Yesterday's Word: Iron

The pillar of brown metal, flaking with age and exposure the thing that kept the metallurgist alive. A testimony to entropy, he thought. How foolish it is to be afraid of the decay, the thing that will claim us all.

Letters to the Editor

Go read Tom. Below is my sling and arrow.

Dear TIME:

I am appalled at your choice of cover for your April 25 edition. Ann Coulter, who has said a great deal of caustic things in her career, once said "My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building."

April 19, 1995, as you were well aware, was the date of the domestic terrorist attack in Oklahoma City, killing more than 160 Americans, including more than a dozen children. Until the horrific attacks of 9/11, this was the most violent coordinated attack on American soil since the Civil War. For you to have this woman on the cover of your magazine on the tenth anniversary of the Oklahoma City attack is, at best, a shocking lapse of judgment by your organization. Ms. Coulter is a polarizing figure, and I understand putting her on your cover will boost sales, but I expected at least someone with a conscience, with a memory that lasts more than a minute, to recall that you would be publishing this particular issue on the tenth anniversary of the domestic terrorist attack.

Instead of writing a story about the face of domestic terrorism, especially with the Eric Rudolph saga coming to a legal climax, you chose to give your stage to a verbal firebrand who revels in acidic political warfare. You neglect the dead and you promote the fire breathers. Shame on you, Time. I shall never read your magazine again.

John Ryan