Re: “Courts failed her and her kids, mother of slain children says,” April 4

Amy Castillo, complaining (accurately, it turns out) that the court wouldn’t listen to her, advises women facing situations similar to hers in which mentally unstable, noncustodial parents insist on visitation rights to “do what you think is right, even if it doesn’t fit with what the court is saying.”

But this kind of attitude ignores the courts’ need to act on evidence, such as court-appointed therapists’ determination that her ex-husband, who killed their three children, showed no signs of acute danger. Because courts are human rather than divine institutions, they will inevitably err from time to time. Nevertheless, Dr. Castillo’s implicit advice against complying with what the court says when we do not think it is right flies against the foundation of our social order.

If women in custody battles were allowed to trump or ignore “what the court is saying,” how many noncustodial fathers who would not harm their children would be denied their rights? Our Founding Fathers intended to protect both life and liberty, so how much injury would we do to due process of law, upon which our society is predicated?

Dino Drudi

Washington

Wynn’s early out will cost constituents dearly

Rep. Albert Wynn, D-Md., has indicated that he intends to vacate his congressional seat sometime in June, just months shy of the regularly scheduled general election, to accept a lucrative job offer. Mr. Wynn should not abandon his constituents.

The citizens of the Fourth Congressional District in Maryland deserve representation in Congress, and Congressman Wynn promised to represent them through the duration of his term. By leaving early, his constituents are either going to be left without a representative, or Marylanders are going to be left holding the $2 million price tag to fill his vacant seat through a special election.

Gov. Martin O’Malley says he can save Marylanders $1 million by eliminating the special primary election, which would deny Marylanders a chance to pick their party’s candidate. Instead, Congressman Wynn should fulfill his commitment to serve through the end of his term and save us the full $2 million.

Al Eisner

Wheaton

Young voters more likely to be swayed by rhetoric

While the older generation, and senior citizens in particular, would be expected to welcome the recent surge in interest of the 18- to 30-year-old voters, I have certain reservations. Unfortunately even the graduates of elite universities show a lack of grounding in history and political science, extending to an absence of knowledge about our own heritage.

The result has been an array of candidates that depend on attracting voters not by their knowledge of the dynamics of our nation, but by their rhetoric and oratory. To senior citizens who were well-grounded in our heritage, this is not a problem, as they analyze each candidate based on their own experience.

But for the younger generations, we may be disappointed to see the triumph of words over substance.

Nelson Marans

Silver Spring

Six years of war in Iraq must end

Mr. Bush’s Iraq war is in its sixth year, and no end is in sight. Remember World War II? U.S. land forces took only two-and-a-half years to finish off Hitler’s formidable Third Reich, and in the Pacific, it took us less than four years to finish off the far-flung Japanese empire.

Mr. Bush’s Iraq war has cost the lives of 4,000 young Americans, physically and/or psychologically wounded 30,000 more, ruined families, dangerously depleted our armed forces, plunged our country ever deeper into debt and steered us into a recession, not to mention the tens of thousands of Iraqis killed and wounded and the untold damage done to our civil liberties and our country’s reputation and interests.

American voters will need to end this mess, and not with a candidate who thinks we might be in Iraq and Afghanistan for another hundred years.

Edd Doerr

Silver Spring