No Grant's Tomb at Bookman's

Let me clear something up right now. Bookman's has no plans to close its Grant Road location!

In Jim Nintzel's February 14 article concerning the proposed GSI at Grant Road and Campbell Avenue, Dennis Pepe, the manager of our Grant Road store, was quoted expressing concern regarding the impact of the project on the store.

The article indicates that we at Bookman's feel the construction of the proposed GSI will likely result in the closing of our Grant store, and that we opened our new Speedway location as a contingency against this turn of events.

While we do have significant concerns about the impact these road improvements may have on our business, both during construction and after, we are not planning to close the Grant Road store if a GSI is constructed.

We are committed to serving the entire Tucson community as we have the last 25 years. The motivation for our new Speedway location is to better realize this commitment as our community continues to change and grow. We will stick to this course regardless of the decision Tucson makes concerning the intersection at Campbell and Grant.

--Bob (Bookman) Schlesinger

Be Mindful of Ignorance

I am interested in correcting the perception left by the awful, insensitive and extremely ignorant review published in the Tucson Weekly (January 17) of Prof. Sylvia Nasar's book, "A Beautiful Mind."

One of the most striking things which occurred during Professor John Forbes Nash's illness is that he had many supporters, fellow mathematicians, who were deeply concerned for him and who tried to help him in a multitude of ways. This happens rarely to people who become schizophrenics. Their behavior is so bizarre that often people give up on them. Prof. Nasar credits Nash's wife, Alicia, for being a major factor in his remission. His other friends also made a difference which cannot be calculated.

Your reviewer made the ignorant and curiously resentful statement that Nash "got away with" behavior because he was intelligent. Schizophrenia is not something anyone "gets away with" or doesn't. Schizophrenia is disturbance of neurotransmitters.

John Nash has had a tragic life. His tragedy has caused many difficulties for his closest family members and for his friends. That they stayed with him to the best of their abilities is a tribute to them. Prof. Nasar's sensitive and honest biography of Nash can teach us many things about mental illness, if we take the time and trouble to read it carefully.

Patricia A. McKnight

Catholic Hitler a Meaty Topic

Tom Danehy claims that Hitler was a vegetarian ("Penitence," February 14). This is nothing new. People often throw this semblance of an argument into their defense against vegetarianism, thinking it's really meaningful. Their intent is usually to somehow dissociate ethics from vegetarianism, thereby protecting themselves from a confrontation with their own morality. But in fact, the claim (even if true) is a dull, meaningless historical oddity.

Danehy further points out that he understands that this is rhetorical dishonesty, but fails to show readers why the logic doesn't work. Unfortunately, this indirectly promotes the use of bad logic against some of his favorite victims: Vegetarians. The point of this letter is to compensate for Danehy's all-too-familiar intent to promote commotion, and demonstrate why the Hitler-was-a-vegetarian claim has no place in logic.

Hitler was undeniably many things in addition to being associated in some way with vegetarianism. Most notably, he was a baptized Roman Catholic who was never excommunicated. Let me quote from Mein Kampf: "I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: By defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord." And in a conversation with General Gerhardt Engel three years later, he said, "I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so." Though the Catholic Church banned many books, it never banned Mein Kampf. Hitler also idolized Martin Luther, an enthusiastic anti-Semite of the Protestant variety.

So does this mean that the next time I hear someone say, "I'm an ethical Christian," I can in turn reply, "Yeah, well so was Hitler!"? Further, would anyone be willing to argue that Hitler's monstrous nature grew out of his respect for animals and his efforts to reduce suffering in the world? Historically, it would not be the least bit difficult to associate Hitler's anti-Semitism with his Christianity. The latter essentially implied the former for most of the last 2,000 years.

But to imply that Christians have no ethical ground to stand on because it was Hitler's religion would be absurd, let alone journalistically suicidal! Better to pick on the vegetarians. They're easy. There aren't too many of them.

--Patrick Bolger