To the Editor:

Mark Graham's May 9 Letter to the Editor in response to Deb Palmieri's May 1 editorial motivated me to go back and look again at Ms. Palmieri's writing to recall more clearly the content.

What I found was an editorial openly patriotic, which Mr. Graham apparently considers being racist and bigoted, and which was not against all Muslims but instead mentioned Muslim extremists who did indeed plan and execute attacks within our country. Just as we do not blame all Catholics for the former Catholic Hitler's atrocities, Ms. Palmieri does not blame all Muslims for the Boston bombings not the World Trade Center attack.

And history will certainly show us the relevance of the connection between the proposed New York mosque site and its proximity to the former Twin Towers.

I look at the comparison to Germany in the 1930s from the opposite point of view of how Mr. Graham sees it.

If we do not identify those who would destroy our nation from both inside and outside, then we are similar to Hitler's Germany where lack of action and awareness of the citizens allowed the atrocities to escalate and freedoms to disappear.As an aside, in 1993 authors James Dale Davidson and Lord William Rees-Mogg published the revised and updated edition of "The Great Awakening" in which one chapter foretold the rise of Islam and some of the effects this religion might have on the world, both politically and economicallyit appears their predictions have some veracity.

They wrote, in the chapter titled "Muhammed Replaces Marx," that "Some Islamic sects (note the 'some,' not 'all') have approved terrorism as a legitimate tactic. That well suits them to current circumstances, as terrorism is likely to be of a growing military importance as the year 2000 approaches."

This was written before the World Trade Center bombing and 9/11.

Ms. Palmieri's editorial is not hateful, but shows a very healthy awareness of the current situation in our world and nation.

Teena Bailey

Germansville