The first plane: There is a factual error in "Rough Skies" (November 21) that got past the writer and editor. Several female employees had not "just watched a plane fly into the North Tower of New York's World Trade Center."
They might have been reacting to the start of TV news coverage, or to the realization that people were jumping. Everyone watched as the second plane hit the South Tower, but the footage of the first crash did not appear until much later.
Be wary of how the assault of repeated media messages can tend to influence how you think.
Jeff Christenson
Plano
Editor's note: Mr. Christenson is correct. American Airlines security director Larry Wansley admits he didn't have much time for TV-watching on September 11. In all likelihood, the reaction he heard from the adjacent conference room that morning was to broadcast news that a plane had crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, with the corresponding images of billowing smoke. Only later was actual footage shown of the plane hitting the building.
The Original Crusaders
Rapacious Christians: Mr. Korosec's "Crusaders" brought forth many interesting and intelligent letters. That is, except for one written by Mr. Anonymous who claimed that Islam is the world's biggest cult that believes it is "OK to kill nonbelievers." Obviously, Mr. Anonymous has overlooked the Spanish Inquisition (1476) and the Crusades: 1095-1101, 1145-1148, 1188-1192, 1202-1204, 1212, 1228-1229, 1248-1254 and 1267-1270.
Rushing to my Catholic encyclopedia (although I am not Catholic, they must be considered the authority on such things), I noted that "The" Church's definition of a cult is the worship of "a thing or person." One would suppose that the Christian faith would meet the definition of a cult in that it was decided by the Council of Nicaea that "Jesus Christ [was] the only Son of God" (from the Nicene Creed). I've never heard a Muslim make the claim that Mohammed was God. It is on this point that the conflict of the two religious systems is centered. Islam believes that Christians are infidels because they believe a man (Jesus) is God. In fact, according to Eliphas Levi, Mohammad used to utter, when speaking of Christians, the following remarkable words: "Jesus of Nazareth was verily a true prophet of Allah and a grand man; but lo! His disciples all went insane one day, and made a god of him." Then, as history demonstrates, Christians went more insane by trying to kill everyone on the planet who didn't believe as they did.
All of this proves one simple thing--we can't judge the validity of a religion by looking at its followers. If we did, one look at Jerry Falwell or Mr. Anonymous would have cleared all the churches.
Richard E. Finlan
Dallas
Suffering your sacrifice: C.R. (Bob) Hefner Jr. of Dallas wrote: "Muhammad's teachings stand against all that those men who knew Jesus and wrote about their years with him have to tell us about him. Either they were liars--and in many cases willing to die for their lie--or Muhammad 400 years after Jesus' death was a liar. It does not surprise us too much to find that there are those among us who are willing to make great sacrifices and undertake great risk to set the record straight" (Letters, November 28).
What if both parties are wrong or are liars? Do the rest of us have to suffer because of your sacrifices and risks?
Mark McCauley
Via e-mail
Out, Damned Potholes
Haven for the homeless: Damn the Pothole/Central Park in downtown ("Big-Ticket Laura," November 28)! What about a home for the homeless in downtown Dallas? The park is where the homeless will end up, anyway.
Rose Mary Henderson
DeSoto
Someone's Lying
And it isn't Scott Savage: Having been in radio, I know almost everyone mentioned in this article ("Hot Air," October 31). They are, to the person, good people with fine talents, and Scott Savage is one of the most decent, honest persons I have ever known or worked with.
I don't know, nor have I ever heard of, Dave Schum, but if Scott Savage says Mr. Schum told him to launch KCAF and Mr. Schum denies it, then Mr. Schum is not telling the truth.
Thanks for the article. Good reporting!
Tony Lawrence
Via e-mail
A Very Ignorant Man
Thousand points of light: I am responding to Robert Wilonsky's criticism of people interested in the JFK assassination (Full Frontal, November 28). Wilonsky is a very ignorant man, and I challenge this ignoramus to explain the following:
1. Why Vice President LBJ was writing to Oswald's CIA friend George De Mohrenschildt seven months before the assassination and vice versa;
2. Why Henry Kissinger and George H.W. Bush are close friends of the De Mohrenschildt family;
3. Why George H.W. Bush and Edwin Pauley were in charge of Operation Zapata--known to the American public as the Bay of Pigs;
4. Why De Mohrenschildt and Allen Dulles' relatives co-founded the Espionage Unit of the Secret Service during World War I;
5. Who George De Mohrenschildt was and why he is important to the JFK assassination investigation;
6. Why Mrs. George De Mohrenschildt (a.k.a. Jeanne Le Gon), Abraham Zapruder and Olga Fehmer (daughter was LBJ's secretary) all worked together at Nardis of Dallas, a clothing company in 1953-'54. They all belonged to the CIA;
7. Why the American public was not told that De Mohrenschildt's father-in-law, Samuel Walter Washington, was in charge of more than 250 CIA agents 10 years before the assassination.
Surely the blind can see that Mr. Wilonsky cannot hold a candle to these seven of 1,000 points of light.
Bruce Campbell Adamson
Aptos, California
