Home Delivery

May 5: War protests, lowering airfares, black violence, bad spending habits

May 5, 2008

Article tools

E-mail

Share
- Digg
- Del.icio.us
- Facebook
- Fark
- Google
- Newsvine
- Reddit
- Yahoo

Yeah, we'd like lower airfares

Robert Crandall may have been the CEO of American Airlines, but his suggestions for improving the airline industry are hopelessly out of touch with today's reality ["State of the airlines doesn't fly with him," Business & Technology, April 29].

Crandall seems to think that discount airlines should be punished by being banned from major airports, which would be reserved for the so-called legacy (expensive) carriers. That may be fine if you're living on a CEO's retirement package, but the rest of us actually shop for better fares. Crandall says we "don't need the lowest possible prices," but the flying public says otherwise - many of the legacy airlines are on the verge of bankruptcy, and the low-cost carriers are flourishing.

Delays are caused by too many planes landing and departing from too few runways, and that won't be solved by elitist pricing schemes - unless fares become so expensive that only the wealthiest among us can afford to fly.

Larry Rachman

Centerport

Our misplaced spending habits

Priorities today amaze me: The country is in a recession and consumers spent $18 million this past weekend at the box office to see the latest movie ["Oh, 'Mama,' it's No. 1" News, April 28].

Many of us can barely afford to eat and pay our bills but our children have $60 each to go out and buy the video game Grand Theft Auto IV, filled with sex and violence. The gaming company expects to sell 8 million copies this week. Isn't that nice - great skills that are going to help prepare our children for the future.

Christian John Nielsen

Ridge

Defense of Clemens: Ew

Wallace Mathews' column on Roger Clemens is typical of the male attitude toward women ["Defending him, believe it or not", Sports, April 29]. He writes: "The fact that she was 15 and he was 28? ...These days, 15 is the new 30."

Sorry Mr. Mathews, but 15 is still 15 and if there was any sexual involvement, it's called statutory rape. It doesn't even matter if the 15 year old "looks" 30. If Clemens is guilty, he should be charged to the full extent of the law, period.

Christine Gietschier

Westbury

Black violence, many causes

Yes, the black community has the belief that the police too often shoot young black men without sufficient cause ["Underlying question," Editorial, April 29].

What the editorial failed to examine was the belief that young black men are often considered by the police to be more dangerous than other groups. They are disproportionately more often arrested for and convicted of violent crimes than other groups.

Officers, black as well as white, are not sent out to sacrifice their lives because of political correctness. Young black men are the greatest victims of violence and crime. We cannot solve this problem by refusing to examine all its causes.

John J. Brennan

Bayport

Protest, protect and honor

A story about the funeral for Sag Harbor Marine Lance Cpl. Jordan C. Haerter described "Patriot Guard Riders, whose members are often invited by families to stand between the mourners and any anti-war demonstrators who may try to disrupt them at military funerals. But Monday no one came to protest the war" ["A hero remembered," News, April 29].

Of course it would have been inappropriate in that place to stage a war protest. The Patriot Guard Riders were unnecessary and also inappropriate.

I am one who has stood regularly on the streets of Sag Harbor in opposition to the Iraq war since before this crime against our young people and the people of Iraq started.

To not protest would mean to be complicit in the crime.

Anthony Ernst

Southampton

Send e-mail to letters@ newsday.com, or fax to 631-843-2986. Letters will be edited, become property of Newsday and may be republished in any format.