Not-So-Friendly Skies
Your article concerning summer air travel really hit home ["Summer Air Travel Guide," June 18]. My family was returning from a cruise and was to fly back to Atlanta from San Juan, Puerto Rico. We were at the airport three hours early only to find out that our flight was canceled. This was on a Sunday, and we were told that the airline could probably have a plane for us around Wednesday. We had to purchase and pay for one-way tickets to Atlanta by a different carrier and, after spending one night in a hotel in San Juan, flew out on Monday afternoon. We still do not know how much our original carrier will reimburse us for the replacement tickets. The one-way tickets were more expensive than our round-trip tickets.
JOHN GLEATON
Monroe, Ga.
How depressing for citizens of the greatest and wealthiest country in the world! All you offer is instruction on how to survive the American air transportation mess. Where are our leaders, representatives, and public servants who cost us millions each year?
ANDREW AND KRYSTYNA URBANCZYK
Montara, Calif.
As a travel consultant, I was disappointed that there was no mention about using a travel agency in any of the summer travel articles. Working with a travel agent can get faster results. Travel agents have special contact phone numbers and will intercede with the airlines, including rebooking a flight, or can get hotel or car reservations in one call.
KAREN S. CASEY
Fort Wayne, Ind.
I read "How to Beat the Airport Mess" en route home after an inexcusably frustrating trip. I do not have any answers on how to make air travel easier, but I believe better communication from airport staff and agents would have helped make my debacle a little more tolerable. A pilot in the Orlando airport summed up the problem: "Welcome to my world. When I go on vacation, I drive."
RITA RUTLEDGE
Pittsford, N.Y.
If you remove the on-time/crowded flights factor, I think one of the best airports around is Charlotte, N.C.["Most Miserable Airports"]. It has great rocking chairs and even better food and is fairly easy to move around in. These factors count for a lot when you are delayed or just have time between flights.
GLORIA GONZALEZ
Pensacola, Fla.
The last comment in "Secrets of the Savviest Travelers" was on target: "An option that works for me: Don't fly." This country needs to embark on coast-to-coast and border-to-border construction of high-speed rail. Not only would it be more affordable than air, thus increasing mobility of more Americans, but it would also reduce air's tremendous energy consumption and its contribution to global warming.
DAVID D. WERNER
Missoula, Mont.
Disaster Relief
I applaud Bernadine Healy's insightful nod to one of our nation's most pre-eminent institutions of medical, nursing, and public health education: the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences ["Serving Military Medicine," June 11]. In the years since 9/11, the tsunami in Southeast Asia, and Hurricane Katrina, the need for a structured, interdisciplinary, multidepartmental response to disasters has become increasingly apparent. Public health and medicine represent an arena for which this type of cross-service coordination is exceedingly important. With students from the Army, Navy, and Air Force learning side by side with members of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, USU has cultivated this interdisciplinary approach to healthcare since its inception. Graduates have been prepared to handle the global challenges of public health and medical responses to natural and man-made disasters and humanitarian missions. Just a few weeks ago, members of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps began deploying to Navy ships in Latin America, the Caribbean, and Southeast Asia as part of combined government humanitarian assistance initiatives.
REAR ADM. KENNETH P. MORITSUGU, M.D.
Acting United States Surgeon General
Washington, D.C.
Illiteracy in the Middle East
Your article titled "In Afghanistan, it Takes a Soap Opera to Build Villages" [June 18] stated that 80 percent of the population there is illiterate. And the United States is trying to instill democracy in this backward nation? This is the reason we are having such a hard time in the Arab world. Democracy offers too many options for the uninformed to handle effectively. We must start from the bottom up educating the masses of the Arab world. Then they will have the capabilities of self-government.
ED ROBERTS
Coarsegold, Calif.
Iran and Statecraft
"The Fine Art of Statecraft" [June 18] by former Mideast negotiator Ambassador Dennis Ross neglected to mention that statecraft is also about respecting the international regimes and rights of other nations. Iran has a peaceful nuclear program within the framework of the Non-Proliferation Treaty and the full scope of safeguard and verification standards of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which has repeatedly confirmed the absence of any military diversion after extensive inspections. Ross's prescribed path of fast-track sanctions is, in fact, a slow motion to disaster, by escalating the tensions without any chance of forcing the proud Iranian people to forfeit their "inalienable rights." The threat of military action against Iran endorsed by Ross is tantamount to a blatant act of unprovoked aggression contrary to the fundamental principles of relations among nations.
M. A. MOHAMMADI
Press Counselor
Mission of Iran to the United Nations
New York
This story appears in the July 16, 2007 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.