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The TIME 100
You went nearly halfway around the globe to find someone who would substantiate George W. Bush's addition to your list, and that person reached back seven years only to recall what a sincere family man Bush was [May 12]. Here in 2008, with eight months left in his eight years in office, Bush has little worldwide credibility, and a record 70% of the American public no longer supports his policies. Incompetent and ineffectual, he is a lame-duck President, already shadowed by the candidates seeking to replace him. By what reasonable measure is he today one of the world's 100 most influential people?
Jeff Clark,
Churchville, N.Y., U.S.

As a person with an Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), I am outraged that TIME would regard Bob and Suzanne Wright as heroes. Their group, Autism Speaks, which does not have one person with an ASD on its board, has joined with Cure Autism Now as part of a campaign to wipe ASDs out. asds are not diseases, and I think I speak for many when I say that we are happy the way we are. Autism is a genetic difference in the same vein as skin color, gender and other such categories.
Phil Gluyas,
Victoria, Australia

I applaud your choice of Nancy Brinker. In 1977, my mother died after losing a long battle with breast cancer. I had just celebrated my 12th birthday and thought my life was over. I wanted to do something to help find a cure for the disease that had caused so much turmoil in my family. But dealing with the loss of my mother was so overwhelming, I had little time. Brinker has immeasurably helped those who suffer from the disease and the friends and family who suffer along with them — a struggle I'm sure she'll continue for years to come.
Andrew Halley,
Layton, Utah, U.S.

Your omission of pope Benedict XVI is mind-boggling. Whether TIME's editors like him or not, the spiritual leader of more than a billion Catholics worldwide exercises more moral and spiritual influence on Rome's followers and on our wider world than many of your other interesting, but quite unheard of, candidates.
Michael J. McCann,
Celbridge, Ireland

I'm a geography professor striving to get students to think globally, and I found your list to be disappointing and deceptive. TIME has blurred the distinction between important and much less important. Tim Russert, Suze Orman, Miley Cyrus, etc., among the most influential people in the world? Really? The trite small-mindedness behind some of your selections is really astounding. The world is home to about 6.6 billion people, and Americans account for less than 5% of that total. Are your picks really apt for a global community? Readers can only imagine how much less fluffy and myopic a more meaningful list would have been.
John A. Alwin,
Fircrest, Wash., U.S.

Let me be the first to ask, "why didn't you include [my favorite person] in the TIME 100?"
Paul Merrill,
Littleton, Colo., U.S.

Wright and Wrong
Finally, clarity on the Jeremiah Wright issue from Joe Klein [May 12]. Obama's rise promises a departure from the country's troubled wars over culture and race. Yes, Wright has done great things, but at a hefty price: despair and hopelessness about racism. People like Wright should be afraid of Barack Obama and his promise of change.
Joseph Morriss,
Chicago

I don't see how Obama's "divorce" from Wright can be taken seriously. This was obviously a purely political maneuver, and a fairly transparent one at that. It could easily have been made 20 years ago.
Benjamin Munda,
Norman, Okla., U.S.