Letters to the Editor

The fact is, the military isn't infallible. Once, while I was stationed in Monterey for a training assignment, an entire wing of the Air Force barracks across the street from me had an outbreak of crabs, to the ribald amusement of everyone in my Army unit. Was the entire company, from the first sergeant down, then guilty of treason for thus "spitting" on themselves? I could generate volumes of similarly anecdotal criticism of the military from my experience alone (which is meager) without feeling the least bit like a traitor. Someone should remind Mitchell of the ethos that our military is charged with the protection of not rabid militaristic nationalism, but democracy -- despite its sometimes paradoxical complications.

Mitchell's is the same error in logic behind the current push to go to war with Iraq, a war that many actively serving personnel, as well as veterans including myself, do not believe in.

Steve Sedlmayr
Denver

Designs on Denver:In the February 13 Westword, MetaDesign creative director Brett Wickets states that the new wing of the Denver Art Museum, now under construction, is a "stark, stylistic contrast" to the current Carlo Ponti-designed building.

I realize 2003 is still young, but that statement has got to be, hands-down, one of the biggest understatements of the year. In what I am convinced is a case of "edifice complex" with an added touch of jealousy, the directors of the Denver Art Museum, seeking to upstage their Denver Public Library neighbor, have chosen a design that does not relate at all to the current building nor the neighborhood, draws attention away from the current building, and in architectural renderings I saw looks like it completely dwarfs that building.

With the new logo, the DAM has completely abandoned the current building altogether, which is a shame. I think the Ponti building is a marvelous piece of modern architecture. Bold, minimalist, even a little whimsical.

Peter Gross
Denver