Letters - Brief Article - Letter to the Editor

National Review, Sept 2, 2002 by Roy Blunt

--Austin Bramwell's fine review of Michael Federici's Eric Voegelin (("Eschaton Redux," July 1) says that "one wonders how exactly Voegelin resisted the Nazi influence." The answer should not be left to wonder or surmise: He resisted by all scholarly means -- courageously publishing three books in German against Hitler beginning in 1933, being fired because of that from the University of Vienna after the Anschluss in 1938, and thereafter barely escaping the Gestapo with his life by fleeing to Zurich.

Details are given in his Autobiographical Reflections, which I edited; this and earlier books are now published in English and are available through www.ericvoegelin.org.

G. Ellis Sandoz

Director, Eric Voegelin Institute

Baton Rouge, La.

-- Steven Camarota's observation that persons from Latin America inincreasingly dominate the disturbingly large number of immigrants to the U.S. ("Too Many," July 29) confirms that what we are now witnessing is not immigration but migration.

Throughout world history, peoples have moved from one place to another, in the process displacing the former inhabitants. Whether the resulting cultural and political reality is now assimilable by the American body politic is at best uncertain: Identity is key and numbers are decisive.

Jon Fennell

Naperville, Ill.

--Steven Camarota writes, "It is now possible to call -- or even to vivisit -- one's home country with a frequency that was inconceivable even 50 years ago. . . . In such a world, it is less likely that immigrants will develop a deep attachment to the U.S."

Please inform Mr. Camarota that many years ago, millions of Italian immigrants developed such an attachment, even while hearing Caruso sing opera by Verdi, reading Italian newspapers and letters, and visiting the Old Country.

Occasionally they expected the new country to conform to them. Thus Middle American WASPs began eating pizza, pasta, and marinara sauce.

Leave it to the conservative "traditionalists" to feel menaced by "encroaching aliens."

Greg Donio

New York, N.Y.

--Re Ramesh Ponnuru's "One Branch Among Three" (July 29): Another susuggestion for taming the judiciary would be to end lifetime tenure. Federal judges should be appointed to a 14-year term and be eligible for reappointment. This would provide longevity and independence but also promote accountability.

No government official should be appointed for life.

Paul Feiner, Town Supervisor

Greenburgh, N.Y.

--Ramesh Ponnuru's piece, "Save the Investors -- and Yourselves" (A(Aug. 12) misses the point.

In taking my quote from CNN's Crossfire out of context, he tries to assert that members of Congress believe the market does not matter. That could not be further from the truth. I said, as Mr. Ponnuru quotes, "The stock market doesn't measure the economy." The market responds to a host of factors. Surely Mr. Ponnuru doesn't believe that the economy would be twice as strong as it is today if the Dow were at 15,000.

I was responding to a ridiculous, partisan charge that the market's woes reflected great economic decline. Main Street, not Wall Street, measures the economy.

However, the market does measure shareholder fear. That's why Congress moved so quickly to send the message that criminals who defraud investors or risk Americans' retirement savings will be punished.

Rep. Roy Blunt

[R., Mo.]

Washington, D.C.