Hear all sides

YOUR two line heading and the full front page picture (Echo, Sept 12), of the burning World Trade Building in New York with the hijacked airliner about to be crashed into the second building, conveys a very stark message.

Over many years to come there will be millions of words spoken on radio and television about the happenings in America on September 11, 2001. There will be books, films and lectures by the score about this dramatic reaction from an aggressor.

The one word, hatred, goes to the root of such horror. We have all seen dreadful acts carried out in the name of leaders throughout the world who clearly believe that they alone have right on their side.

And yet, here in our own country, we now hear of proposals for the building of separate schools to teach divisive beliefs to the children of immigrants which can exacerbate and perpetuate differences when clearly this is the time to integrate. - T Cockeram, Barwick-In-Elmet, Leeds.

IT is a personal nightmare of mine that I am on a jet plane with a suicidal extremist intent on crashing the plane.

There were tears in my eyes as I watched that awful moment when the jet crashed into that skyscraper.

My heart goes out to all Americans who lost a relative. But the American Government should have seen this coming, with their aggressive leaning on the rest of the world, like food and medicine patents and constantly bombing Iraq and supporting the Israelis against the Palestinians. - FM Atkinson, Shincliffe.

WE are all shocked and appalled at the terrible tragedy that hit Manhattan, because we are all part of mankind.

A plane once hit the Empire State Building, but it did not collapse. I believe that a lot of these skyscrapers constructed pre-war were built with steel girders, supplied by Carnegie's American Steel.

There doesn't seem to have been any steel girders in the two towers that collapsed. That's modern buildings for you. - Jim Ross, Rowlands Gill.

NATURE LESSONS

THE interesting article on rain tests back in 1952 being a possible cause of flash floods (Echo, Sept 1) stresses a lesson that has not yet been learned 50 years on.

If you tamper with nature, for whatever reason, there are always dangerous results. Pollute a river and the wildlife in it dies. Introduce a foreign species into the wild, the grey squirrel for example, and the native species suffer. Grow GM crops and the surrounding fields are affected with as yet very uncertain consequences.

The experiments to create rain carried out in 1952 were seemingly intended to be a means of waging war by bogging down the enemy. What useful purpose did they ever serve? All that happened apparently was 35 people lost their lives and many others were made homeless.

Some experiments are just not worth the trouble they cause. - EA Moralee, Billingham.

ELECTED MAYORS

DURHAM City Council is holding a referendum in November to decide whether or not the city should have an elected mayor. This is only two months away.

Where is the public debate on this vital issue? What is going on?

The same is true with several other of our local councils. Apart from Middlesbrough, which had a passing mention recently, the silence on these issues is deafening.

Let us be clear, an elected mayor would have almost dictatorial powers to run Durham City as she/he liked. Do we really want to give all that power to one person?

I shall be voting against an elected mayor when the referendum comes. In the meantime let us at least have a debate on the matter.

The press, including The Northern Echo, has a public duty to bring the matter to the fore. - County Councillor Nigel Martin, Durham.

I REFER to your article concerning the referendum to be held in Sedgefield Borough (Echo, Sept 6).

I was surprised to read Councillor Brian Stephens comments for an elected mayor and cabinet.

In my experience of both listening and speaking to Labour councillors, I have been left in little doubt that the majority have always opposed the idea of an elected mayor. So why the U-turn or should I say double back somersault?

So what is the £39,000 referendum exercise going to achieve? A yes vote gets us a mayor and cabinet and a no vote gets us a leader and cabinet.

Either way, the best we will obtain is a situation where up to nine councillors out of a total of 49 will be involved in the decision-making process. This is akin to asking a condemned man whether he prefers the electric chair or lethal injection.

Surely it must be possible to offer the public the option of a revised and streamlined committee system where all councillors are allowed to enter into all debates and be allowed to vote on the outcome. - Garry Huntington, Liberal Democrat town and borough councillor, Shildon.

CARE HOMES

THE 17 County Durham Care Homes earmarked for closure are part of the village community, providing day and residential care facilities besides generating income for local businesses.

These vulnerable, elderly people have a right to finish their lives in peace, among friends and relatives instead of being uprooted and moved.

Most have worked and lived in these villages all of their lives. The plan is to get rid of 236 beds, and build five homes with en-suite rooms, bars etc.

The cost of upgrading the existing 17 homes to meet new guidelines is reported by the council to be £60m.

Surely lessons were learned from the failure to close Ridgeway House in Wingate ten years ago.

We all wish to end our lives without burdening our families and friends, but this is not always so. No one knows what is in store, their problems could become our problems. - B Golden, Durham.