Letters to the Editor

The fact is you do not steal an election in a country like Kenya and expect things to go on as normal.

For Kenya to move forward and for the bloodshed to stop, the events of Dec. 27 must first be dealt with and resolved.

Harold Otieno
Daytona Beach, Fla.

'Islam's poet' belonged first to Persia

Regarding the Jan. 1 article, "Islam's Poet of Peace": I would like to remind your readers that Mevlana Jalludin Rumi was a Persian who wrote most of his mystical poetry in Persian and some in Arabic. He was born in Balkh in present-day Afghanistan. Because of the Mongol invasion, his family escaped Khorassan proper and settled in the western provinces of Persia.

I am not surprised that the Turks are inclined to claim Rumi as one of their own. After all, the value of his poetry is universal. However, when one writes about medieval Persian poets and their influence in the modern Middle East, one needs to give proper credit to their ethnicity. It is important because they have contributed so much to Islamic civilization.

The word Islam appears often in Rumi's mystical poetry. However, his Islam is associated with sharia of the heart rather than with sharia based on strict interpretations of the Islamic texts. For Rumi therefore, religion is sublime rather than dogmatic.

Hamik C. Gregory
Reno, Nev.

Remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere

In response to the Jan. 30 article, "Bush's much-maligned climate talks may yet help global warming treaty": It is tragic that the current paradigm for addressing global warming is for mankind to cut our emissions fast and drastically.

Besides greenhouse gases, our emissions also put global dimming aerosols into the air, cooling the Earth. In other words, fast and drastic emissions cuts will warm us up before they cool us down, potentially causing ecosystems to collapse.

Therefore, the paradigm for addressing global warming should be to remove the excess carbon dioxide from the air, rather than the weak mitigation strategy of cutting our emissions and waiting for a damaged Earth to remove it.

I suggest the low-cost method of biosequestration to remove the excess CO2 from the air. The last severe global-warming episode ended when oceanic life kicked into high gear and removed the excess CO2 over tens of thousand of years. We can improve nature's ability with genetic engineering.

It is highly unlikely that a rapidly growing population and world economy will cut emissions so fast and drastically as to avoid either abrupt climate change or runaway global warming. Instead, any feasible planetary rescue plan must include a method of removing carbon dioxide from the air.

Brad Arnold
Saint Louis Park, Minn.

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