SATURDAY, JULY 31, 2010


KLMNO FREE for ALL Keep the cheese out of it


I was stunned to see The Post refer to a person’s deci- sion to report illegal insider trading as “ratting on” the offender [“SEC now freer to hike whistleblower awards,” Economy & Business, July 27]. The use of such a negative term about a whistleblower is one reason so many people don’t report wrongdoing. I have represented whistleblowers for more than 20 years, some of whom have received large rewards through government programs. The flip side is they of- ten must endure ostracism and job retaliation for years before they have even a chance for a reward. In this particular case, perhaps the Post writer chose to be glib because an ex-wife was the whistleblower. But information from insiders is key to effective en- forcement on Wall Street, which is why Congress re- cently created a stronger whistleblower reward pro- gram for securities law violations. The hundreds of in- vestors who lost their life savings to Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme can only wish that Madoff’s wife had made the same decision to “rat on” her husband as hedge fund manager David Zilkha’s ex-wife did. Erika A. Kelton, Washington


What’s unknown about a sexual predator The length and detail in this


month’s series on the intelligence community [“Top Secret America,” front page, July 19-21] were infor- mative and useful. But you failed badly on this score in the mammoth July 25 front-page article, “Lurking in the schools,” on teacher Kevin Ricks, suspected of being a sexual predator. What might have been valuable


coverage of sexual predators and how difficult it is to detect and stop determined individuals from serial assaults on young people instead seemed to be intent on eliciting an emotional response of shock, dis- gust or even titillation as one plowed through four pages of repe- tition of details of the assaults, epi- sode after episode.


An emotional tone was set on the


front page with the oversize photo of Ricks, made so large as to be fuzzy and threatening, and the blaring headline, differentiated from nor- mal headline fonts.


Since Ricks apparently had a con- sistent approach in his assaults, there was nothing to be gained from the details of each successive story. The point that multiple school juris- dictions in the Washington area and elsewhere kept hiring him and failed to stop him could be made without that. If The Post were trying to inform the reader, Ricks’s history could have been covered in less than half the space, leaving room for exam- ination of what is known about the pathology of sexual predators, what security measures school systems have taken, and with what success,


and what experts think might be done to reduce the incidence of these devastating assaults. Rozanne Oliver, Charlottesville


 As I read “Lurking in the schools,”


I was puzzled about why little was written about Kevin Ricks’s early life. The lengthy article told a very detailed and comprehensive story of a sexual predator, “a master of ma- nipulation” whom The Post de- scribed as having preyed upon young boys for more than 30 years. Why this omission? We read that he was born in 1960, and the article then jumped to the late 1970s when, as a teenage camp counselor, he apparently began this heinous behavior. As a psychoanalyst, I am con-


stantly thinking about develop- ment. The first months of an infant’s life, with its primary caretaker, and subsequent childhood experiences are crucial to the person he or she becomes. What happened in this poor, pathetic and sociopathic man’s early world? We can easily label him a “monster,” but this horrific story began at his beginning. In this well-written investigative


article, it would have been more educational for readers to have some knowledge about how his early years shaped who he became. Ironically, the way the story was written may parallel Kevin Ricks’s demise, as apparently no one paid enough attention to the early and repetitive signs of his deep disturbance. Harmon Biddle, Chevy Chase


R


A13


Dissecting one man’s life story


COURTESY OF CALLAHAN/LEVIN REPRESENTS


Going out with a smile Thank you for that insightful, provocative obituary


of cartoonist John Callahan on July 29. I can’t remem- ber laughing so much while reading an article in, of all places, The Post. The story of Mr. Callahan’s life was in- formative, funny and touching. The Post should be proud to have had the courage to print it. Give us more of this. I know that The Post is a family


newspaper. But how about some adults-only space for John Callahan cartoons? Challenge us, dare us, inform us and entertain us. Enough of “Classic Peanuts.” Wallace Babington, Washington


The ultimate pay cut Regarding Walter Pincus’s July 27 Fine Print column,


“Afghan intelligence contracts apply some limits”: According to Anthony H. Cordesman, an intelligence


and national security expert with the Center for Stra- tegic and International Studies, the need for contrac- tors arises because retention of military and civilians employed within the intelligence community is bad, in part because government pay runs “60 percent to 100 percent lower than the contract base.” Fortunately, we have all those highly paid think tanks working on the math.


David M. Siegler, Oakton


The music of struggle In his review of Chris Salewicz’s biography of Bob


Marley [Book World, July 25], Justin Moyer wrote: “Nesta Robert Marley: One need only speak his name to conjure up dank, dimly lit college dorm rooms where dread-locked hippies try to sneak Thai sticks past watchful R.A.’s ....” Why such a provincial and ignorant estimate of an artist whose music was the soundtrack of popular struggles against oppression the world over should be afforded the imprimatur of such an important newspaper as The Post escapes me. The association of Mar-


ley’s music with college dope dens says more about the reviewer than anything else. It certainly provides no clue as to how Marley’s music became a world music or was chosen for anthems of struggle from Angola and Mozambique to South Africa and — dare I say it — the United States. His legacy is far bigger than the vicissitudes of dorm


Bob Marley on tour in 1977.


life. Will Watson, Washington


Whither, once more, the 5 W’s? Once more on the death of “who, what, when, where


and why” at The Post. I find this most common in base- ball stories that are slow to tell the reader who won (or even who was playing). But then an opera review caught my eye this week [“At Castleton Festival, small gems,” Style, July 26]. I read through all nine paragraphs chock-full of so- phisticated and charming syntax, much of it extolling the virtues of the Castleton Festival, but I kept wonder- ing: Where is the festival? Scotland, perhaps? The review noted that the Castleton Festival is per- formed on property owned by the world-renowned conductor Lorin Maazel, but world-renowned conduc- tors usually own property in lots of places. I had to Goo- gle to satisfy my curiosity (the answer was Virginia). Richard G. Stoll, Washington


Enough is, well, enough


Does the Post have a minimum number of times each issue has to contain, well, “well”? And starting sentenc- es with a conjunction?


Larry Manning, Arlington PHOTOS BY JOHN MCDONNELL/THE WASHINGTON POST


Eva Pell, undersecretary for science at the Smithsonian, admires a Japanese giant salamander sculpted out of clay by student Nick Hodge, right, who presented it to Ichiro Fujisaki, Japan’s ambassador to the United States, left, during a ceremony at the National Zoo on July 22.


A salamander story’s surprise ick factors How exciting to be invited to the


National Zoo in honor of the un- veiling of the new breeding center for Japanese giant salamanders [“Zoo hopes to breed romance among salamanders,” Metro, July 23].


I am glad, though, that I’m not the parent of a student at Great Falls Elementary School who at- tended the unveiling; otherwise, I’d have to explain away the word “roofied,” as well as these gems:  “live lizard sex.”  “stoned.”  “boogers.” Well, okay. Guess I can forgive


A Japanese giant salamander at the National Zoo.


boogers. Sadly, though, I doubt that any of those young elementary school kids will have an article to proudly pin to their bulletin boards, highlighting their attend- ance.


One can only hope that an aide to


the Japanese ambassador clipped the article from the ambassador’s copy of the paper, feigning disbelief that the paper would arrive in such condition. And how much do you want to bet that sheepish zoo offi- cials tried to get under that rock with salamander No. 5? I am trying really hard to stifle


my inner fuddy-duddy, but I was embarrassed that such an article appeared in The Post. Sure, it’s fun to be funny, and it is summer, after all, but duuude . . . That was totally whack. Reporter Dan Zak can do better.


Margi Flynn, Burke Family stories, passed down Chad’s tongues


©KATE SIMON/COURTESY GENESIS PUBLICATIONS AND GOVINDA GALLERY


The July 23 Metro article on the four women who received Sailor of the Year awards not- ed that one of them “is fluent in English, Arabic, French and her mother’s Chadian dialect.” The reporter should have simply written the name of the fourth language the sailor speaks. More than 100 lan- guages are spoken in Chad, some by thousands of people. Why not specify the language, which would convey the idea that it is as important as the other (named) languages? Alison Pflepsen, Washington


Commissioned by the president I enjoyed the fine July 24 news


story on Gen. Stanley A. McChrys- tal’s retirement ceremony. One quibble: The article said that he was commissioned as a second lieutenant by his father. The mili- tary commission is actually issued by the president of the United States. To confirm that, I consulted my commission from 1967, which hangs proudly on the wall. I’m sure the words inspire all who re- ceive one. It directs the new offi- cer to “diligently discharge the du- ties of the office” and to “observe and follow such orders and direc- tions, from time to time, as may be


given by me, or the future Presi- dent of the United States of Amer- ica, or other Superior Officers act- ing in accordance with the laws of the United States of America.” It also notes that the commis- sion “is to continue in force dur- ing the pleasure of the President . . . under the provisions of those Public Laws relating to Officers of the Armed Forces of the United States of America and the compo- nent thereof in which this ap- pointment is made.” A clear affirmation of the civil- ian grounding of our great mili- tary.


Larry Brown, Dumfries


by generation, run the risk of being interpreted in the con- text of today’s social fabric rather than in that of the times in which they occurred. The July 24 obituary of engineer Paul Rosen, noted that “he grew up in ghettos in suburban Boston” with his immigrant parents after his birth in 1922. Although the use of “ghetto” is linguistically correct, there are negative connotations as- sociated with its use that are not appropriate here. My par- ents were also born in the early 1920s and grew up in the eth- nic communities of New York; neither of them would have de- scribed where they lived as ghettos. They and their neigh- bors were not wealthy, but liv- ing together with those of the same ethnic and/or religious backgrounds was more a re- flection of the desire for com- fort than of economic or social duress. Being with your own “people” made it easier to adapt to life in this new coun- try. We would be naive if we didn’t also recognize that some of “our people” would not have been welcome in some neigh- borhoods, but that was not the reason they chose to live near one another. Truth is important, but nos- talgia is as well, lest we forget the rich cultural heritage of Boston neighborhoods such as the North End (Italian), South Boston (Irish) and others. Joel Weiss, Thurmont, Md.


 One aspect of Paul Rosen’s


obituary intrigued me. I learned about the Semi-Auto- matic Ground Environment, “a series of more than 100 radar installations spread across the northern border of the United States. Each station sent data about incoming planes, such as Russian bombers loaded with nuclear weapons, to cen- ters around the country at a rate of more than 1,800 bits per second through Mr. Rosen’s modems.”


When is the follow-up com- ing? I want to know more about those Russian bombers! Jennifer DiGiovanna, Frederick


New slights Readers of the July 26 news


story that appeared as Israeli De- fense Minister Ehud Barak arrived in Washington must have won- dered about the assertion that a decade ago, when Barak was prime minister, his “failed attempt to reach an agreement with then- Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat led to an outbreak of violence that shattered hopes for Middle East peace.” Barak’s failed attempt? Not 1994


d


Submissions for the Free for All page should be sent to letters@washpost.com. Letters must be exclusive to


The Post and should include the writer’s address and day and evening telephone numbers. Letters are subject to editing and abridgment. Please do not send letters as attachments. Because of the volume of material we receive, we are unable to acknowledge submissions; writers whose letters are under consideration for publication will be contacted.


Nobel Peace Prize winner Arafat’s failed attempt? Not President Bill Clinton’s failed attempt? Not a bi- lateral failed attempt or a trilateral failed attempt? Only a failure of Barak’s and, by inference, Israel’s? Please, Washington Post, you can write and report better than that.


J. Michael Selnick, Reston The baby-size July 27 Metro


item “Vandals deface Olney syna- gogue” should have been allotted more space, better location and a bigger headline. Inasmuch as hateful expres- sions and German anti-Semitic phrases such as “Juden Raus” were spray-painted on B’nai Shalom Synagogue of Olney, the vandals appear to be Nazi adults, not teen- agers whose anti-Semitism is usu- ally limited to spray-painting swastikas. AGoogle search shows many ar- ticles and newscasts on the in- cident. I worry that many of your longtime readers might not be aware of the widespread shock as suggested by the newsworthiness of this hateful crime against a house of worship. Larry Rosen, Rockville


ANDREW YATES/AFP/GETTY IMAGES Germany vs. England in the World Lacrosse Championships on July 15. Why didn’t you cover ...? What a disappointment it was,


that after telling the story of the Iroquois Nationals’ ultimately unsuccessful bid [Style, July 14] to appear in the Federation of International Lacrosse’s quad- rennial world championship tournament this month, you made no further mention of the


event. As always, there was talk of football, baseball and golf, but you published not even a box score from the games in Man- chester, England. The United States beat Canada in the finals on July 24, 12-10. Congratulations in print are in order. Victoria Corno, Bethesda


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