Letters: May 21, 2001

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Thank you, Roger Rosenblatt, for writing about your reactions to your mother's death from Alzheimer's [ESSAY, April 30]. My mother also died of this disease two months ago. You have eloquently expressed many of my own feelings at watching my mother slowly slip away. As I walk to work past the flowering trees, enjoying the fresh smell of spring that she loved so much, I miss her. But I had been missing her for some years now. Take a breath of spring, Mr. Rosenblatt. I am, and I think our mothers are too. FELICIA ZETLER Pittsburgh, Pa.

With all due respect to Rosenblatt and his loss, how dare he perpetuate the myth that when a person has Alzheimer's disease, "it takes away everything"? My mother also died of Alzheimer's, and what is amazing about the disease is not what is lost but what remains. The fact is, even when so much of the brain is damaged, people can still respond to human touch, to the voices of those they love, to music, humor and kindness. Yes, Alzheimer's is a terrible disease, but astoundingly, love and joy and beauty do endure in its midst. KATHY LAURENHUE Director of Special Projects Mather Institute on Aging Evanston, Ill.

Double Trouble

Matt Rees' article on the Palestinian terrorist groups Hamas and Hizballah [WORLD, April 30] stated that the "Palestinians are suffering under a heavy-handed Israeli backlash." Is he indicating that the Israelis have the unmitigated chutzpah not to cooperate docilely with their own annihilation? What are they to do--just sit and wait for the knives of the terrorists to be sharpened? RUDOLPH A. MASRY Briarcliff Manor, N.Y.

If Hamas and Hizballah start cooperating, it may lead to an even more powerful terrorist campaign that Israel will have to deal with alone. Does the U.S. government expect Israel to let terrorists bomb its cities and towns and then make concessions to them? The Palestinians won't be happy until they control every holy site in Israel, which everyone knows will never happen. MARTIN KRESHON Charlotte, N.C.

Fly Me to the Moon

If American millionaire Dennis Tito wants to pay millions to stay at the universe's most expensive hotel, the International Space Station [SPACE, April 30], then the partners who own the place should take the money! Is it any more "distasteful" for NASA to charge a steep admission for visitors to gawk at the boringly earthbound Kennedy Space Center? NASA may be missing the boat on pocketing well-needed research money for something that will become commonplace in the future: paid space visits. DAN HERAUF Calgary

Efficacious Herb

Your article "St. John's What?" [MEDICINE, April 30] tells of the millions who take St. John's wort, most of them for mild depression or the occasional blues. The new study you wrote about included 200 subjects, all of whom suffered from "major depression." Perhaps before discounting the herb's effectiveness, researchers should target folks having mild depression. St. John's wort seems to work for me--but heck, I also occasionally take ginkgo biloba to increase mental agility and clear thinking! MEL DAVIS Addison, Texas