Improvement Weigh-In
You did an excellent job with this year's list of "50 Ways to Improve Your Life in 2007" [Dec. 25, 2006-Jan. 1, 2007]. I was delighted with the piece "Learn About Islam." When people learn about one another's beliefs and traditions, it erases the fear and anxiety of the unknown. I hope the non-Muslim world will come to understand that Muslims live in all parts of the world and that the overwhelming majority of us want to achieve peace and happiness on Earth and in the hereafter, God willing.
HAPPY BEGUM
Haledon, N.J.
In "Learn About Islam," you recommend books by Bernard Lewis. He is great on Islamic history, but most of his books don't mention ultraconservative Wahhabism. Saudi Arabia has spent billions to establish madrasah religious schools and mosques staffed with Wahhabi clerics, from Jakarta, Indonesia, to Los Angeles. Wahhabi clerics teach their distorted version of the Koran and hatred of the West. The Saudis claim to have cracked down on these extremists. The bottom line is that 15 of 19 hijackers on 9/11 were Saudi Wahhabis. How can we forget?
RICHARD W. HALE
Sanibel, Fla.
I could not agree more with "Coach Your Kid's Sports Team" and told our community basketball commissioner to read it. He runs a community basketball league that we have both coached for several years. I also agree with the "Think Twice About Travel Teams" article. Kids 10 to 12 years old playing school, travel, and community ball have no time for anything but homework at the end of the day. I have said that travel teams ruined youth sports at the local level.
DAVID SERGISON
Clinton, N.J.
There were several references to the global warming panic in "50 Ways to Improve Your Life in 2007." Your advice to read An Inconvenient Truth ["Book a Passage to Change ..."], to "See a Glacier (Before It Melts)," and "To Buy Farther Inland" is misguided. Remember the panic 30 to 40 years ago about the coming ice age? The hype about global warming is just another example of the environmental panic of the decade.
RALPH WEBER
Fairview, N.C.
In "50 Ways to Improve Your Life," you included "Give Your Teen More Driving Time." More operational practice should enhance a novice driver's ability to control a vehicle. However, providing additional practice using unskilled instructors in vehicles without dual controls could result in death and injuries to the participants as well as to others sharing the roadway. Also, parents and amateur driving instructors must understand that teenagers' driving knowledge has been influenced by incidental observation for many years. Teen drivers emulate their parents' driving habits. All too often, parents involved in a negative driving episode blame others rather than themselves. Parents need and should receive, as part of a thorough new driver education program, instruction regarding their role in supporting their teen driver. A comprehensive safety education program should be provided in schools from kindergarten through grade 12 and integrated into the overall curriculum and teachers' certification requirements.
BERNARD KAPLAN
President Emeritus
Pennsylvania Association for Safety Education
Reading, Pa.
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