Thank you for your wonderful Dec. 20 issue. To this collector of socio-editorial cartoons, “Cartoons of the Century"is worth a full year’s subscription to Newsweek.

Jack Bond

Timonium, Maryland

Kudos on your special issue with the “Perspectives” on 100 years! After reading your piece"Fanfare for the Common Man”, (Perspectives 2000, Dec. 20), I would agree that more freedom for man means more dilemmas. But not in the sense of problems so much as challenges and the need to take more responsibility. Freedom never stands alone-it is proportional to responsibility. I wrote as much at the midpoint of the century in a winning eighth-grade essay on “Freedom.” And I am grateful that I’ve had the luck and blessings to live at a time when the concept of freedom is becoming a manifest reality.

Nancy Kovnat

Moshav Evan Menachem, Israel

Since I am a writer and journalist, the old maxim “A picture is worth a thousand words” usually gets my blood boiling, but the drawing of President Lincoln burying his face in his hands after JFK’s assassination (the ’60s)got me to change my mind. It was one of the most profoundly powerful images I’ve ever seen. I commend you for reprinting it for a new generation.

R. J. Beatty

Carrboro, North Carolina

The illustrations for “Fanfare for the Common Man"were ridiculous. The political-movement activists you mistake for the “common man” are not representative of grass-roots concerns. It was bad enough to cite the protesters against the Vietnam War, whose efforts seem to have had little effect on the broad sweep of geopolitics or on American attitudes toward the use of military power. It was worse to cite the ladies’ auxiliary of the Democratic Party-identified as “the feminists”-as an example of grass-roots heroism. Without the rich of Manhattan and Hollywood, the feminist movement as politically defined would amount to nothing.

Mark Richard

Worthington, Ohio

I would like to correct your article “The Wages of Spin,” by Mahlon Meyer (Asia, Nov. 8). The article stated that Daniel Fung, honorary legal consultant to the One Country Two Systems Research Institute, was “hired … at a reported $1,200 an hour to defend the territory at a United Nations human rights meeting” in Geneva. This is not correct. Contrary to what you wrote, the One Country Two Systems Research Institute did not pay Mr. Fung any fee for his appearance at the conference. He made the trip to Geneva purely as a public service. Had Newsweek called the Institute, we would have set the record straight.

Sin Por Shiu

Executive Director

One Country Two Systems Research Institute

Hong Kong

The U.S. Immigration Office was wrong in turning Eli??n Gonz??lez over to his Florida relatives in the first place (A Little Boy in the Middle,” World Affairs, Dec. 20). Eli??n’s mother risked his life and took him away from his father and his homeland improperly.

Keith M. Cagle

via internet

Your report on the Panama Canal was informative and to the point (A Dream’s End," World Affairs, Dec. 20). President Teddy Roosevelt displayed immense innovation with his plan to link the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, achieving a magnificent engineering feat. President Jimmy Carter had the courage, against all odds, to do the right thing and return the Panama Canal to the people of Panama. However else history judges these two American presidents, they deserve credit for their common sense and foresight displaying wisdom beyond their time-a truly historic legacy America can be proud of.

Dominic Shelmerdine

London, England

The world should keep pressing Pakistan’s “rogue government” to ensure that the soldiers return to their barracks before they have time to settle (“Bittersweet Revenge,” Asia, Oct. 25). The military can’t solve problems-it only compounds them.

Olumide Ayeni

London, England

The western world keeps crying for the restoration of democracy in Pakistan. But what democracy is it referring to? The looting and plundering that has been going on in Pakistan since 1985? We definitely want elected people to run our country, but we are not ready yet. Our politicians have looted public money left and right. There should not be any elections before this rot is eliminated from our system. We never had the constitution that the West is crying to restore. Our constitution is so distorted that it can only serve the corrupt and power-hungry.

Nadeem Ahad

Karachi, Pakistan

In answer to the silent prayers of Pakistanis, the Army has taken over the country. The fact that all Pakistanis have welcomed the move (except the corrupt politicians and bureaucrats) demonstrates the “democratic will” of the nation. This may sound strange to Western ears, but democracy is, after all, the will of the people.

Asad Rehman

Lahore, Pakistan

Pakistan’s current leaders need to stop imposing medieval Islamic injunctions and emphasize education, science and the economy. The gradual “Talibanization” of Pakistan will result in total chaos.

Tanweer Hussain

Bickenbach, Germany