Abby Hamlin
Hamlin Ventures LLC
New York
Not Here, Not Now An interpretive center for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial “just west of Maya Lin’s famous black granite wall” should be reconsidered [“Speak (Louder), Memory,” July 2008]. The country lost a war, 58,195 of its young people, and the sense that we were the good guys in the world. Lin’s design effectively expresses those losses. It is enough by itself. Perhaps schools today avoid discussing Vietnam, since it was our country’s first lost war, or because those who teach feel as betrayed by that war as I do. If so, then it is possible that an interpretive center for the memorial is needed, but, I would argue, it should be somewhere else—not on the Mall.
James T. Biehle
Ballwin, Mo.
Bad Boys Shame on you. While the building is lovely [“On the Links,” July 2008], its “old boys” mentality isn’t. In this day and age, perpetuating this kind of sexism is unfathomable.
Alan W. Mack
Proteus Group, LLC
