Letters, Jun. 24, 1996

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In your article "A Shot Across Earth's Bow" [SPACE, June 3], you noted that our planet narrowly escaped a devastating collision with a mountain-size asteroid, but you didn't portray the destruction in terms most people can comprehend. Two-thirds of the large asteroids heading toward Earth would strike oceans, not land. Had asteroid 1996JA1 collided with any of our oceans, a tidal wave of Noachian-flood proportions would have deluged every province of the planet. The survivors, should there have been any, wouldn't know what had happened. Perhaps they would refer to an act of God that cleansed the planet of a sordid past. Thank God there are prudent souls working to protect us from such an event. ROBERT D. BROWN Lincoln, Nebraska Via E-mail

JERUSALEM, CITY OF FAITHS

I found Johanna Mcgeary's review of Karen Armstrong's Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths [BOOKS, June 3] enlightening and logical in spite of the "never-ending" religious family feud in that city. Armstrong, in her history of Jerusalem, rightly says true holiness never triumphed in the Holy City. The best solution to the dispute over which religion shall reign is a three-seat throne overseen by NATO. In addition to monitoring the government, NATO could provide peacekeeping troops that would be charged with guarding the ruins of the Temple, just in case soldiers of one religion tried to rebuild it overnight. DEBRA MOSE Marksville, Louisiana

DR. DEATH IS DIFFERENT

Wilfrid Sheed does a disservice to objectivity in discussing the celebrity of Dr. Jack Kevorkian [ESSAY, June 3]. The right-to-die movement in America today aims to end suffering at the request of the sufferer, and to compare it with Hitler's euthanasia ignores the obvious difference: "at the request of the sufferer." If the person suffering is able to think and communicate his or her wishes, that is a different scenario from the issue relating to Hitler in war. DAN CARLSON Pennsville, New Jersey Via E-mail

THE BLESSING

Your article on same-sex marriage outlined the arguments for and against it [LAW, June 3]. But isn't it time for churches and synagogues and all the faiths to provide for a "blessing of friendship"? We already bless hounds and foxes, pets, boats and all sorts of things; why not bless two people who are devoted to each other, no matter what their sexual orientation? Isn't it time for the state to acknowledge "life partners" and give them all the legal and social benefits others have? And if any of these life-partner relationships prove to be less than lifelong, the divorce proceedings could be the same as for married couples. (The Rev.) Frederick J. Hanna Baltimore, Maryland

CLINTON'S CIVIL RELIEF ACT

When I heard that Bill Clinton might seek protection from Paula Jones' lawsuit under military law as an "active duty" Commander in Chief [Nation, June 3], I thought one of Jay Leno's joke writers had gone berserk. DON A. ELLIS Overland Park, Kansas