Slaughter in Algeria

Re your Jan. 23 editorial and other coverage of the slaughter in Algeria: It’s disturbing that few Americans are concerned at all that the Algerian government is either directly or indirectly responsible for the horrifying slaughter of thousands of innocent men, women and children. If more people understood the magnitude of the suffering in that country, we could expend our energies pressuring our representatives to urge financial sanctions (via American companies that have an interest there). Alas, this might cause us some hardship--we might have to pay more, at least temporarily, for petroleum-based products.

It’s much easier for people to become emotionally overwrought about our president’s peccadilloes. Thus, these stories have a stranglehold on front-page coverage. Sadly, it is easy to draw the conclusion that we have little sense of what’s important in life and very little compassion indeed.

NANCY MELUCCI

Garden Grove