Letters.

• Position: Letter to the Editor

Bringing Up Baby

As a working mother who got her professional start at the Monthly, I was dismayed to read Charles Peters' assertion (Tilting at Windmills, November 1999) that children are better off if one parent stays home during their early years, or if both parents work part-time and share child-rearing.

Most studies that have followed the children of working parents over time have found no negative effects of long parental work hours on children's achievement, intellectual ability, or emotional well-being. What the studies do show is intuitive: that children grow up healthiest and happiest when they are showered with love and support--from parents, professional caregivers, family members, and others.

The children of working parents learn that Mommy and Daddy love them and that other people can love them too. And when they grow up, these boys and girls reap another benefit: the knowledge that they can pursue their goals and be good parents.

ESTHER SCHRADER Reporter Los Angeles Times Los Angeles, Calif.

Kind Word

The Washington Monthly makes me wish we could make it required reading. Thank you Charles Peters and all you dedicated journalists who don't subscribe to the "gotcha" mentality of most. What would we do without you?

BARBARA COULSON Marshall, NC

Liberal Foundations

In the November 1999 issue of The Washington Monthly, David Callahan paints a sinister and one-sided portrait of free-market and conservative policy institutes. Callahan, who works for the liberal National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy, asserts that corporations have stepped up donations to conservative think-tanks during the 1990s.

A balanced report would have informed your readers that "corporate giving to public-affairs organizations disproportionately benefits organizations seeking to expand regulation and the welfare state," according to a review conducted by the Capital Research Center. Further, foundations such as MacArthur, Ford, Rockefeller, and the Pew Charitable Trusts give well over a billion dollars each year to their pet liberal causes, including projects inimical to business interests.

RICHARD NOYES Director Free Market Project Alexandria, Va.

The Enforcers Reply

It is unfortunate that in his November 1999 article, "Asleep on the Beat," Robert Worth chose to ignore the facts and distort the EPA's record on federal environmental enforcement. This Administration's federal environmental enforcement program is the strongest in the history of...