Dear Editor

With all due respect and admiration for your great magazine, I have a few suggestions and criticisms. I have been a Newsweek subscriber for over a year and half now. And All I read about in Cover stories is something about the Middle East, Saddam and America at war. These topics have taken almost 50% of the magazine's volume in the past one year. I (and I'm sure hundreds of thousands of others) believe that you guys are trying to imitate Time, at least in the coverage. Why not try being different? Isn't there anything else that happens in the world? How about interesting people that make news in our country? How about people that make a difference in the world and don't use religion as an excuse to do it?

When my copy comes on Tuesday, I am done reading in 30 minutes. Everything is what is written in the papers with some opinions. Newsweek has become cliche. Take a poll and you will agree with this. I have a few suggestions for your content if you want to save yourself from becoming Time II.

How about writing about "What's wrong with America".

50% people divorced.: How will the next generation make progress in this nation if half of them did not have parental love? Aren't we supposed to be different from animals?

Unbridled school bullying: This is way above limits and almost all bullying cases go unreported.

Humorous adulation of drinking amongst teens. When Jay Leno cracks a joke about a celebrity being "high" or "drunk", gullible teens think its cool to be like that.

This is what's wrong with America.

And how about the media itself? How many magazines and how many reporting agencies had at least one or two reports about "Why did September 11 happen". Instead of "Why they hate us", why can't you have articles named "Where did we go wrong"? Why don't you bring the US Defense and Intelligence people to justice for fleecing taxpayers to pay more because of national security failure?

Everybody in our nation has been affected. Unemployment, uncertainty, recession, insurance fraud. "The terrorists have won". They humiliated us on our own soil and we have to admit to that. They brought the stock markets to their worst days. We have to admit that they beat us on our own soil.

I think as a leading weekly magazine, its upto you and your team to make sure that people think right. We are a great nation but we cannot face reality. "In God we trust", we say but our priests are nothing but a reflection of the losing morality in our society. Today our teens have sex during prom night and get drunk. They soon break up in their relationships and undergo depression. With parents themselves not living together, it adds to the woe. They marry and repeat their parents' mistakes. And yes, they always have Budweiser to keep them company. And when mid life crisis passes by,in come the medical bills. What with fast food joints making us eat pig intestines and animals in their entirety?

Did someone say Americans are health conscious? Talk about McDonald's french fries and prime rib steaks. A sure heart attack in the 50s. Well, we have our insurance agencies don't we?

Well, that's what's wrong with America and the media should play an important role in the society's thinking. To hell with Middle East, let's make our kids better, let's make our schools better, let's pay our teachers more so they can teach the children about love and faithfulness in a relationship, before it is too late. So we will not need rehabilitation centers and beers to solve these problems. Let's make school teachers' job a competitive job. There are so many eligible teachers who can do this job but they are underpaid and so they'd rather work at a bank or work as a waitress than teach.

That's what's wrong with America. We have to understand the foundations. We see college students live promiscuous lives during spring break in Cancun. Can we trust them with being responsible citizens in the future and carrying our nation's torch?
This is worth writing a book on.

I hope you print this in your next issue. You may edit this content but "Operation Rebuilding" is not about rebuilding the twin towers. Its about rebuilding our values and bringing the family as the first teacher. Any society that has a father and mother who love each other, is a society with tremendous potential in dissipating to the youth what is moral and anything that is "right".


Arton Online