A Holocaust Memorial for All?

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Onur Air

Onur Airline's deputy chairman said that "we ourselves would not allow a plane to fly if it had any faults." I think the Pilots also would not be allowed to fly if the plane has any faults. To prove the deputy chairman's statement the authorities (should) allow deputy chairman Sabahattin Bolukcu to travel with the Onur Airlines planes that have faults. As a citizen of Turkey, I want to believe that the European do say the truth. -- Aylin Tulun

This handling of Holland and Germany against Onur Air is so stupid, that they can stop an airline without a valid explanation which opens (the) way to do everything illegally and do everything when they are forced by companies like (German tourism giant) TUI. -- Gunduz Dogusoy

The Netherlands and Germany have taken the right steps in banning Onur Air from Dutch and German soil. The ban is not without reason. Dutch officials have warned Onur time and time again. The last time they were warned that when another major failure occurred Onur Air would be banned. When a major engine failure arose during departure from Turkey, Dutch officials took the right step and banned all flights. The Turks are saying this is a complete surprise and that the Netherlands and Germany have commercial reasons. These arguments are false. A friend of mine works for the Dutch Transportation Ministry and he says Onur has received several piles of documents over the years concerning safety issues. I think Turkey is very angry because they are portrayed as a second-rank country, while they want to be seen as a modern western European country. If so they should not let Onur fly in two 30-year-old Lockheeds flying under the flag of Kirgizstan and Congo. -- Rogier Spoel

Global Warming

My thinking on global warming is that it is naturally occurring. No one has been able to prove to me that it is caused by CO2. -- Cameron Kuhns, United States

I live on the planes of central Canada at about 50 degrees north. The experience of four day bouts of -67 C, -97 with the wind chill used to occur about once a winter. After a 4 day visitation it would rise to -40 and we would go out in the streets in our T-shirts and dance whoopee. Years passed and the global warming that we had been promised since the 60s finally came. Now it seldom drops below minus 40. Some winters it doesn't drop below minus 20. Now to what causes global-warming. Naturally I should like to blame the Americans. But realistically it is as if we and the planet are on some kind of fatalistic timeline. We stop clubbing baby seals; they develop strange diseases -- but not before depleting the cod stocks. We reduce emissions; forest fires burn out of control for months. So we sacrifice -- no seal-hats/cold ears. I don't believe that George Bush is this enlightened. But going back to burning coal might make it rain more. -- Yuri

Global warming is a theory -- far from being proven. In the history of the earth, CO2 content of the atmosphere has been much higher. It appears the northern half of the earth is warming, while the southern half is cooling. The observed changes are well within prior historical observations and reflect only the natural variations caused by the Earth's rotation and tilt in the orbit around the sun. Similar alarmists only 30 years ago were touting a coming glacier age. Interested parties want government grants for study, and the media like the story because they can point with alarm at any little event or statement by a Green. -- Roger Parrish

I believe that processes and practices associated with industrialization have been responsible for the speed with which global warming is occurring. This, of course, is worldwide. That being said, however, I find that the US, which produces the highest proportion of greenhouse gases, must bear primary responsibility. As an American, I am appalled that our present administration does not take the threat of global warming seriously. -- Helen Maurer

I think those responsible for global warming are the super rich, (who) not only assault the environment but use and waste all the planet natural resources. -- Maria Bedacht, Brazil

US Troop Withdrawal

I was in Germany stationed in Kassel in the 1950s and it was good I even have a German wife from there. However, the current dislike of the people in Germany today because of the liberal press that is now in Germany I know full well going to Germany each year had changed to anti American the only thing that will be missed is the free spending of the American troops will be the money they spend on the local economy. It was better with the American, not with the French who are leading Germany into further bankruptcy. Germany needs a new leader not the one you have now. Change before it is too late for Germany and get out of the EU and become the healthy nation that it was under previous leadership. -- Harold Regner

My belief is that all US bases should be de-commissioned and all troops returned to the US. There is no justifiable reason to keep them there as an occupying force and some German citizens I have talked with want them to go. -- Thomas Clark

The US troop withdrawal will have a negative economic impact, the size of the community will determine the extent. The move will happen since forces do need to be realigned. A solution/counter proposal for the BRD could be to offer bases in the former DDR where the economy is less robust. Pain would remain, but there could be economic gain where it is needed. Something which seems bad for some German communities can be good for the BRD if this is done. -- T. McPherson, USA

Holocaust Memorial in Berlin

The memorial should be to the 11 million people who lost their lives in the Holocaust. Five million were not Jewish and they are always forgotten. How sad that this memorial does not include them. -- Dottie Hashizumi

Gladly the leaders of the free world have, since the Holocaust, recognized that situations similar must never occur anywhere in the world again. There is no blame to label anyone with. The people who initiated the Holocaust are dead. My wish is that Jews everywhere stop finding a place to attach blame. That era does not exist anymore. how many rememberance days and memorials do we need? I think it is shameful and poignant to what Van Der Linden said, "One can't hold descendants responsible for their parents' acts, but you can hold them responsible for what they do with the memories of their ancestors' crimes." I think it's time to start healing as a collective. I think it's time Jews realize it was a "world" war that happened to everyone. -- Rog

For me the monument is a little sardonic in its resemblance of a three dimensional bar graph. But then maybe to remind us not to see people as numbers. A graveyard or representational monument is like good art. No one can tell another what to feel. The important thing is to be present, to know that this place means something but to accept that others may take awhile to understand. Furthermore, if the dead are watching, let them smile at the laughing children and forget their sorrow for a moment. -- Yuri

I am not certain of Jewish doctrine or dogma on the subject, but I believe setting a tooth in the memorial would thereby make it, albeit technically, a cemetery. And if I'm not mistaken, the Hebrew tradition on burial places is quite complex and involved. -- David J Smith III