Latvians Maligned?

It is very insulting to Latvians everywhere that The Times writes about a play whose creators are desperate for attention and more than slightly misguided (“Taking On a Not-So-Quiet Killer,” by Daryl H. Miller, Jan. 24).

To name their work “Riga,” the capital of Latvia, a city that is 798 years old, is a disgusting move by two men whose logic should be questioned. Perhaps playwright William M. Hoffman and director Marshall W. Mason should spend more time reading up on history to better understand the plight of the Latvian people and how much this nation has suffered. Not only did Hitler inflict his demented ways on Latvians, so did Stalin as well as those that came before and after them.

By using the capital of a small country as part of their attempt at stirring up controversies dealing with sexuality, minorities and the Holocaust is completely wrong. What a very small minority did under terrible duress does not represent what the majority did, believed, or thinks.

PETERIS GAIDE

Sacramento