To The Publisher (Kera Anderson):

Terrific column in this week's Tribune. Having been a professional scientist for the last 35 years I'm a natural skeptic in all matters. I think that people tend to be too credulous, especially when listening to perceived figures of authority. Your skepticism is refreshing. Skepticism causes people to think, which is a good thing. I noticed that in his column this morning, even the conservative William Raspberry is beginning to express doubts about the veracity of what we've been hearing in the non-stop hard sell from Washington, D.C. Good!

I too have lived in Europe - France, Italy, and Belfast - at various times during my occasional visiting professor stints and plan on doing so again in the near future. Toulouse, France, a 1400 year old city about the size of Colorado Springs, where I lived for a year, even has a symphony, theatre, opera, museums, lots of terrific restaurants, and so on. I've found the people there to be, on the whole, educated, well read, and thoughtful - and, which is a French tradition, skeptical. I think that the Europeans raise some important points and ask intelligent questions that shouldn't be dismissed or belittled out of hand. Needless to say, I enjoyed your take on Europe.

I suppose that you'll get lots of criticism from the might-makes-right segment of the community (who remind me of the "Testosteroni Brothers" from the mid-1970s vintage Saturday Night Live) but, hopefully, you'll get other letters of support as well.

Best wishes,

Lowell Morgan

Monument