Missionary’s Death

Re “U.S. Role in Peru Plane Downing Adds to Mystery,” April 22: It doesn’t matter so much that this reactionary nation of ours has spent billions of dollars in a futile fight against drugs. We can afford it, and anyone who wants illegal drugs can easily buy them. But when our armed forces aggressively pursue and cause the murder of innocent people whose planes happen to be in the wrong place, it’s time to put a stop to the whole charade.

The “drug war” is an expensive and deceptive joke. Legalization, treatment and education are the only means by which drug abuse can be addressed successfully.

DAVID M. PERRY

Los Angeles

* So the Jewish Holocaust survivors are asking “Where was God?” (Religion, April 21). The answer is very simple--where he has always been: nonexistent! To make my point, you report another story about missionary Veronica Bowers and her infant daughter, who were killed in Peru. Here is a woman who has devoted her life to her God and, had she survived, you would no doubt have reported that she prayed and God saved her. But he didn’t, and nobody ever bothers reporting that.

SHELDON ARCHER

Canoga Park