Friday, September 5, 2003; Page A20

The Post's Sept. 3 editorial expressing anguish over the crass commercialization of the Mall missed something fundamental about modern America.

Our core values no longer focus on family or community but on the marketing and consumption of products and services.

Instead of erecting affordable housing or inspiring public works, we build malls and sports complexes, the temples at which we can worship our capitalist gods such as Nike, Pepsi and Microsoft. Thus, converting the Mall into another consumerist spectacle represents more accurately what America has become.

We should applaud the National Park Service and the Department of the Interior for openly endorsing the new realities.

MICHAEL BRIAN SCHIFFER