RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
IN HIS REVIEW OF Thomas F. Farr's World of Faith and Freedom, Joseph Loconte wrote, "The National Endowment for Democracy promotes programs largely indifferent to the question of religious freedom" (December 8).
This will come as news to the many NED grantees actively promoting religious freedom and interfaith dialogue with our funding. To cite just a few of many examples:
Sudan's Inter-Religious Council investigates and publicizes violations of religious liberty, surveys educational institutions and orphanages to identify religious biases, and trains Christian and Muslim youth on issues of religious freedom.
The China Aid Association's quarterly journal analyzes and documents human rights abuses of religious believers, and maintains an online library of Chinese and English-language laws and regulations governing religious practice in China.
In Pakistan, the Lahore-based Democratic Commission for Human Development runs an educational and advocacy program to counter the influence of religious extremism and to foster principles of religious freedom and tolerance.
Que Me, the leading international advocate of human rights in Vietnam, has worked extensively with the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam and the Paris-based International Buddhist Information Bureau in promoting freedom of worship in the communist state.
The International Forum for Islamic Dialogue supports and assists liberal Muslim democrats in promulgating modern interpretations of Islam and highlighting the compatibility of Islamic values with universal values of human rights, democracy, pluralism, cultural diversity, and women's rights.
The NED is a grant-making body and not a programmatic organization. However, while the Endowment is not specifically charged with promoting religious freedom, it is clearly an integral part of our work in so far as freedom of worship is inextricably bound up with basic democratic rights, including freedom of speech, association, and conscience. In many respects, religious freedom is, to coin a cliché, the canary in the coal mine: Where freedom of worship is denied or compromised, other liberties are invariably and equally vulnerable. For that reason, promoting religious freedom will remain an important dimension of the NED's wider commitment to democracy assistance.
JANE RILEY JACOBSEN
Director, Public Affairs
National Endowment for Democracy Washington, D.C.
JOSEPH LOCONTE RESPONDS: I'm glad to know of these examples of the NED's interest in promoting religious freedom, and it would have been helpful if I had referred to them in my review of Tom Farr's book.
Nevertheless, it's important to ask whether the NED has adopted an integrated approach to religious liberty. The issue isn't the number of grants going to groups advocating religious toleration-which I suspect is a small portion of the NED's budget. The deeper issue is whether the promotion and protection of religious freedom is a central objective of the NED's agenda, inseparable from its overall strategy.
A recent speech by NED president Carl Gershman, delivered to mark the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, suggests the problem. There was not a single reference in the speech to the importance of freedom of conscience, religious freedom, or religious pluralism. Even an Enlightenment skeptic such as Thomas Jefferson called religious liberty America's "first freedom"-based on his conviction that the other basic human freedoms would be meaningless without it.
My hope is that the fine work of the NED could be significantly strengthened by rethinking the moral and religious foundations of liberal democracy-the inalienable rights of conscience in matters of faith.
THE UNKNOWN WAR
ANDREW NAGORSKI'S review of Louis Rubin Jr.'s book on World War I is quite correct in pointing out the relative imbalance of attention given to World War I and World War II ("Over There," December 8). Within that imbalance there is a further disproportion in the attention given to World War I. Over the past decade, World War I has received a good deal more attention than it had in many years. Most of those works, however, deal with the western front, and are more particularly concerned with the British experience. While Britain, despite ghastly losses, survived relatively intact, for Germany, Russia, and Austria-Hungary, the war was a catastrophically transformational event. Yet amid the renewed spate of interest in the war, the only attention given to the eastern front has been a smattering of works by a few military historians. For the general public, the eastern front in World War I remains, to use Winston Churchill's phrase, "the unknown war."
RICHARD L. DINARDO
Stafford, Va.
MANHATTANVILLE BLIGHT
SINCE THE "BLIGHTED" property of Manhattanville, New York ("Columbia University, Slumlord," by Jonathan V. Last, December 8), is owned exclusively by Columbia University, save only one property, it would be wise for the state of New York to give Nick Sprayregen the spoils of eminent domain and let him develop the area. He would put it to productive use, beautify it, and keep it on the tax rolls. Hats off to Sprayregen, who seems to be a man of principle, but a victim of established and unconstitutional liberalism.
MIKE BARNETT
Ocean Springs, Miss.
VARIATIONS ON 'CUE
I WAS PRIVILEGED TO READ Terry Eastland's review of Holy Smoke: The Big Book of North Carolina Barbecue (December 8) shortly after a lunch engaged in solitary contemplation over a "small" plate at the Barbecue Lodge in Raleigh. I was even lucky enough to have eight cornsticks left over for my evening repast.
However, as a native of Burlington-on the fault line of North Carolina barbecue-I feel obligated to point out an apparent typographical error in your review. That error must have been made by some lowly minion not previously privileged to partake of "the great sacrament of our people." That error attributed tomato enhancement to the East, not to the Piedmont.
I must say that I have changed taste preferences during my long familiarity with the late great pigs of our state. From Burlington, I moved to Charlotte, back to Winston-Salem, thence to Charlotte, and finally to Durham. My career has entailed eating in our state's finest establishments-and a few that were not so fine. Most of my clients are in the East and I confess to now having evolved to a strong preference for vinegar sans tomato. However, unlike some of my acquaintances, I will occasionally seek out a good establishment in Lexington or points west; but only in the interest of ecumenicalism and bodily nourishment.
This transgression may not enhance the consistency of my principles, but it does provide a basis for continuing comparison.
EDWARD THOMAS
Raleigh, N.C.
TERRY EASTLAND RESPONDS: Alas, as Mr. Thomas so delicately points out, I inadvertently wrote that tomato is likely to be in the sauces used in eastern North Carolina and unlikely in the Piedmont. Of course, the reverse is true. I attribute this mistake to barbecue distraction, a condition that momentarily disables someone writing about barbecue who believes (wrongly) that it is about to be served.
AS THE CAPTAIN OF THE (presently inactive) Coors Connoisseurs World Famous Championship Barbecue Cooking & Show Team of Memphis, I am amply qualified to comment on Mr. Eastland's essay.
None of these North Carolina 'cue joints would survive in Memphis.
I've eaten at nearly all the famous, near famous, highly recommended, my-sister-is-the-cashier places in the Eastern part of the state, and in and around Lexington, N.C., even off the beaten path in Ayden, N.C., and can say with profound authority that the only thing these places have in common with Memphis barbecue is that they are all cooking the same meat-pure pork.
With only a few exceptions, the dozen or so best barbecue restaurants on the planet are in or near Memphis. If I had but one meal left it would be at the Rendezvous, America's rib joint in Memphis. They're only open for supper, so if I knew beforehand I'd have a pulled pork sandwich at Neely's or the Cozy Corner for lunch.
HOUSTON E. BALL
Knoxville, Tenn.
AMBITION VS. JUDGMENT
JOSEPH EPSTEIN hits it right on the head ("Obama's Good Students," December 8) when he writes about the folly of assuming that the so-called "best educated" among us will make outstanding public servants. As a graduate of Northwestern University and Harvard Law School, I can attest to the more-ambition-than-judgment phenomenon and its terrible results.
For several years I shared classrooms with young men and women who were resolutely going Somewhere Important. Nurtured with awards and accolades from their earliest years, they knew how to do only one thing: get more. And more. Along the way very few developed independent judgment or a true concern for others. They are exactly the wrong type of people to look to for leadership.
KEVIN O'SHEA
Birmingham, Mich.
SOUTHERN AUTOMAKERS
FRED BARNES'S "The Other American Auto Industry" (December 22) elucidates the many attractive factors that have resulted in Asian and European car manufacturers locating in the rural South. Having lived in Lexington, Ky., and interacted with the Toyota workers and leadership, it was apparent that an additional important aspect has led to success-young workers from rural, mostly farming backgrounds are used to hard work and are facile with machinery. These features greatly facilitate developing a competent and reliable workforce.
ALFRED M. COHEN
Tucson, Ariz.
CORRECTION
THE ARTICLE "Policing Afghanistan" (December 22) mistakenly asserted that the use of hashish and marijuana is legal in Afghanistan and tolerated by the Afghan National Police. In fact, it is illegal and tolerated. Thanks to public affairs officer LTC Christian Kubic for the correction.