AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
Now for your letters and first about our coverage of the Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA's interrogation practices. We heard from two sides yesterday - Senator Ron Wyden, who sits on the committee, and former Deputy CIA Director John McLaughlin.
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
Well, Bruce Hall, of Durham, North Carolina, says he was disappointed by our interview with McLaughlin. He writes this - this is not a he said she said story. It is a major revelation of illegal and repugnant and ineffective behavior. Mr. Hall goes on - there is plenty of time in the weeks to come to hear from the defenders of the CIA, but today was not the day to give them the opportunity to repeat their lies.
CORNISH: And Shawnacy McManus, of Moyock, North Carolina, had this to say - there is no context which justifies the atrocities of torture. Torture been shown repeatedly to produce little to no accurate intelligence and provides your enemy with fodder for their propaganda machines. He goes on - the use of these techniques by the CIA is the greatest black mark on U.S. history since slavery.
SIEGEL: To a different story now, one heard last week about teachers and how they're portrayed in movies, from the "Miracle Worker" to "Stand And Deliver." Some of you wrote in to tell us that teaching is a lot less glamorous off the silver screen.
CORNISH: Ron Shirtz, of Rensselaer Falls, New York, writes this - teaching, like war movies, is rarely anything like Hollywood portrays. It's a lot of hard work, where the best teachers are not charismatic comic impersonators, as in "Dead Poets Society," nor super-fanatical martyrs who devote every single minute of their time at the cost of their marriage - read "Freedom Writers." Or a white woman, ex-Marine, model beauty who can win the hearts of minority kids in an inner-city school, as in "Dangerous Minds." Mr. Shirtz concludes - good teachers make a difference, but in small and quiet acts that cannot be measured in an evaluation or observed by the public eye.
SIEGEL: Well, thanks to everyone who wrote in and please keep those letters coming. Just go to npr.org and click on contact. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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