Letters.

Fighting Fire With Fire

The view of your writer on the situation in the Middle East ("Aiming to Die," 3/19/01) is preposterous. If one were to throw rocks and Molotov cocktails at you, would you stand there and wait for someone to get hurt before you retaliated? It is not the fault of the Israeli government that teenage Palestinians go and throw rocks at the Karni Crossing in the West Bank. It is the fault of the Palestinian government for passively encouraging this violence. As the article states, these children believe that they will become martyrs for Islam, but many of them do not understand what a martyr is.

MATTHEW MELAMED Great Neck, N.Y.

The Palestinian Authority is directly connected to terrorism--including the deaths of a 10-month-old baby and of two teenagers at a bus stop during the waning days of March. Why are the American media so quick to show the Palestinians as the victims? Israel has a right to protect its people, and if the Palestinians don't like it, they should stop the terrorism.

TYLER KORFF Boston, Mass.

It's a Dog's Life 

People who haven't seen the Iditarod sled-dog race don't know much about it ("Is the Iditarod Fair to Dogs?" Opinion, 3/5/01). When Diane Maydosz says there aren't enough veterinarians at each checkpoint, she is totally wrong. The Iditarod comes through here every year. Not like spoiled house dogs that Diane might know, dogs that run free in Alaska like racing and mushing better than being at home. It's a punishment to keep them at home. The dogs think they are being grounded.

HEATHER BOOTHE's FIFTH- AND SIXTH-GRADE CLASS Koyuk-Malemute School Koyuk, Alaska 

Boy Bashing

If you go through and replace "girls" with "whites" and "boys" with "blacks," your irresponsibility becomes apparent ("Girls Rule," 3/5/01). Take your cover, for instance: "Girls Rule: They Work Harder, Score Higher, and Know It." I understand that you were attempting to illustrate female empowerment and dispel the notion that males "rule," but your presentation was insensitive. The state of teenage males is obviously not heading in the right direction--every fatal school shooting has been at the hands of a male. But to claim there is a battle of the sexes is ridiculous. We are all in the fight together, and if one sex is losing, we're all losing.

R. C. ANDERSON Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

I am so turned off by the boy-bashing tone of your cover. How far have we come if we have to be hostile toward one group in order to discuss the progress of another? If part of your point is that boys seem to be struggling, why be nasty about it?

MEG BIRMINGHAM New Haven, Conn.

At my school, both the honor roll and the merit list are almost evenly divided between the sexes. The girls probably try harder, but we do work our butts off too.

RISTAV KOHLI Marietta, Ga.