Inbox
Bailout Fallout
Re TIME's cover: hooray! finally, a ballot I can relate to [Oct. 6]! After all the negative campaigning, I have longed for such a ballot. I have been looking for a candidate who can be honest with me about his answers to the serious issues. If I had to vote today and "none of the above" were on the ballot, I'd put my X in that box. William Bledsoe, MONTGOMERY, ALA.
This notion of a government bailout is not a question of liberal vs. conservative but one of right or wrong. This one is wrong. The burden will fall on the people who need this money much more than greedy executives do. The executives should go down, just as any of us would have to. I realize the economic implications, but this country was built on sacrifice, and we may have to sacrifice again. Nicholas Gamba, SAYREVILLE, N.J.
I never thought I'd be agreeing with Republican Senator Richard Shelby from Alabama, but our assessments of the bailout are the same: No! Invest in infrastructure, home weatherization, worker-retraining, green-collar jobs and whatever will move us away from our oil addiction. Rather than up our national debt, we should let the chips fall and reorganize our lives and our economy around a sustainable paradigm. Bruce Garver, MURRIETA, CALIF.
What She Said
The inaccurate quote by Curtis Sittenfeld in her essay on Michelle Obama is not up to TIME's usual standards [Oct. 6]. Sittenfeld alleges Obama's quote to be "For the first time in my adult life, I am proud of my country ..." What Obama actually said was, "For the first time in my adult life-time, I am really proud of my country ..." "Really" is an important word. Switching around words changes their meaning and accuracy. Lawrence H. Tew, WALNUT CREEK, CALIF.
Whoopi's View
James Poniewozik writes that Whoopi Goldberg was "apparently unaware that the Constitution does ban slavery" when she asked John McCain if his support of strict-constitutionalist judges meant she should worry about the return of slavery [Oct. 6]. But her concern may well have been justified. We must remember that many conservatives would like to change the Constitution or use misinterpretations to deny or change rights it guarantees. At the least, they can certainly alter it: witness the movement to add an amendment banning gay marriage to, in effect, deny certain rights to gays that straights take for granted. Claude M. Gruener, AUSTIN, TEXAS
Please recycle this magazine and remove inserts or samples before recycling