This letter is in regard to the construction of the National World War II Memorial that has been suspended due to a legal challenge by a small group of local residents who do not want the memorial to take its rightful place on the National Mall. The public needs to protest this opposition by all means necessary.

A hearing will be held by the National Capital Planning Commission on June 14 to review the arguments. It is important for all to write to the commission in support of the Memorial's construction. Write to: Richard I. Friedman, Chairman, The National Capital Planning Commission, 401 9th Street, NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20576.

As a volunteer field representative raising funds in my town of Franklin Square, I received the generous support of community organizations and individuals and heard sad war stories told by veterans and widows. The prevailing opinion of all was that the Memorial was long overdue and needs to be built. There is no justifiable reason why it should not.

In that terrible war no one group had a monopoly on death. Some 50 million people died, suffering the cruelties of war, some swiftly by bombs falling, on the battlefield, at sea, and still millions of others by torturous extremes conceived by demonic and desperate minds.

Touring the Capitol, visitors can go to the Jewish Holocaust Museum, honoring the Jewish victims of World War II. It is a museum supported by American tax dollars, yet a small group would deny American soldiers who died for their country their rightful place of honor at the mall. There is no competition among the dead and they all deserve to be remembered. Time to act in support of the Memorial is now.

Katherine Aliferis