Ugh! It’s fine to be different but do we need to belittle ourselves with such an attitude?
Mary-Beth Laviolette
Canmore, Alberta
I am disappointed. You allowed an offensive photograph to appear in your magazine, the magazine of which I was so far an avid and enthusiastic reader. The photograph was chosen to illustrate an interesting article (“The Continental Divide”), but it showed the Last Supper, symbol of Christianity, covered with what looks like a prostitute’s legs in a grotesque pose. The fact that it was done by a renowned photographer is of no consequence. Religious symbols of any kind should be treated respectfully. I was expecting more of The Walrus.
Eva Konopacki
Ottawa
Crazy Horse Revisited
I was deeply interested in your article by Rita Leistner (“
The Burning Tip of the Spear,” February/March) about the 7th Cavalry. You see, I am the mother of a 3/7 Cavalry Scout, “B” Troop. Same squadron, different troop. I was equally interested in the response it would get from your readers so I was anxious to read the next issue.
As Rita explained herself in her rebuttal (Letters, April/May), this was about the soldiers as ordinary people like you and me. They are for the most part young boys who found themselves in a very difficult situation and were just trying to come home in one piece. They, like your Canadian soldiers, followed the orders they were given, never imagining the horrors and hardships they would endure. Yes, many Iraqis have died. But, as my son witnessed, many died at the hands of their own people.
I was not for the war in Iraq but I do support my son and the troops who are doing the best they can. When he joined the military to serve his country he could not have imagined where that would take him. He came home a different person, a man, but still feels that removing Saddam was right for the Iraqi people. He will be returning to Iraq for a one year tour of duty this Thanksgiving and you cannot imagine the sense of dread I feel. All I ask is that you put yourself in their boots.
Susan E. Gleason
Battle Creek, Michigan
Some of your readers’ responses to Rita Leistner’s article display the kind of narrow parochialism that seems to be a Canadian specialty. In your April/May issue, one of them is “dismayed by the cover” of the issue containing the story about American soldiers in Iraq, and goes on to ask, “What about the experiences of Canadian soldiers abroad?” Well gee, wasn’t that only the third issue of the magazine? I daresay
The Walrus may get around to a Canadian military story sooner or later, but in the meantime, Rita Leistner’s account is one that needed to be told, no matter who the protagonists were.
