Letters: Dec. 10, 1965

Appraising the President

Sir: The difference between Kennedy and Johnson [Nov. 26] is the difference between a call for sacrifice and a quest for shallow consensus, between hope and concern for the future of mankind and a total preoccupation with the next piece of domestic legislation, between a man and a politician. Kennedy reflects the majesty that was Rome and the intellect that was Greece. Johnson reflects the paternalism and arrogance that is Texas.

CHUCK COULTER Iowa City, Iowa

Sir: In the books about Kennedy, I doubt if anyone has expressed a nation’s feelings as well as Euripides in Hippolytus. “On all our citizens hath come this universal sorrow, unforeseen. Now shall the copious tear gush forth, for sad news about great men takes more than usual hold upon the heart.”

WINFRED M. BROWN Irving, Texas

Sir: Your Essay put into words what many have felt since Nov. 22, 1963. Our nation is in capable hands, but the magic is gone. While Johnson’s legislative performance forces us to admire him, the Kennedy legend cannot die.

BETTINA K. FREDRICK Arlington, Mass.

Sir: The Kennedy you describe is the Kennedy created by the Kennedy family publicity agency. As far as I am concerned, there never was such a person.

E. R. KRATZ Albuquerque, N.M.

Sir: The Kennedy legend is a farce foisted off on people by tasteless mass communication media.

(MRS.) Lois S. APPEL Romeo, Mich.

Sir: Your Essay was the most dastardly defamation of a great, sincere and brilliant American President I have ever read. The masses of his countrymen understand Johnson and love him deeply. I prophesy that he and his Great Society will go down in history with awe and reverence.

MARTIN E. NACHSIN Endicott, N.Y.

American Dream

Sir: Congratulations to the millionaires under 40 [Dec. 3]. I thought Uncle Sam and his tax structure had long since closed the door to the accumulation of new fortunes. I am delighted to learn that one of our principal American dreams can still come true.

RICHARD E. PEARSON Washington, D.C.

Sir: Arthur Carlsberg, you report, is a millionaire. He is so busy he rarely sees his three sons—takes off one week a year to spend with them, and leaves his office to be with them on their birthdays. Big deal. Arthur Carlsberg is no millionaire—he is a pauper.

GEORGE O. HACKETT Dearborn, Mich.

Sir: You mention one of our members. Jerry Wolman, and you say that “few millionaires have time for religion.” Jerry Wolman is a tower of strength in our community. He gives of his resources, of his name and prestige to many worthwhile spiritual efforts, and he is a modest young man with deep convictions.

(RABBI) Tzvi H. PORATH Montgomery County Jewish Community, Inc. Chevy Chase, Md.

What Makes Jimmy Run

Sir: Your cover story on Jimmy Brown [Nov. 26] is enlightening, incisive, colorful and above all, fair. As painful as it may be for Brown worshipers to admit, Superman is not too super as a person. But this of course does not detract from his athletic greatness. Your writer has come closest yet to putting the finger on what makes Jimmy run.

THOMAS F. BLACK Atlanta

Sir: Putting Jimmy Brown on your cover and building him up to hero proportions are in poor taste. Sure, he is a terrific football player, but as a man he is a disgrace. As a public figure and a sports celebrity, he bears certain responsibilities to the public, which he ignores. His arrogant, recently rich attitude is revolting, and his conduct makes me sick. Brown is no hero; he is a bum!

JACK MACLEOD Detroit

Viet Nam

Sir: It is inappropriate to view the burning of Norman Morrison and the immolation of Roger LaPorte [Nov. 19] fundamentally as suicides. These men sought to convince us of their sincere rejection of militarism and violence in Viet Nam. How else could they penetrate the cultural screen of advertising, propaganda, image making, and superficial public-opinion polling that separates us from 20th century human realities? The courageous self-sacrifice of these two men deserves the utmost public respect.

DAVID S. TILLSON Professor of Anthropology State University College Brockport, N.Y.

Sir: The taking of one’s own life-does not make a person a martyr, nor does it make him human. Such a person is demented. A rational being would devote his life to trying to correct a wrong. By destroying his life, he simply ends his argument.

LINDA SULLIVAN Brooklyn

Sir: Your glorification of our fighting men in Viet Nam [Nov. 26] conjured up in my mind a picture of a sneering e.e. cummings. You fit this gem just wonderfully well:

‘next to of course god america i

love you land of the pilgrims’ and so

forth . . . thy sons acclaim your glorious name by

gorry

by jingo by gee by gosh by gum why talk of beauty what could be more beautiful than these heroic happy dead who rushed like lions to the roaring

slaughter they did not stop to think they died

instead then shall the voice of liberty be mute?’

LESTER OSTROY New York City

Sir: I will gladly send a check, payable to any gas station, to cover the cost of two gallons of gasoline and a card saying “Be my guest” to anyone desiring to immolate himself in front of the Pentagon or else” where. The faster the U.S. rids itself of these nuts, the better I’ll feel when I return.

MICHAEL E. DUNN Viet Nam

Varieties of Adventure

Sir: You imply that by flying my Cessna in bad weather, I take considerable risks [Nov. 19]. It has taken me 17 years to sell the sometimes conservative hierarchy of the Episcopal Church on my flying in my work as bishop of Alaska. I do not believe I take chances. After having flown 5,000 hours in Alaska and having become intimately familiar with the terrain on the ground and from the air, I can fly safely in tough conditions. Please take me off the hook; otherwise I’ll be deluged with protests from the relatives of all my passengers, and I might even find myself back behind a dog sled at five miles an hour!

(THE RT. REV.) WILLIAM J. GORDON JR. Fairbanks, Alaska

Murder in Tucson

Sir: It is a sorry commonplace that today’s adolescents are tomorrow’s adult citizens. But the appalling silence of at least 30 Tucson teen-agers who heard a murderer brag of his crimes [Nov. 26] shows again, with brutal clarity, that atrocities comparable to the Nazis’ worst are a danger coeval with society. We tend to forget the immediately possible circumstances in which most men easily rationalize, and hence passively accept, a situation not directly affecting them.

BRIAN A. KENNEDY Oxford, England

Sir: To the few Tucson teen-agers who hang out at the drive-ins on East Speedway, Charles Howard Schmid Jr. was known as a swinger, but to the other 99% of us he was known as a “weirdo,” a real queer. There are no more “bored, vacant-eyed” teen-agers here in Tucson than in any other American city of its size. It is indeed a terrible thing that at least 30 teen-agers who knew about the crimes did not tell the police, but is this any worse than the 30 or more New Yorkers who watched a girl being stabbed to death, yet did nothing? This apathy seems to be a national sickness that occurs not only among teen-agers but among adults too.

MIKE PAULSON Tucson, Ariz.

Douglas Salutes Schaefer

Sir: An apology and a salute—to George Schaefer, director of the Hallmark Hall of Fame. TIME [Nov. 26] correctly quotes me as finding fault with Schaefer because he did not fight for a scene in Inherit the Wind with some mild profanity in it that the agency wanted to cut. I spoke after I had viewed the first studio screening of the tape, from which the scene had been cut. I was indignant. It was a good scene—an important one. Cutting it was one more example of the puerility that dominates and emasculates too much of our television fare. But I had underestimated George Schaefer’s integrity and stamina. In the final version, the scene was restored. So:—three unreserved cheers for George. He is, as your article states, an oasis in the desert.

MELVYN DOUGLAS New York City

Daring Batman

Sir: Your story “The Return of Batman” [Nov. 26] omitted the primary reason for the new-found success of the serial. Audiences today find double-entendre in almost every sentence of dialogue and in every action—which makes for a more daring show than any produced recently. Also, today they laugh at what once was taken seriously, and this is a fantastic ego-building mechanism (same reason for the success of the “007” movies). It’s no wonder we are rescheduling Batman to turnaway crowds.

LES NATALI Manager Presidio Theatre San Francisco

Pop Prayer

Sir: About “Pop Prayer” [Nov. 26]: As an Episcopalian, I resent the intrusion of these vulgarities on the beautiful Book of Common Prayer. As a Christian, I resent the author, who strips prayer of any dignity that we might strive to achieve in communion with our Lord. As a creature of God, I resent these alleged prayers as an insult to the intelligence with which He endowed me.

C. D. FRANCIS III Philadelphia

Sir: As a young Episcopalian, I appreciate the Rev. Malcolm Boyd’s attempt to break away from the “hath wrought,” “thou,” and “saveth” of our prayer-book practice of faith. I have my own favorite modernized grace: “Rub-a-dub-dub./ Thanks for the grub./ Go, God, go! Amen.”

WILLIAM F. WILLNER Lincoln, Neb.

Personal-Injury Litigation

Sir: Isn’t it a pity that personal-injury litigation has deteriorated to the point where you found it advisable to print that satirical article, “Nothing Beats Money” [Nov. 19]? There isn’t any question in the public’s mind that lawyers are pushing injury claims for all they can get, and your article adds flame to their fire. May God take pity on that poor man who can never again support himself or his family because he has been crippled or blinded by a well-insured drunk; and may God have mercy on the prejudiced jury who cheats him out of just compensation because of its own selfishness. Money is a primitive way to compensate a person for his suffering. When a better system is devised, 1 shall wholeheartedly support it.

DAVID P. CONNOR Attorney at Law Springfield, Mass.

Man of the Year

Sir: As the number of G.I.s killed in Viet Nam increases, there can be no doubt that the most meaningful tribute that can be paid these men is to make the American G.I. TIME’s Man of the Year.

GARY W. NISLEY Levittown, Pa.

Sir: Ian Smith, for daring to believe what he believes and no bones about it, for being proud of the color of his skin in a world where it has become shameful to be white, for tying a knot in the British tabby’s tail.

TOM EGERTON Durban, South Africa

Sir: G. Keith Funston, president of the New York Stock Exchange, because he is a refreshing symbol of integrity and fair dealing.

RALPH W. WELSH Philadelphia

Sir: Dr. Martin Luther King.

HERMAN FRIESEL Philadelphia

Sir: Charles de Gaulle.

ROY D. McBAiN Chicago

Sir: Eric (Games People Play) Berne. SPEUYDRE LUBINSKI Roxbury, Mass.