es are not working? He adds more planes and terror bombing. This is progressive? I would say it's more like what Hannah Arendt said about the Nazi war crimes in her report on Adolph Eichmann's trial: "the banality of evil." -- Dennis Dalrymple New York Pride and prejudice BY FIONA MORGAN(04/20/99) A school that's "living in the '50s" gets a new activist vice principal who believes in "diversity," whatever that means. Within a few years she has set up organizations under the guise of "bringing people together," but the organizations actually fracture the society. She encourages a flaming gay to enter the school as the final pinch of spice and expresses horror when the pot finally boils over. Fiona Morgan seems to move through life with rose-colored blinders on. Fiona, what do you see as the central duty of a school? Apparently, it is to serve as the supreme psychoanalyst of teenagers. And reading, writing and 'rithmetic? How '50s! -- Dudley Crawford My cancer time bomb BY CHRISTOPHER SCANLAN(04/20/99) As an ex-smoker who sucked down the weed for 20 years, I understand Christopher Scanlan's concern -- no one wants to die of lung cancer -- but I question his search for causation, his looking back instead of pushing ahead. I hate to be the one to break it to you, but you (and I) might be members of the walking dead; we may have destroyed our bodies past saving by smoking as kids. The difference between us, though, is I refuse to be "terrified" or "scared" or wracked with "fear" -- as if that will keep one gene or cell from mutating. More likely, stress will nurture a self-prophesied cancer along. What is Scanlan doing to heal his body? I see no reference to finding a proper diet, rich in raw, deep green vegetables (the kind that fight cancer), or reducing red meats and animal fats (all attributed to early death). I see no mention of exercise regimens (life-enhancing as well as life-extending), not one word on organic living or stress reduction, not even a passing tribute to supplements like green and black teas (all said to reduce cancer). It's true that I smoked for many years, but now I've found health -- I can run for miles, I'm in the gym four or five times a week, I jump rope and do a boxer's workout. I also make sure I take large amounts of wheat grass and other super green foods -- every day -- as well as ensuring my body the rest it needs. Will I die of cancer? Perhaps. I can't stress over what I can't control. But will I make sure to live in health every day and try to heal the damage I've caused? Absolutely! This is my body and I have choices to make regarding its care: I intend to leave this world on my own terms, not those of Philip Morris. -- Jeffrey Abelson New York Sending out an SOS BY JAKE TAPPER (04/19/99) In Jake Tapper's article on Dole's Kosovo warnings, there are a few key elements missing. First, Bob Dole is of Albanian descent. This would seem to be an essential element to any objective presentation of a particular point of view (one's ethnic background almost always frames one's views on Serbia). Tapper also suggests that the Kosovar Albanians and the Serbs lived peacefully side by side until the troubles began. The truth is tens of thousands of Serbs left the region over the years because of their treatment by the ethnic Albanians. This is also the main reason Serbs are such a small minority. If Bob Dole really wanted to aid the Kosovo Albanians back in 1990, I wonder why he did not choose a more diplomatic approach, such as garnishing support for the democratic movement in Belgrade who sought to oust Milosevic. His choice only strengthened Milosevic's resolve and support, and fueled the KLA's determination. -- Signe Matson Pittsburgh I was impressed and moved by the recent story on Bob Dole's early awareness of the dangers pending from Milosevic's regime. I was surprised, though, to read -- in this account of a decade-long struggle to get someone, anyone to pay attention to the troubles in Yugoslavia -- no reference to Dole's presidential campaign. Surely, having caught at least one of the nation's collective ears (and the big gray floppy one, at that), he might then have said a few words about the plight of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, even at the expense of skipping a few sweet nothings about cuts in