Leading the Way
I loved your article on "America's Best Leaders" and the selection committee's choice of Marilyn Carlson Nelson ["Not Her Father's Chief Executive,"October 30]. She is an incredible woman, and it is no surprise that she holds the title of CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Her answers in the interview you published were exceptionally educated and on the money. She is a wonderful example of what a woman should be, and she would be an excellent teacher as well. I will be watching her a lot more from now on. I also liked how she used a favorite quote of mine from First Fig by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Thanks for the great article. This is the kind of stuff that we can all learn from, and best of all, it's positive!
ROBYN WELLER
Baytown, Texas
Cheers for "America's Best Leaders" and especially for "The Matter With the Mainstream." It reminded us to look into the mirror of accountability and to assess our roles in reviving the values of our best leaders. I urge teachers to make this required reading for every student entering the business world or maybe a mantra for every family as they begin each day. Thank you for another outstanding special report!
BARBARA CRANDELL
Clearwater, Fla.
Regarding "Guiding the Path to Mars" and Jet Propulsion Laboratory Director Charles Elachi: To be able to send the orbiter to Mars was certainly a technical feat, but for what? NASA continues to pour millions of tax dollars into this venture, even planning to eventually try to send humans. When is the public going to recognize that this is a make-work program to keep thousands of employees busy? There are plenty of projects here on Earth to spend money on-building alternative energy systems such as wind power and solar power, homes for the poor, etc. We could spend the money to subsidize school systems and bring down school taxes. We went to the moon and brought back nothing but rocks, and now NASA wants to go again.
HOWARD PURCELL
Amagansett, N.Y.
Statistics Vs. Studies
"To Have and Have Not" [November 13] regarding the use of CT scans to detect early lung cancer raises several issues. First, as noted in the original article, a number of patients would require potentially harmful invasive biopsy procedures to diagnose benign nodules. Second, we do not know whether removing these early cancers would actually extend life or only appear to do so. Finally, this is a very costly program requiring screening in perpetuity. Instead, the money could be better spent on smoking prevention and cessation programs. If you want the biggest bang for your healthcare dollar, prevention is the horse to bet on.
ROBERT MATZ, M.D.
Professor of Medicine
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
New York
"To Have and Have Not" was a splendid piece of writing that spoke volumes to me personally. My family represents a Have and a Have Not with respect to cancer survival. I have survived colon and prostate cancers because of early screening and a proactive primary-care doctor. Sadly for me, my wife represented the Have Not side of cancer screening. She was a high-risk person for lung cancer, but our same primary-care doctor, following established protocol, did not routinely give her low-dose CT scans or X-rays during her annual physicals. A CT scan finally confirmed her stage IV lung cancer, and she died three weeks later on Thanksgiving Day. I have lost friends to lung cancer for essentially the same reason: no routine screening. The answer to the screening question is one of simple statistics, not endless studies.
LINCOLN H. MUELLER SR.
Virginia Beach, Va.
Iraq Imagery Upset
Why should we have the "balance" of imagery in Iraq that Mortimer B. Zuckerman proposes in "The Tyranny of Imagery" [October 30]? What difference does it make if there is some positive news when Americans are dying every day? What difference does it make that villages are "restored to life" and there is "progress in the schools"? Why is the welfare of Iraq our business in the first place? Why should Americans be dying to save Iraqis from themselves? What difference does it make that there is some positive news that is being neglected in the media? Progress in schools versus endless deaths every day is not a reasonable trade-off.
BOB BOWSER
Flagstaff, Ariz.
Although I agreed with Zuckerman's suggestions to the military and government policymakers to improve communication on their own behalf in the Iraq situation, I couldn't believe the pass he gave himself and his profession. According to Zuckerman, the acknowledged fact that news organizations regularly misrepresent the factual picture of the Iraq war is a problem best fixed by the government. Zuckerman avoided taking personal responsibility for the incomplete picture painted by his profession yet gave advice about how to overcome the false picture the media spent considerable effort creating. Before you remove the speck from another's eye, remove the plank in your own eye.
BOB HECK
St. Louis
Zuckerman's editorial pages were a jeremiad about the state of affairs in Iraq. It was pointed out that "the violence ... is terrible." The next statement is that TV journalists are drawn to conflict and drama. Zuckerman also said that "it shouldn't obscure the fact that much of Iraq is relatively peaceful and that progress in many areas-restoration of infrastructure, building of schools-is being made." Certainly there has not been much evidence of that. I am a regular reader of your magazine but can't recall that we have had much in the way of this kind of reporting.
ZERKA T. MORENO
Charlottesville, Va.
This story appears in the November 27, 2006 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.