I should like to express my appreciation to Misters Welch and Johnson for their unselfish and untiring efforts to bring the Olympics to Utah. It seems to me that the criticism of bribery is misplaced. It is more like an extortion scandal. I feel that the end result of the indictments will be that all charges are dropped.
It reminds me of the "travelgate" scandal where an individual maligned a group to advance a personal agenda. All charges were found to be groundless but not before reputations and lives were ruined. Here we have a vitriolic senator from Arizona who personally objected to federal dollars being spent on the Olympics and kept pushing for indictments.
Those who suggest that Salt Lake could have won the bid on merit haven't been around for the past few decades. If merit were all that was considered, Salt Lake should have won the games years ago and especially the 1998 Games. The victory by Nagano was an eye-opener, suggesting that merit alone would not cut it.
I feel bad that these honorable men and their families are being subjected to harassment and false charges. If anything was done illegally, I don't believe it was done for personal gain.
Lila Wright
West Valley City