Letters: Nov. 19, 1965

Mayor-Elect Lindsay

Sir: Mayor-elect John Lindsay’s victory in New York [Nov. 12] is an important lesson for the Republican Party. For if the G.O.P. expects to become a truly national party again, it is to progressive, liberal candidates of Mr. Lindsay’s stature that it must turn. The days of Goldwater have passed. Now Mr. Lindsay must turn all his efforts toward giving New York dynamic, nonpartisan government. He has won, and now he must prove himself, but he cannot do it alone; it is time for those who welcomed his victory to join him in his efforts.

JAN DEG. JACOBI Stanford, Calif.

Sir: The desperation of the Republican Party is all the more apparent with the ballyhoo surrounding the election of John Lindsay. How this untried, unproven and unproductive individual can be projected into the limelight of national politics is beyond me.

CHARLES R. O’REGAN Washington, D.C.

Sir: As a former resident of New York City, I take exception to the view that Lindsay’s election signals a comeback for the Republican Party from the disaster of 1964. The man Mr. Lindsay ran against was a product of the corrupt, inept and hopeless Democratic organization that has left the city in the stagnant position it finds itself in today. A stronger Democratic candidate certainly would have sent J.V.L. scurrying back to Congress.

DAVID J. DEUTCHMAN Norwood, Mass.

The Rhodesian Story

Sir: As a Rhodesian studying in the U.S. I do not see everything through TIME’s eyes, but I think that your cover story on Rhodesia [Nov. 5] attempted to present both sides. The white man wants to stay in Africa, but he fears the capacity of his black brothers to maintain law and order. As this fear has sometimes been justified, it is little wonder that the Rhodesian government has no immediate plans for “one man, one vote.”

BARRY W. WILSON Philadelphia

Sir: As a white Rhodesian who supports neither the Rhodesian Front nor U.D.I., I believe it blatantly false to say “Rhodesians are determined that the blacks will never rule.” Every political party has envisaged a black majority in Parliament in ten to 20 years, but government must be civilized; Rhodesia wants no immature, ignorant rule leading to dictatorship and bankruptcy. Rhodesia’s policy is the raising of the masses to responsible rule through the government of an increasingly capable minority, both black and white.

M. W. BARRON Deerfield, Mass.

Sir: What breed of white man, save a guilt-ridden fanatic from one of our 20th century churches, would actually choose black rule? Can you seriously imagine preferring to be outnumbered 16 to 1 by blacks in swimming pools, theaters and schools, preferring to live under some monstrously multicolored rag instead of the Union Jack, preferring to point to speculative historical “records” of some primitive people as a record of antecedents instead of to England’s glory and the brilliance of English-African settlements?

GRACE KENNEDY Cherry Hill, N.J.

Sir: I claim the honor of being the first nonwhite South African Christian to be exiled by South Africa for daring to attempt to live a Christian life in an un-Christian country. My experience of living 15 months in Rhodesia testifies that Ian Smith’s brand of apartheid is even worse than that practiced by the madmen who rule my country.

WILLIAM G. ALEXANDER Montreal

On Death

Sir: Thanks for the thoughtful Essay on death [Nov. 12]. Let me add that the Christian affirmation concerning life after death is that it is based not on a debatable theory or wistful hope of some innate immortality of man, but on the historic event of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. (THE REV.) DONALD M. HULTSTRAND St. Mark’s Episcopal ChurchCanton, Ohio

Sir: I enjoyed your Essay. But the 19th century romantics fail as an example of “great death” since they were, in part, reveling in a philosophy as old as Isis, Ormazd and Ahriman, the Celtic druids, Gnosticism, etc. Present-day adherents write romantic love novels, visit psychiatrists regularly, or perhaps do both.

MICHAEL ROCHE New York City

Sir: Whether your Essay be the product of one writer, or of careful, thoughtful research and writing by several, it is without doubt a most provocatively brilliant contribution to modern man’s thinking. JAMES C. McLEODDean of Students Northwestern University Evanston, Ill.

Viet Nam & the Vietniks

Sir: We pity the David Millers [Nov. 5] and the Norman Morrisons [Nov. 12] of this earth. Burdens perhaps were too heavy, too frightening, to be borne by these unfortunates. But there is little to be gained by burning a draft card or murdering oneself in public. One does not destroy a burden by refusing to carry it.

MR. & MRS. THOMAS H. MURPHY Tampa, Fla.

Sir: I took this photo while I was at Verdun 50 years ago. Your readers may be interested to compare it with your picture of the siege of Plei Me [Nov. 5].

E. C. PETITJEAN Pickering, Ont.

Sir: To destroy with deliberate premeditation any human life, one’s own included, is in complete contradiction to the spirit and history of the Society of Friends. To think that by endangering the life of one’s helpless little girl one could halt the burning of little girls elsewhere makes Friends shudder. And yet, something that Morrison did is totally and essentially Quakerly. That he felt a faith is a thing to be lived is precisely the message of Friends. Though I protest his method, I applaud his attempt to live his religion, not merely pass a college course in it. His was a faith, not a mere affiliation.

JAMES THOMPSON Iowa City, Iowa

The Vatican Council

Sir: About Marietta K. Meszaros’ letter [Nov. 5] saying the Vatican Council’s declaration on the Jews is “simple Christian charity”: I do not now and never have felt guilty about the death of Christ. How utterly unfortunate it is that bigots like her have managed to perpetuate anti-Semitism for 2,000 years.

(MRS.) ROSILYN EISNER Maywood, NJ.

Appalachia

Sir: TIME’s patronizing account of Appalachia [Nov. 5] and its smug assumption that it is desirable to “transform the mountaineer into a middle-class American” makes my blood boil. One of the great glories of America is the wide diversity of people to be found within its borders. Homogenizing our population is deadening our culture as surely as leveling the Rocky Mountains and the Grand Canyon would ruin our scenery..

(MRS.) LOIS S. DICKMAN Staten Island, N.Y.

Sir: As a member of the Handshoe family, I believe some reaction to your story is called for. There is no such place as Handshoe Hollow on Upper Quicksand. Your title “Happy Pappies of Handshoe Holler” and Handshoe Hollow Holiness Church have more alliteration than facts. At least five Handshoes have attended Alice Lloyd College, and all have gone on to become leaders in the mountains. We know our area is economically depressed, but we question if it is altogether quaint to prefer our beautiful hills to the slums and polluted air of cities. Perhaps our quaintness lies in our interest in perpetuating the real human values that our so-called civilization so often helps to destroy.

GARRY HANDSHOE Alice Lloyd College Pippa Passes, Ky. > While Handshoe Hollow is not a Post Office address, it is customary, as with many other small mountain communities lying in isolated valleys, to add “Hollow” to the official name.

Sir: As a freshman at West Virginia University and a true mountaineer of the Appalachian state of West Virginia, I congratulate TIME on an accurate report on the people of Handshoe Hollow.

SHEILA ROIE SIMONS Jane Lew, W.Va.

A Question of Belief

Sir: About Emory University’s Prof. Thomas Altizer and the “death of God” cult [Oct. 22]: I judge this theological oddity to be a perversion of Christian truth. No doubt Altizer has read widely. But what is important is not what one has read, but what one has written. As one of the 25-member faculty of the School of Theology at Emory, I hold this teaching to be a repudiation of the Gospel. The truth of the ages, and of the age, does not stand with those who cut themselves adrift in a sea of speculative atheistic confusion. God has been able to survive the storms of attack both of His friends and His foes. I suspect He will survive this little puff.

CLAUDE H. THOMPSON Professor of Systematic Theology Emory University Atlanta

How Old the Fossils?

Sir: The laboratory that provided the date of 720 million years for the fossils our party found in the Canadian Arctic last summer [Nov. 12] now reports that on rechecking it has found a computational error and that the minimum age of the fossils is 445 million years. But the structural geologic relations indicate that this age is impossibly young: the fossils are almost surely preCambrian. Other tests by different methods are being undertaken. I hope they will resolve the uncertainty about the dates.

ANDREW H. McNAiR Professor, Geology Department Dartmouth College Hanover, N.H.

Walker Defended

Sir: Your story on General Walker [Nov. 5] contains two misstatements of fact: 1) the AP cub reporter charged Walker with “encouraging the riots,” 2) “segregationist” Walker sued AP. The two verdicts Walker won were based on false charges by AP that Walker “assumed command” of a mob of 1,000 people and “led a charge” against U.S. marshals. If Walker had been charged only with “encouraging riots,” the verdicts would be improper. Under the facts, as proved in court, the verdicts were proper. Moreover, Walker is not a “segregationist.”

CLYDE J. WATTS Oklahoma City

The Muse in Utah

Sir: Thanks for your review of my opera Miss Julie [Nov. 12]. Because I do not want to bite the hand that feeds me, I’d like to amend (or at least amplify) the phrase that “Utah is a boring state.” No state, by definition, is in itself boring. As for The State of Boredom, to me it is synonymous with tranquillity (i.e., lack of distraction), which most artists will concur is the first requisite for getting anything done.

NED ROREM New York City

La Langue Francaise

Sir: As a French-born translator, I am surprised to read in TIME [Oct. 29] the epitaph of the French language. If English is spoken at many scientific gatherings, French is spoken at many others. At the United Nations there are many instances when the majority of speakers addressing the Assembly on a particular problem do so in French. I can assure you that the French-speaking communities all over the world have no reason to despair as to the vigor of the French language. A final point: you fail to mention that in Canada, French is the native and only tongue of more than 3,000,000 French Canadians.

Louis P. BÉGUIN Toronto