To the Editor:

Re “New Phase in Finance Crisis as Investors Run to Safety” (front page, Sept. 18):

As we watch in awe, dismay and fear at the slow-motion unraveling of our financial system, we need to move from anger and blame to a reconsideration of some presumed truths.

First, as the federal government engages in acts to rescue one faltering financial institution after another not seen since the Great Depression, we must recognize that free  that is, unregulated  markets do not always self-correct and that the financial wizards of corporate America do not have all the answers.

Second, those same people, usually Republicans, must finally admit that if this exercise in socialized capitalism is acceptable, then having a government-run universal health care system is also acceptable and should not be denigrated as socialized medicine because it is not controlled by profit-making corporations.

Third, we are all in this together, and blaming one group or another will not solve the problem. Of course, it is in human nature to be greedy, but it is also in human nature to be altruistic.