CHRIS LLOYD’S article, “Osama’s unlikely victims”

(Echo, Jan 10), was a curious mix of innocuous trainspotting and serious politics – national security.

But to claim Osama bin Laden “has destroyed much of the fabric of British life” is an expression of a major perceptual distortion.

This – rather common – distortion accepts terrorism as an inevitable fact of life and gives credence to the idea that “the fabric of life” can be destroyed by an outside agency.

The only thing that can destroy this hallowed fabric is destructive thinking. Blaming others is easier than accepting responsibility for oneself. The choice, as always, is ours to make.

In 1933, during the Great Depression, President Roosevelt asked the author Napoleon Hill to initiate a strategy to get the US out of its severe problems.

Hill – author of Think and Grow Rich – rallied influential writers, journalists, newspaper editors, broadcasters, captains of industry and political leaders from both parties, to always give a positive emphasis to their writing.

It was based on the concept of “going the extra mile” and this fundamental idea: what the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve. It helped create a national can-do, will-do attitude that rebuilt America. We must not underestimate the power of the spoken – and written – word.

Ben Andriessen, Crook, Co Durham.