Letters to the Editor

To the Editors:

I am concerned that there has been no mention, not even in the notebook or trends sections, about the alarming bill being considered in St. Petersburg which could ban all forms of homosexual or transgender expression. It is, in effect, criminalizing anything not heterosexual. Such a profound example of violating human civil rights cannot be ignored. I am amazed that there is not a single reference to this in your March/April 2012 issue. Journalism needs to strive for objectivism and to report such events. This can adversely affect thousands of people and can reduce the quality of life for everyone. Please consider reporting on this very important issue so that more people can become aware of the gross injustice that may occur.

Sincerely,

Dominic Klumpe, Lawrence, KS

To the Editors:

Hooray to Mikhail Ivanov for making public the outrageous behavior of wealthy Russians aboard the stricken ship Costa Concordia. I salute Russian Life for publishing an editorial written with such uncharacteristic vehemence. I totally agree that the government should institute a “comprehensive state program to save Russian souls.”

Or, I thought I did. Actually, “ideological education” has been going on in Russia for quite some time. The Orthodox Church has practiced it. The spokesmen for the tsars have promoted love and loyalty to the Russian monarch for centuries. I can remember sitting at Russian scout campfires singing about Borodino and other military songs extolling the virtue of dying for the tsar.

Starting in 1918, the Communist Party also had a comprehensive program of “ideological education,” if you’ll recall. Did any of this teach Russians not to bribe their way onto lifeboats? Obviously not.

In fact, all of this “education” has been aimed at instilling loyalty to the regime of the day, or to the church. If past is prologue, any new program of state moral education can only have the same ultimate aim: control.

I suggest that instead of passing the buck to Mr. Putin, the journalistic establishment make every effort to publicize this event, name names, publish pictures if possible, and find and expose other instances of this type of boorish behavior. If, as you seem to imply, there is still a scintilla of decency left among the Russian people, then a national sense of shame and outrage will accomplish vastly more than any state run program of “ideological education.”

Alex Terentiev, Sea Cliff, NY