Responses to "Marta believer? No way," @issue, June 13

Middle class must buy into rail

Regarding Katerina Lewis' maiden voyage on MARTA: Toughen up, people. Look around any MARTA bus or train —- you see mostly poor black or brown folks enduring what Lewis describes, but with stoic resignation. Most don't ride MARTA because gas costs sting —- they're compulsory riders with no options. They get dumped on routinely, so when MARTA does it too, it's just more of the same. When poor folks complain about MARTA, who cares?

If one-fourth of the middle class in the metro area was forced to use MARTA regularly for work, getting to Braves games, the airport, etc., do you think they'd put up with old or dirty trains, incontinent drunks and vagrants, and poor security? They'd scream, and heads would roll. MARTA trains would be clean, safe and efficient, with plentiful stops and convenient routes.

My point? Until cream puffs toughen up and ride MARTA in large numbers, the system will never improve. As long as suburbanites opt for their own vehicles the second they encounter problems, we'll never have quality transit in Atlanta.

PAT WEAVER

Alpharetta

Give it more than one day

While I can sympathize with Katerina Lewis' experience, it's a little like driving through the Connector for the first time on a morning there is an overturned tractor-trailer blocking all lanes. It's frustrating, but not a daily occurrence. One day's observation does not equate to a daily experience. I've ridden MARTA to work and social events for over two years, almost every day. While there are times I have been frustrated with mechanical issues, the time and aggravation I've saved from driving on Atlanta's roads have more than made up for it. I've found MARTA to be one of the cleanest mass transit systems in the world, on par with Tokyo. Why doesn't Lewis try more than once before dismissing MARTA out of hand? We can have bad hair days once in a while.

SCOTT CANTRELL

Atlanta

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Iraq war

Responses to "The Iraq war: Did Bush lie?" @issue, June 10 and Jay Bookman's column "Case for war was built on 'cynical manipulation'," @issue, June 12

Bad intelligence? No, Dick Cheney

Anyone laboring under the impression that our intelligence agencies' failure led us into the Iraq war is asleep. After 9/11, Dick Cheney felt the agencies had failed and revamped them. He directed that all intelligence reports were to come through his office so he could verify them. Most importantly, a directive was sent by the executive branch to all intelligence agencies (a copy is in the 9/11 report) stating that all intelligence report conclusions were to be based on possibilities as opposed to probability. This change, in effect, nullifies intelligence, as almost anything is possible; intelligence is supposed to lead to the probable. For example, most 2001 intelligence reports stated Saddam did not have weapons of mass destruction, but certainly they could not state it was impossible that he did.

ROBERT P. LYNCH

Jonesboro

Findings were selectively applied

Jay Bookman brings out two key points in the recent Senate Intelligence Committee report. These underscore that intelligence findings were selectively applied by the Bush administration. We remember the scary statement that "the smoking gun ... could come in the form of a mushroom cloud," widely repeated by senior Bush administration officials. We also recall the false administration statement that Iraq was importing aluminum tubes that could only be used in centrifuges to enrich weapons-grade uranium. There was the claim that Iraq was importing yellow cake uranium ore from Niger. This was proved to be a fraud yet was still included in the State of the Union address. Ultimately, this falsehood degenerated into the infamous Valerie Plame case.

ROBERT E. FLETCHER

Marietta

Bookman disregards the facts

Jay Bookman has made a career recently of misrepresenting the causes for going to war in Iraq and the progress being made there. In his column he misinterprets the content of the article written by Washington Post editorial page editor Fred Hiatt. After reviewing the recent Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report, Hiatt wrote that the report reached these conclusions: Iraq's nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programs and overall WMD program were all substantiated or generally substantiated by intelligence-community estimates before we went to war with Iraq. The same was said about Iraq's ties with al-Qaida and other terrorist groups. Bookman reluctantly acknowledges the conclusions on WMDs but refuses to recognize what Hiatt clearly states is written in the report about Iraq's terrorist connections. These connections were "substantiated by intelligence information." Another blatant disregard for the facts by Bookman.

RICHARD TRUMAN

Cumming

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Whose mockery?

In reference to the article on "California gays line up for vows" (Page One, June 17), Mathew D. Staver, the founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, is quoted as saying that Monday's ceremonies "make a mockery of marriage."

He is wrong. The 50 percent divorce rate made a mockery of marriage a long time ago.

JOHN RISKO

Atlanta

New coal-fired plant would be far superior to the alternative

Although I live less than four miles from the proposed new Power4Georgians plant in Washington County, I am not so quick to condemn this plant. Despite conservation and in the face of very long delays for the development of alternative sources, a coal-fired plant using modern technology appears to be the best available alternative.

Compared with the smoke-belching plants of the 1940s, this plant will have new particulate- and emission-capture technologies that will emit only 20 percent of the emissions produced by the nearby Plant Branch on Lake Sinclair, according to information released by the plant sponsors.

One of my favorite winter fishing spots in Sinclair is in the cooling pond. The fish are fine to eat. Nor is there damage to nearby vegetation, homes and businesses around the lake or in Milledgeville. The Washington plant will be a smaller facility and have 80 percent fewer emissions. Even having this plant as a neighbor is preferred to the alternative —- an increasing number of brownouts, power shortages, lost jobs and a generally degrading quality of life because of out-of-sight electric bills.

WILLIAM HOVEY SMITH

Washington County

Mayor should keep closer tabs on funds

I was amazed that Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, along with the mayors of New York, Jacksonville and Kansas City, had the audacity to request federal dollars to assist in the rebuilding of infrastructure of their cities ("Help us fix city, mayor asks Congress," Metro, June 13).

I don't know about other cities, but after the millions of dollars Atlanta has received over two decades for education, public works, public transportation assistance and advancement, Franklin is requesting more!

Maybe keeping a closer watch over the city government, having a truly open bidding process for contracts and actually holding those companies, as well as department heads, accountable would be a better place to start in trying to balance the budget.

Many cities and towns are experiencing budget problems partly due to the economy. This does not explain where or how all the aid received over the past 20 years was used. As a 20-year resident of the metro area, I hope Atlanta will be the one city that takes a hard look at itself to eliminate waste.

CONNIE TILLMAN

Woodstock

Mental health care for kids is broken

Contrary to assurances that all children in Georgia who need mental health care are getting it, this simply is not true ("Criticism swells as mental funds cut," Page One, June 13). Fewer than one-third of the youth who need mental health treatment get any. Among the lucky ones who get help, fewer than one-third get state-of-the-art care. In recent months the Department of Community Health has contracted with managed care companies and the Department of Human Resources has instituted fee-for-service for youth with mental illnesses, creating a "perfect storm" for these young people and their families. As a result of restrictive rules, slow reimbursement and other payment problems, provider after provider has closed or downsized programs serving these vulnerable youth.

It is inappropriate and unnecessarily costly that mental health needs of many of these children are met by the Division of Family and Children Services and the Department of Juvenile Justice, which has become a de facto mental health system. If children with mental illnesses were adequately served by the system, many fewer would be at risk of falling into DJJ or DFCS, where the costs are great in dollars and personal tragedy. Until there is recognition that the public mental health system established to serve these children is broken, we can't even hope it will be fixed.

CYNTHIA WAINSCOTT

Wainscott is on the board of directors of Mental Health America of Georgia and Georgia Parent Support Network, and a member of the Substance Abuse, Mental Health Services Administration's National Mental Health Advisory Council.

Heavenly work from Luckovich

It seems Mike Luckovich saves his best work for memorials. The tribute to Tim Russert is an instant classic (@issue, June 17).

DAVE SHAW

Decatur

 MIKE LUCKOVICH / Staff
Cartoon tribute to Tim Russert