Icon Vandals Offend


In response to "Icons Desecrated in the Name of Art" in Thursday's paper.


Editor,


I am deeply saddened by the act of vandalism described in this article. The Orthodox Church endured horrible persecution in this country, when not only holy objects were desecrated, but human beings - priests, monks, nuns and laity - were tortured and killed for their faith. This was as horrible as the Holocaust. Many of the survivors are still alive. Can you imagine their feelings? How can these young "artists" be so callous as to hurt them now, after all they have gone through? The action of the "Young Atheists" is as disgusting as a desecration of a Jewish cemetery. This is mental cruelty; this is pure sadism. I am sure that people who desecrate icons now will torture and kill Christians tomorrow.


Anton Smolyakov


Grammatical Griping


Editor,


In general I enjoy reading your newspaper but you should employ journalists who can write English or, at least, teach your current journalists to do it. I'm sick of having to put up with such elementary grammatical mistakes as "X happened Friday (rather than "on Friday") or "X protested the problem" (rather than "against the problem"). These may be normal expressions in the United States (they are at least on CNN) but the fact that there are more Americans than British reading your newspaper does not justify their usage as it is not right to pander to people who have debased the English language.


Tim Freedman


The Moscow Times consciously follows American newspaper style as outlined in The Associated Press style guide. We try to exercise strict oversight. We hope this does not impact our readers too negatively.