The fight against breast cancer; what motivates suicide bombers; a solar power plant in the Mojave

Countering cancer

Re “ Breast cancer — can we be too aware?” Opinion, Oct. 20

H. Gilbert Welch does a significant disservice to the ladies (and men) who will be attacked by this dreadful disease. The idea that “too much awareness” is somehow detrimental is so addle-headed that addressing it becomes almost impossible.

My family has also been hit hard by breast cancer (as was Welch’s, and I am glad his wife is well). My beautiful lady, Nancy, was killed by the disease in 2006. She was a person who stayed aware, had all of the checkups and tests, went through treatment twice over 10 years yet died in the battle against this terrible enemy.

I wear the pink ribbon every day. I wear the bracelet every day. I grieve her loss every day. I spread the message of awareness constantly and will not stop doing so, in spite of Welch’s views. We have better diagnostics and better treatments because of the awareness, the research and the pressure to find a cure.

Get in the fight: Lead, follow — or get out of the way.

Gary Garrow

Burbank

Bravo to Welch. His is a measured and welcome voice of calm amid the clamor of terror regarding breast cancer.

As a professional hypnotist, I know the power of suggestion. Examining one’s breasts regularly with the expectation or fear of finding a lump can produce a lump, whether benign or cancerous. A much better practice is to run one’s hands over one’s breasts thinking how smooth and healthy they are. If there is a lump, it will be found, and in the meantime, one is using the power of the mind for preventative healthcare.

Pamela Chilton

Palm Desert

Look, up in the sky, profits!

Re “Airlines ride new fees, cuts to big profits,” Oct. 21

The airlines can ride this wave only so long. Stuffing passengers into small seats, and the increasing cost of ground transportation, will soon result in people abandoning planes. One option is Amtrak.

Amtrak has reported record ridership. The Obama administration has moved high-speed rail a step closer to reality by partially funding several projects, including a Los Angeles-to- San Francisco route.

In Europe, airlines have to compete for travelers.

Airlines’ reluctance to treat customers to a decent travel experience only hastens the time when high-speed rail is a viable alternative in this country.

Richard Bent

Laguna Niguel

Recently my wife and I flew to China as tourists. We made four flights in China using a total of three different Chinese airlines.

The service was uniformly perfect. The flight attendants and those who manned the ticket windows were thoughtful and efficient; they actually seemed to believe it was their job to help us have a pleasant trip. The seats had more than enough room for a reasonably sized person, and the food was plentiful and delicious and came with the cost of the ticket. Each seat had a free blanket and pillow.

Actually, it reminded me of what it was like to fly on American planes back in the days when passengers didn’t wear shorts.

Ronald Rubin

Topanga

Behind the suicide attacks

Re “What triggers the suicide bomber,” Opinion, Oct. 22

Robert Pape presents a distorted and confusing rationale for maintaining that suicide bombings are primarily a response to occupation by foreigners.

This may have been so for the bombings of the Marine barracks and the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in 1983. But it doesn’t account for similar attacks in Europe, Indonesia, India and other parts of the world. Nor does it explain the widespread persecutions perpetrated by radical Muslim governments, an example being the destruction of the ancient Buddha statues in Afghanistan. None of these victims was a foreign occupier.

Pape might argue that 9/11 and the shootings at Ft. Hood, Texas, were responses to U.S. occupation of parts of the Middle East. That’s debatable. But he does a disservice to give the impression that terrorist actions will disappear after we are no longer viewed as occupiers.

George Epstein

Los Angeles

Pape’s study validates the conclusion that nativist millennialism drives jihadi terrorism.

Religion is not defined by churchgoing or profession of faith but by analytic parameters derived from actual cases. As a historian of religion and violence, my study of Al Qaeda reveals that Osama bin Laden’s mentor, Abdullah Azzam, preached an ideology of ridding the House of Islam (Muslim land, people and religion) of secularism from the West. Occupation is the primary target of nativist millennialists like Al Qaeda.

Pape’s study must be put in comparative context, and it verifies that religious terrorism has driven the attacks since 1983.

Jean E. Rosenfeld

Pacific Palisades

Bigger may not be better

Re “Solar plant about to rise in Mojave Desert,” Business, Oct. 23

Of course, solar is certainly one of the more important answers to our current quest for better energy resources. However, utilities simply cannot get past the idea of big is better. The end result of the 3,600-acre unit will be more power lines strung across areas vulnerable to fires.

Consumers will see no less expensive electricity for years after its construction. Investors will become impatient for rewards.

The nearly $2 billion would be better spent on subsidies for smaller local units as well as individual solar installations, which could feed back into the grid at far less cost to the utilities.

I think my grandchildren will see the eventual demise of huge utility companies — such as PG&E, Southern California Edison and the L.A. Department of Water and Power, and the gas companies — as they learn how to live within their means as well as within the resources nature has presented to us.

Carleton Cronin

West Hollywood

A spy for peace

Re “Not a sensible swap,” Editorial, Oct. 23

The Times is correct that the United States should not swap convicted spy Jonathan Pollard in the hope that Israel will extend the settlement building moratorium or some other minor gesture.

That said, I see no objection to the release of Pollard as a payoff to Israel for full compliance with international law: that means after Israel ends its occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem; removes settlements (all of which are illegal); ends its illegal blockade of Gaza; acknowledges its role in 1948 and 1967 in creating the refugee situation following United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194; and welcomes a Palestinian state as a neighbor according to U.N. Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338.

Jeff Warner

La Habra Heights

Coldhearted

Re “Facts, not furor,” Opinion, Oct. 22

I’m stunned. This is a bloodless opinion piece by Los Angeles County Supervisors Mark Ridley-Thomas and Michael D. Antonovich.

The only way to get things done in Los Angeles — Martin Luther King Jr. hospital, Bell, the L.A. Unified School District — is to create “panic,” bringing to light what has been done in darkness. The “panic” over the deaths of children is deserved because they came into and left the world without a chance to say “I’m here.”

The Times has used facts in its reporting, but obviously not the facts that Antonovich and Ridley-Thomas prefer.

Damiana Chavez

Los Angeles