LETTERS

I am a Republican and usually a staunch supporter of George W. Bush. But I was aghast at the flagrant political maneuvering over the fate of Terri Schiavo [April 4]. Shame on Bush, Representative Tom DeLay and all those others who wasted their time and our money on this right-to-life charade. Those same politicians are too cowardly to attack at the federal level the real right-to-life issues--abortion and the death penalty. I pray for Schiavo's parents and husband. We all have a right to a dignified death without government meddling.

BERNARD JOSEPH WILSON JR. Lincoln, Neb.

Schiavo, free of interference, has now peacefully passed through a natural stage of life. Life is precious precisely because it is finite.

ALICE HOOPER Rochester, N.Y.

Michael Schiavo abandoned his marriage vows to Terri years ago. Yet our nation's courts gave him the right as her husband to condemn her to a prolonged death. Michael insisted that Terri wouldn't have wanted to live as she did for the past 15 years: cared for by her loving family and apparently without suffering. Can he claim she would have wanted to die over a period of two long weeks by starvation and dehydration?

REINE D. BETHANY Hempstead, N.Y.

We had police officers standing guard to ensure that a human being died a slow death while her family watched in horror and was powerless to do anything to help. Was this the U.S. in 2005 or a Nazi concentration camp in the 1940s?

ALAN W. GARETT Corpus Christi, Texas

Of all the kindnesses shown to Schiavo during her 15 bedridden years of care, the greatest was her husband's allowing her to die naturally.

WILBUR F. POPPE Denton, Texas

It was understanding that people had conflicting thoughts about Schiavo and hesitated to take sides. I relate to those who wanted Schiavo to live because of her family's grief and the belief that she might be helped by advances in medical science. Harder to comprehend was the passion of some who were eager for her death. Without a living will as proof of Schiavo's desires and in light of her parents' willingness to take full responsibility for her, should the life-or-death decision have been left to a husband who had moved on and started a new family?

BONNIE O'NEIL Newport Beach, Calif.

It's ironic that so many Americans tore themselves apart over the death of Schiavo but had no qualms about sending thousands of able-bodied young men and women off to Iraq to kill and be killed in a needless war.

FRANK STRYLECKI Ottawa

The political hypocrisy in the Schiavo case was appalling. How many of those politicians and "right-to-lifers" who worked themselves into such a lather over this matter have also supported the death penalty or actually signed a death warrant? Those people are obnoxious.

JIM CLEARY Itasca, Ill.

The death and resurrection of Christ were meant to show us that death has no power, that the soul lives eternally while the body serves only as a container. Removing Schiavo's feeding tube was not cruel or disrespectful of life. On the contrary, the real cruelty was keeping her shell alive and not allowing her to be at peace with God. It is agonizing to have to let go of a loved one, but as God showed us through the sacrifice of his son, it is the greatest love of all to do so.

SANDY BRITT Cumberland Furnace, Tenn.

Although the Schiavo case was tragic, the reality is that life-and-death decisions are made every day around the country. That this situation rose to such notoriety was shameful for everyone involved. The folks on both sides of the bitter controversy should cease all their ax grinding and let Terri rest in peace.

SCOTT THOMPSON Dallas

A suspected eating disorder many years ago may have led to the brain damage that landed Schiavo in the middle of a national debate. When the dust settles, I hope politicians and the media will turn their attention to the potentially fatal effects of eating disorders.

MARK REESE Draper, Utah

Perhaps Schiavo's most lasting legacy is greater public awareness of the importance of a living will. If composed with clarity and breadth, the document facilitates death with dignity and can ease the pain of survivors.

ARNOLD MORI Fairport, N.Y.

Terminating Special Interests

In "The Reform Action Figure" [April 4], on California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's war against the public employees' unions, columnist Joe Klein characterized them as "special interests" protecting their "unaffordable fringe benefits and antiquated work rules." But Klein should have noted that some states made the kind of pension-plan changes favored by the Governor--and then switched back to the original plans when it was realized that the changes left retirees without enough to live on. If this issue ever reaches voters, I'm hopeful that Californians will have seen enough Terminator movies to recognize the difference between reform and destruction.

CARL LEVINGER Los Angeles

To Schwarzenegger, all interests that are not his own are "special interests." He goes after the benefits of nurses, teachers, fire fighters and cops but never attacks international corporate conglomerates.

BARRY GREENE Santa Ana, California

Troubled and Armed

"The Devil in Red Lake " [April 4] said, "Jeff Weise lost his parents but had close friends. So why did he shoot and kill his granddad and eight others?" He did it because he had access to guns. Without the guns, his difficulties might have ended in a playground fight. Weise's admiration for Hitler might have faded, or, in the best of scenarios, it might have been addressed by counseling. Too many fights--between husbands and wives, parents and children, siblings--wind up with someone dead rather than with just dishes thrown and doors slammed. So long as weapons are easily available, this horror will continue.

MARISA SAMUELS Walnut Creek, Calif.

I disliked the title of your piece on the school shooting in Red Lake, "The Devil in Red Lake." The ultimate responsibility obviously lies with the young man who fired the guns, Jeff Weise. But because he was a boy growing up poor and from a shattered family, with a confused and bitter outlook on his racial heritage and no one to counter the myths of Nazism and racial hate groups, we have to admit that in some way society failed him, and nine other people paid the price. Because TIME brought up the devil, as if a supernatural being were to blame, the reader is tempted to discount all the social problems that contributed to the tragedy.

BRANDON LAMSON Minneapolis, Minn.

As long as the G.O.P. panders to the fanatics in the gun lobby, Americans will have to endure a senseless massacre every few months. Check your calendar for the next one.

DAVID LEWIS Kingfisher, Okla.

On the Lookout for Illegals

"Do-It-Yourself Border Patrol" [April 4], on the Minuteman Project, a volunteer effort to watch a stretch of the Arizona border with Mexico, reported that local officials are nervous about the participation of people from out of state. Wouldn't it be wonderful if the officials were that concerned about illegal aliens breaking into our country? After all, the Minutemen are only doing the job Washington won't do.

ELIZABETH VENABLE Georgetown, Texas

If there is an issue on which more voters are in agreement than stopping illegal immigration, what is it? My sympathy is with the people trying to do something. The government's efforts are glacial and overwhelmingly insufficient. Let's go to the next level: close the doors, and put up a NO VACANCY sign!

CATHERINE BUTTON Westampton, N.J.

Canadian Clubs

Re "Save the Seals by Skipping Scallops?" [April 4], about the protest against Canada's government-sanctioned seal hunts in which baby seals are clubbed to death: I agree with the Humane Society of the U.S.'s boycott of all Canadian seafood. In many former whale-hunting areas, the locals earn their income from whale-watching tours. Let's turn the tide from baby-seal slaughter to seal watching.

MELODY HALLIGAN Slidell, La.

Reclaiming the Minefields

Your article on Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice included a photo of her with an Afghan girls' soccer team [March 28]. Therein lies an inspiring story. Those girls play soccer on a field that was cleared of land mines with the help of Roots of Peace, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) that raises money from U.S. middle and high school students. The State Department works with 50 NGOs to raise money from private sources for land-mine removal, augmenting the nearly $1 billion the U.S. government has contributed since 1993.

ROSE M. LIKINS ACTING ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR POLITICAL-MILITARY AFFAIRS U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE

Washington