United Nations.

In articles about the UN in the Sept.-Oct. Voter, Mr. Luers stated that "most of the member states of the UN seek American leadership and support." If Mr. Luers is correct, it is time we gave serious thought to our responsibilities at the UN. In addition, Mr. Holmes stated that "for any reform to take root, member states must meet their obligations, accept their responsibilities and adhere to the principles for which the UN was founded."

It seems to me we are hiding our heads in the sand when such generalities do not identify the specifics of what the U.S. has done and needs to do to participate in these noble sounding goals. At the General Assembly meeting on 9/23, Kofi Anan called for reform, especially for the Security Council, to make it more representative. He, as well as the Brazilian and French Presidents, stressed the need for multilateral action by all member states. If "American leadership and support" is really wanted by the member states of the UN, we had better get our act together and come up with some constructive ideas as well as cooperation with UN programs; i.e. international recognition of the World Court; global warming treaty; nuclear test ban treaty and the regrettable unilateral action on Iraq.

To begin with we might lead the way, or at least participate in attempts to reform the Security Council: enlarging its membership based on some kind of logical representation of world populations and interests and not allowing vetoes but making decisions by majority vote. This is not my original idea but has been discussed in other forums. In the space allowed in the Voter it is probably difficult to go into any depth, but the two articles about the UN did not enable the reader to really understand or cope with the problems as I see them with our role and effectiveness in the UN.

Marjorie Chilcote

Corvallis, OR