of the dead. My grandfather died when I was 7. Every year his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren partake of a meal in his name, those who remember him speaking of him to those who do not. I am 22 now and in no danger of forgetting him.
Lily Weiss,
Lawrence, New York

Gibbs' essay reminded me of my father's long-ago death, which shocked us because it was both sudden and solitary (it happened at home while my mother and I were away). As I read, I remembered all the wonderful moments we shared over the twenty-some years I had him in my life: how he made me a kite to fly in our backyard, how I saluted him before he went away to war in 1942, how proud he was when he held my infant sons for the first time. Those memories are all the more precious as the end of my own term on earth draws closer. Gems of writing like Gibbs' evocative piece are among the reasons I subscribe to TIME.
Andrew Ogilvie,
Gin Gin, Queensland

Image Problems
I am a retired marine, and I would love to hear you explain to the survivors of the campaign on Iwo Jima just why you had to use "our photo" with a tree [April 28]. I work in an environmental-protection field and have a degree in biology. You may mean well, but your judgment leaves a bit to be desired. Please leave the ecological subjects in the realm of science and the patriotic war and flag symbols in theirs.
Mark Ronning,
Fergus Falls, Minnesota

As a marine and a Vietnam veteran, I was incensed to see you desecrate, on your cover, the photo of the Marine heroes on Iwo Jima. Comparing efforts to reverse human-caused global warming, whose reality remains a matter of scientific debate, to the sacrifices of those who served in World War II is absurd.
J. Schmidt,
Warkworth, New Zealand

Raising the flag on Mount Suribachi was a sign of victory for the U.S. military in a hard-fought battle. Our country lost more than 400,000 soldiers in World War II. If global warming ever causes that many deaths, then you can start Photoshopping pictures.
Meredith Lea,
Bloomington, Illinois

Green Dreams and Doubts
How can you call geothermal power a fringe alternative energy source when it already produces more electricity than wind and solar technologies combined [April 28]? Geothermal has none of the drawbacks associated with wind, solar, nuclear, or clean coal. It is abundant, affordable, dependable, produces no emissions, generates no waste, and is not a blight on the landscape.
Joseph Fuller,
Las Cruces, New Mexico

Is it global warming we need to fight, or global cooling? That's if we humans influence the climate at all, an open question. Recent years have seen global average temperatures leveling off or declining. For most of the past 2.5 million years, the Earth has been in the grip of ice ages, broken by relatively short warm periods lasting 10,000 to 15,000 years. We are lucky to live in such a period.
Dietrich E.Koelle,
Germany

Kyoto isn't working. As the European Commission itself admits, western Europe is likely to miss its Kyoto targets. So is Japan. Carbon trading is widely acknowledged as a failure. The first phase of the E.U.'s Emission Trading Scheme did not produce either a workable market in carbon or reduced emissions. Global warming has become a new religion, with the Kyoto Protocol as one of its articles of faith. The idea that we can control a global climate governed by a billion factors by dickering with a couple of politically selected gases is carbon claptrap.
Leon Wilbanks,
Salem, Oregon

Brown's Big Ideas
Thank you for your considered piece on Prime Minister Gordon Brown [April 28]. Your approach was a welcome change from the concerted personal attacks on him in the British press. I have never voted Labour in a national election, but I think I might do so next time around, and that's down to Brown and his commitment to do the right thing rather than what seems to be the most popular thing.
Alison Twaddle,
East Lothian, Scotland

Catherine Mayer's reference to Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations could usefully include Smith's cynical view of politicians: "that insidious and crafty animal vulgarly called a statesman or politician." Gordon Brown's many soubriquets — Iron Chancellor, Clunking Fist, Prudence Brown, Ditherer and Mr. Bean — suggest why an authoritarian Chancellor makes a poor Prime Minister. Brown's obsession with minutiae is best demonstrated by his Byzantine tax-credit system, which requires taxpayers to complete vexing forms to reclaim the tax that was due to them in the first place. What is frustrating is that he constantly reminds British voters that his policies are what they want (he may well be right), but perversely will not test that claim in an election.
Gerard Lobo,
Woodley, England

You mentioned that Brown's "big ideas" do not all play well at home. Since becoming Chancellor in 1997, he has had many ideas and made many pronouncements, a large percentage of which came to nothing or missed their target. Let us see how many of Brown's ideas for the reform of the U.N., NATO, the IMF and the World Bank he personally drives forward into positive changes. Time will tell. In many instances, the best that can be said of our Prime Minister is that there is a lot of talk and very little action.
Alan F. Smith,
North Berwick, Scotland