Hopes for Eritrea

The passionate opinion-page article "An Eritrean Exile Dares to Hope Again," June 24, brought involuntary tears to my eyes, but not only because of the hopelessness of the author's forced separation from loved ones and his native land. In the spring of 1990 I taught a debate class in which my students and I researched the problems in the Horn of Africa.None of us had realized that the Eritrean people had been mercilessly bombed during the daytime and that many were forced to live in dugout caves underground, sleeping during the bombing hours and rising to work and play only at night in underground factories and schools. We should have known that no famine relief would be allowed to reach these isolated people. Though school is out for the summer, I will call my students and have them read the article so they can share the author's joy that this horror has finally ended for these "survivors." Susan E. Getzschman, St. Louis

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