DaytonDailyNews.com

Letter to the editor

I served in the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic from 1997 through 1999. I found the Dayton Daily News series "Casualties of Peace" interesting and I feel it raised some important issues.

But I believe that the one-sided nature of the reporting raised fears much more than needed and was unfair to the Peace Corps. Service in the Peace Corps is tough and is perhaps more dangerous than living in the United States, but most volunteers understand this when they apply.

The thing that disappointed me the most in the articles was the lack of any real attempt to place the sad and terrible stories of rape and murder in context. There are terrible stories of rape and murder everywhere.

Connecting the stories reported in this series to the Peace Corps without proper context is sensational journalism and is unfair.

David Wortman

Mattoon, Ill.

[From the Dayton Daily News: 11.21.2003]