Their sacrifices should not be hidden from us

It is time to open Dover Air Force Base to the public via daily newspapers and television. It should never have been closed. Irrespective of one’s view of the war in Iraq, the soldiers and Marines do not deserve to be brought home hidden from view. They died for our country, and our country needs to know it, to see it.

If it embarrasses the Bush administration, then the reason for going to war was a lie. We don’t have a draft, so the body bags may not represent our immediate neighbors, but they were somebody’s neighbor, and we need to be reminded. Daily. Visually. I don’t buy the story that the relatives want privacy. The dead are our sons and daughters also. We owe them -- the deceased and relatives -- the honor of acknowledgment of their sacrifice.

LEE BARTKOWSKI

Long Beach