Letters

The Fear Factor

"Our suspicion of things around us is more toxic than any threat. It won't be nerve gas that destroys us--it will be our own fears." AMY M. MALLOY Kodiak, Alaska

The galvanization of the emergency services to the anthrax threat and the raising of public awareness have increased the likelihood that we will be able to weather effectively a possible major event [NATION ON THE EDGE, Oct. 22]. These alarms act in the same way a vaccine would to improve the immune system's ability to recognize a pathogen. DAVID S. RICHARD Selinsgrove, Pa.

What's the difference between a militant extremist who sends anthrax in an envelope and a nitwit prankster who sends cornstarch? Both are terrorists, sowing fear and wreaking havoc. Their actions have malignant and far-reaching consequences. Hoaxers should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. ALEXANDER J. WERTH Farmville, Va.

More psychological damage has been caused by truck-bomb scares, anthrax alarms, post office evacuations and so forth than by the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. More people are killed by drunk drivers than by terrorists. More people die from the flu than from anthrax. More people die in airline accidents than in hijacked planes. Get over it, you pathetic cowards, and face reality! It's actually quite nice here. JOHN DODDS San Francisco

Almost 80 years ago, T.S. Eliot described our present situation in his poem The Waste Land: "I will show you fear in a handful of dust." EILEEN K. MEAKIN Washington

When one reads that a business executive who works in a skyscraper is shopping for parachutes, the "shadow of fear" is no longer merely a specter but a jolt of what reality is now. Terrorists who live in the shadows need to be brought out into the light and their identity made known to the world. Only when they have been smoked out of the dim world of religious fanaticism will our shadow of fear disappear. NICK GIANNIAS Montreal

Because of the threat of anthrax, authorities say I'm not supposed to open "unsolicited" mail. Are they kidding? Is there any other kind? ELEANOR M. MILLS Charlottesville, Va.

People who are alarmed about anthrax should not start to take antibiotics needlessly. Only a qualified doctor should make the decision to prescribe such medication. Bacteria could become resistant, which would make them much more dangerous and harder to eradicate. Developing a new antibiotic takes years and hundreds of millions of dollars. We do not want these efforts to be wasted. LINE MERRETTE Longueuil, Que.

Debating the Good Fight

It was interesting to hear the arguments of those idealists who caution the U.S. against military action against the terrorists [AFGHANISTAN, Oct. 22]. Those people fail to see that there is more at stake than catching a handful of psychopaths calling themselves warriors of God. What's at risk is the survival of the West. If we don't want to perish, we must get a firmer grip on our civilization. That includes a relentless fight against all those who threaten it and its values. ALEXANDER RAUH Pegnitz, Germany

Musharraf on His Mettle

As a secular-minded General, Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf has a unique opportunity to show his mettle and invoke the ideals of his nation's founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah [PAKISTAN, Oct. 22]. Jinnah believed that the country should be not a theocratic Muslim state but a secular, progressive democracy, that religion should be a personal matter for its citizens and have nothing to do with the administration of the state. Unless Pakistan returns to the ideals held by Jinnah, there will not be peace and harmony in the country. IJAZ A. QAMAR Mississauga, Ont.

Finger on the Panic Button

Roger Rosenblatt's commentary on Americans' unspecific fears was right on target [ESSAY, Oct. 22]. Thanks to the FBI's vague warning about imminent attacks, our nation has truly been compromised. We're told by our president to get on with our lives so that the terrorists' scare tactics do not overwhelm and paralyze us, but then we're smothered by a pillow of fear from the very government organization that's supposed to filter out unspecific threats. The media circus surrounding the FBI's pronouncements has placed us squarely in the bull's-eye of our own target of fear. I feel even less safe than I did right after Sept. 11. CANDACE TICE Wall, N.J.

I do not believe that our sense of country has been taken away from us in any way. I've never known such a feeling of unity and patriotism. Leaders have crossed party lines to assist one another. Much of the world has rallied around us, creating a feeling of global brotherhood. The U.S. has quite a challenge before it. But it is one that is certain to make us resolved to live our lives with more purpose, meaning and unity. LAURA MUNOZ Oceanport, N.J.

A Financial War on Terrorists

I was appalled by the callousness of the bankers and the members of Congress they have influenced seeking to prevent the enactment of tougher anti-money-laundering laws [THE MONEY TRAIL, Oct. 22]. Cutting off terrorist financing is as important as military action. While our soldiers are putting their lives on the line, the politicians and bankers are shielding the accounts of drug dealers and terrorists and thinking only of profits. BRUNO KAISER Aptos, Calif.

Your report "Banking On Secrecy" referred to "offshore financial centers like...Antigua, whose banks have the potential to hide and often help launder billions of dollars for drug cartels, global crime syndicates--and groups like Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda organization." But the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's Financial Action Task Force has found that Antigua and Barbuda is cooperating fully in the fight against money laundering. The governments of the U.S. and Britain agree, removing advisories that had been placed on Antigua and Barbuda in 1999.

After the atrocities of Sept. 11, our government did not wait for a request from the U.S. to check bank accounts for identified terrorist organizations and persons. Our financial-intelligence unit conducted a search and exchanged information with U.S. authorities. You misrepresented Antigua and Barbuda and ignored the acknowledged role we have played in combatting financial crime. LIONEL A. HURST, AMBASSADOR Embassy of Antigua and Barbuda Washington

Prayer Goes Back to School

I have never seen such disregard for the rules prohibiting official prayer in school as in the past few weeks [THE SCHOOLS, Oct. 22]. It seems as though every teacher has something to add to the torrent of messages urging the public to pray, pray, pray. This is a problem for Islamic students across the U.S. Not only do they have to worry about prejudice; now they must also try to tune out the references to Jesus from their teachers and fellow students. If school prayer is reinstated, Islamic (and other non-Christian) students will have a choice between hypocrisy and humiliation. ELIZABETH SZYPULSKI Clemson, S.C.

I live in Dayton, Tenn., site of the famous Scopes "monkey trial," concerning the teaching of evolution in public schools. I am very proud to say that for the past six years my children have been allowed to pray and have Bible classes in their public schools. How can we not pray? Maybe I should protest against the practice of a "moment of silence" because I don't want my kids to hear nothing from us in troubled times; I want them to have faith. JULIE COCHRAN Dayton, Tenn.

Although I have no objection to praying, an obvious fact is lost on many Americans. What we're seeing with the Taliban and in Iran is what happens when a country is ruled by religious law and fundamentalists who have political and military power. We need to be wary of fundamentalist extremists, no matter what their denomination. DEBORAH KEMMERER Gainesville, Fla.

The Takeover of Islam

Although no responsible Islamic leader has actually spoken in support of the attacks, by the clerics' very reticence they are allowing terrorists to hijack Islam. Islamic leaders need to realize that by failing to denounce the terrorists strongly, they are arousing unnecessary anti-Islamic sentiment. ANNA ANITA DUMRA Bangalore, India

Nobel Unhappiness

TIME's politically correct opinion that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan deserved the Nobel Peace Prize is shameful [NOBEL PRIZES, Oct. 22]. The U.N. was founded nearly 60 years ago with a key objective: to reduce war by resolving conflicts between nations peacefully. But the atrocities of war have continued just as before. After more than a half a century, it is high time to rethink an organization that has gone way beyond its trial period. RENE GARDEA Prague

Why did you bother to note that the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, V.S. Naipaul, is from Trinidad when, as you reported, he has no affinity for his birthplace? I am proud to be from Trinidad and Tobago. I do not romanticize the country, but neither do I denigrate it. Naipaul's attitude shows how well the colonial masters succeeded in their job of brainwashing. I am grateful that for every Naipaul, there is a Trinidadian writer like Earl Lovelace and a calypso musician like David Rudder. SUZETTE DE COTEAU Reading, England