Letters

Harry Potter is no Gandhi. Though Bill Wylie-Kellermann (“Harry and the Principalities,” November 2011) believes that Harry “never kills anyone,” the whole mission of book seven was to find and destroy Horcruxes, parts of Tom Riddle’s (Voldemort’s) soul.  Harry is not opposed to the use of force, even if it reluctantly leads to his enemy’s demise.                       

Steve Bisset
Laurel, Maryland

I was delighted to see the article on forgiveness by Brittany Shoot (“Forgive and Forget?”) in your January 2012 issue. Since she mentioned Archbishop Tutu in her article, I thought your readers would appreciate seeing an original quote from one of his 2007 speeches. The archbishop said, “Forgiveness does not mean ‘forgive and forget.’ It stares the beast in the eye, names the hurt, and refuses to return it, seeking not to punish but to heal.” There could be no better description of the amazing and Christlike response of the Amish community in the face of tragedy.

Certainly it is questionable for our government to be keeping contract soldiers in Iraq behind our backs (“A Stunning Victory,” by Phyllis Bennis, December 2011). But I nevertheless find Bennis’ arguments disturbing. Assuming it is true that the Iraqi government is “weak and corrupt,” is that a reason for us to leave? If we save money by getting out of Iraq, is she seriously suggesting that our government would spend the money instead on health care for children?

I found Tom Getman’s article “Holy Land Farce” (November 2011) to be very one-sided in its perception of Glenn Beck’s Rally to Restore Courage in August. I am a Jewish person, almost 62 years old, who became a Christian when I was 50. I have always been more liberal than conservative, but I must say that as I watched Glenn Beck and Pastor Hagee, I felt understood, supported—and, yes, loved.

I found Tom Getman’s article “Holy Land Farce” (November 2011) to be very one-sided in its perception of Glenn Beck’s Rally to Restore Courage in August. I am a Jewish person, almost 62 years old, who became a Christian when I was 50. I have always been more liberal than conservative, but I must say that as I watched Glenn Beck and Pastor Hagee, I felt understood, supported—and, yes, loved.

Your excellent article on the good work being done by ECHO (“Ending the Hunger Season,” by Fred Bahnson, August 2011) was marred by its stringent [implied] criticism of the millions of small family farmers who feed the world, of whom I am one. Norman Borlaug, whom you cite, reduced the height of wheat from over five feet to two feet and thereby brought about a trebling of yields. Rice breeders followed his example, and with these far more efficient plants the world’s farmers have been able to keep the world’s exploding, meat-eating, urban dwelling population alive for the past 50 years.

In your December 1979 issue, there was an article paying tribute to Clarence Jordan, founder of Koinonia Farm Community (“Clarence Jordan and Koinonia,” by Joyce Hollyday). With the information from that article, I did a biographical sermon on Clarence Jordan on July 13, 1980, at Portland’s First United Methodist Church, and sent a copy to Clarence’s widow, Florence Jordan. She got me in touch with Millard Fuller, one-time Koinonia resident and later founder of Habitat for Humanity.

Re: “Cruel and Unequal,” a large number of persons who are incarcerated in jails and prisons across our country are seriously mentally ill, and have not received appropriate treatment because our commitment to treatment laws and our mental health systems are inhumane, inadequate, and seriously in need of repair. The cruel truth is that today America has more mentally ill individuals incarcerated than any other First World country.                    

I am so glad you discovered Michelle Alexander (“Cruel and Unequal,” February 2011; see also “‘Colorblind’ Racism” by Liane Rozzell, June 2010). The U.S. may finally recover from Nixon’s war on drugs, which began when H.R. Haldeman wrote in his 1969 diary, “[President Nixon] emphasized that you have to face the fact that the whole problem is really the blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognizes this while not appearing to.”