letters.nytimes.com/upfront ONLINE SURVEY Should the Music Industry Be Allowed to Shut Down Napster? Here's how you voted on the UPFRONT Web site on the question posed in our September 18 issue. [GRAPH OMITTED] Too Much Homework? I agree with Carrie McGourtey ("Do Students Get Too Much Homework?" 9/18/00). There is too much homework piled on students, and a majority of it is nothing more than busywork bus·y·work n. Activity, such as schoolwork or office work, meant to take up time but not necessarily yield productive results. Noun 1. . I think assigning too much homework is a way for our school system to excuse itself for taking so much classroom time to please students who could care less. JACKIE FRIDKIN Northbrook, Ill. I don't think high school students get too much homework. But often the homework assigned is of no real aid in understanding the subject and simply consumes one's time and effort. PATRICK CHEN Chen - Peter Chen San Jose San Jose, city, United States San Jose (sănəzā`, săn hōzā`), city (1990 pop. 782,248), seat of Santa Clara co., W central Calif.; founded 1777, inc. 1850. , Calif After a long, hard day at school, I want to relax, not sit down to four or five hours of assignments. NORA PITTS Austin, Tex. School for Kidnappers As a Jewish teen who is planning on traveling to Israel later this year, I found your article ("Battle for the Holy City," 9/18/00) well-balanced. But I was appalled at the picture on page 18 of the Palestinian teens staging a mock kidnapping kidnapping, in law, the taking away of a person by force, threat, or deceit, with intent to cause him to be detained against his will. Kidnapping may be done for ransom or for political or other purposes. of an Israeli official. The only information about the picture was a brief caption stating that 25,000 Palestinian teens attended a terrorist camp. You should have gone into greater detail, or more balanced detail. Palestinians are not the only ones who have been violent. RACHEL PETROFF Liverpool, N.Y. The article stated that when Jews Jews [from Judah], traditionally, descendants of Judah, the fourth son of Jacob, whose tribe, with that of his half brother Benjamin, made up the kingdom of Judah; historically, members of the worldwide community of adherents to Judaism. declared an independent Israel in 1948, Arab states attacked the next day. Yet it failed to relate exactly how the Jews went about claiming their state--by displacing more than 750,000 Palestinians and forcing them into refugee camps. The oppression still exists. Both Palestinians and Israelis are guilty of horrible terrorist acts; no one can deny that fact. KATHY NEUFELD Moundridge, Kans. An Eye for an Eye To call the death penalty inhumane in·hu·mane adj. Lacking pity or compassion. in  hu·mane ly adv. is ridiculous ("Innocent on Death Row," 9/18/00). I am 17, and a senior in high school, and I know right from wrong. For the most part, every teenager does. If you commit an irreversible irreversible (ir´ēvur´seb l),adj incapable of being reversed or returned to the original state. crime such as murder, you should be punished. When someone is killed, their life is over. Is it not society's duty to punish rightfully? Death for death. Putting them in prison is not a hard life. They still get visitations, calls, cigarettes, TV, and much more. What do the dead get? KRISTINA BARTLETT Garland Garland, city (1990 pop. 180,650), Dallas co., N Tex., a suburb of Dallas; inc. 1891. Since World War II, Garland has grown from an agricultural community into an important center for electronics research and for the production of electronic equipment. , Tex. The death penalty is wrong. It doesn't solve anything. By executing murderers, we play God. Who in this world can decide who should die and who shouldn't? The death penalty can never make it up to the families and friends of people who have been murdered. BETHANY DEAN Dallas, Tex. |
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