New Day, Old Outrage
Sir: Thanks to Peggy and Guy Smith for the inspiration their love story gave me and to you for sharing it with the world [Sept. 29]. Heaven knows that what the world needs now is love. But, Peggy and Guy are more than two people in love. They are, indeed, prophets for our time. They have had the courage to proclaim their love to a world still overburdened with a cultural overlay of prejudice. And may those no longer young learn from the parents of this brave couple. They showed us all that love can indeed be blind—blind to ignorant assumptions and fears. I’m optimistic enough to back up my faith in their future and ours with Teilhard de Chardin’s prediction: “Today something is happening to the whole structure of human consciousness. A fresh kind of life is starting.”
RUTH J. DRUHAN
Silver Spring, Md.
Sir: We Georgians are doubly nauseated and ashamed that Rusk is a native of this state.
MARY HAMMOND
Atlanta
Sir: When I saw that your article on the Rusk-Smith wedding was under “Races,” I was annoyed. But after reading the article, I wish to thank you for an unbiased report. I only hope that the day will soon come when a Negro can come into the limelight without anyone’s feeling the need to point out his or her race.
JEAN ROBERTSON
Mount Kisco, N.Y.
Sir: Your glorification of the mongrelizing of races, depicted by the daughter of the Secretary of State and her bridegroom, does you no credit. The situation would be more properly ignored.
E. H. BRANDT JR.
Charlotte, N.C.
Sir: There will come a time when the stigma will be removed, when we will be able to marry the person of our choice without regard to color or race or religion, and with society’s blessings. A time when persons of diverse backgrounds will marry and go unnoticed by the nation’s news media, and the wagging tongues of our populace. When that day arrives, then we will indeed have won the battle against racial and religious intolerance.
JEANNE JACOBS
North Arlington, N.J.
Raga-Rah!
Sir: Hail to Gerald Scarfe’s surrealistic creation of the Beatles incarnate [Sept. 22]! And raga-rah to your smashing account of psychedelic Beatledom!
GINGER HUNT
Piqua, Ohio
Sir: What with the war in Viet Nam, the opening of the U.N., trouble in the Middle East, China and Russia, you put those insects on your cover? I’m glad.
BERT SIROTE
Far Rockaway, N.Y.
Sir: The Beatles seem to synthesize their sensations into a position of non-position that exemplifies the circular course of transcendental experience. A freedom love is revealed in a music and manner that describes a balance between nihilism and mundane involvement.
ELIZABETH HEATH ATKINSON
New Hope, Pa.
Sir: As a middle-aging Beatle-manic mother, may I suggest that it is not “the parents who are targets of the Beatles’ satirical gibes” but rather the soppy cult of pseudo-sacrifice wherein Aunt Bessie of the Missionary Society tells everyone about the hair shirt she has to wear because she donated all her brassières to the Uncivilized Savages.
HELEN P. BOLLINGER
Aspers, Pa.
“Victory” & Votes
Sir: The prospect of “victory” in Viet Nam [Sept. 22] fills me with dread. It would mean a continuation of the absurd philosophy that war can end war, a victory for militarists who would bring peace to mankind by killing him, and a further retreat into our paranoid delusion that we can spread brotherhood and love by filling the world with soldiers and guns.
CHARLES W. RUNYON
Farmington, Mo.
Sir: The Republicans should keep in mind that there will be large numbers of Viet Nam veterans voting for the first time in this coming presidential election. These men are not about to vote for a “peace at any price” candidate. Such a candidate would be telling us that all the sweat, blood and human life that we have given here was in vain. Such a candidate would in effect be selling us out. No one wants peace more than those of us who must fight the war. Still, we realize that any peace reached must be a just one that meets the standards that sent us over here in the first place. We are willing to pay the price and see this thing through. We are looking for a man who will not throw out our sacrifices, but who will exercise our capabilities wisely and bring us to a just peace.
(PFC) DOUGLAS E. BLAYNEY
U.S.M.C.
A.P.O. San Francisco
Noble Aspect
Sir: In the article on the churches’ activities here in South Viet Nam [Sept. 22], you have called attention to one of the few really noble aspects of our involvement in this unfortunate land. Having spent nearly a year as a physician with the Army here, I have seen the deplorable state of Vietnamese medicine, and I have been embarrassed and angered by the feeble efforts of our government in this sphere. In striking contrast to the dismal record of governmental bureaucracy is the progress of the religious organizations; and though I am by no means a religious man, I am proud of what these Americans are doing. I speak with special feeling of the Seventh Day Adventist Mission Hospital here in Saigon. In this institution American doctors are bringing ever more sophisticated medical care to Vietnamese who only yesterday were being treated by traditional herbals or even acupuncture. In this dreary war, where it seems that the welfare of the Vietnamese individual is so often forgotten in the rush to preserve the independence of the Vietnamese nation, one takes pride in seeing these selfless Americans quietly doing good works in difficult and trying circumstances.
HARTE C. CROW
Captain, U.S.A.
A.P.O. San Francisco
Steel v. Death
Sir: The deployment of the ABM system [Sept. 22] is not only an indication of the present Administration’s absurd penchant for wasting tax dollars, but a grave crime against man’s will to survive. It will likely open the way to vaster, more absurd mechanizations of defense. If it is never used, the magnitude of such a dead investment will reproach mankind in its folly for generations to come. If it is employed, it will not even protect urban areas; we may die with the satisfaction of knowing that most of “them” will be just as dead. I cannot countenance my taxes being used for the preservation of steel and the propagation of death.
THOMAS F. KEEFE
Manhattan
Fun City
Sir: I was pleased to read of your overdue discovery of the “other” Acapulco [Sept. 22]. However, the estimate of 200 murders a month in Guerrero refers only to the reported killings. The true figure is probably twice that amount—a frightening statistic considering that the entire state has only about one-tenth the population of New York City. One likes to think that your article has enlightened a few of the millions of tourists who see the palm trees but not the rats hiding below their branches.
NINA ACEVEDO R.
Acapulco, Mexico
Caveat Economist?
Sir: Your Essay, “The Merits of Speculation” [Sept. 22] honestly reflects the pragmatic urgings that motivate individual traders as well as conveying some reasonable caveats, which we—individually and collectively—are well advised to heed.
L. DEE BEL VEAL
Consulting Economist
Belveal & Co., Inc.
Wilmette, Ill.
Wrong Plane
Sir: You reported that the death of Mohammed bin Ladin, Saudi Arabia’s construction king [Sept. 15], was caused by injuries sustained in the crash of his Hawker Siddeley (De Havilland) DH-125 executive jet. It was not a DH-125 but a light twin-engined aircraft.
BERNHARD B. BUNDESMAN
President
Hawker Siddeley International, Inc.
Flushing, N.Y.
> TIME erred. The plane involved was a Beechcraft Model D-18.
The Impossible Dream
Sir: Reuther would do far better to use his strike fund to purchase common stock in Ford [Sept. 15]. Within ten years he could virtually own the company and write his own contracts.
PETER L. KROHN
Easton, Pa.
Sir: The time is ripe for L.B.J.’s attempt to walk on Walter.
PAUL H. JOHNSON
Lake Crystal, Minn.
Toilet Patrol & Test Tubes
Sir: When teachers [Sept. 22] grow up and start acting like professionals again, they will be treated as such. How can we expect today’s young people to mature when they see the example their teachers are setting—bickering over petty grievances like toilet patrol and playground supervision. Really now!
MARY ANN CHANDLER
Columbus, Ohio
Sir: Being trusted with million-dollar minds but not with 20-cent test tubes is what gives rise to pain.
JOHN ALLEN BUCKNER
Kent, Wash.
Pei & Partners
Sir: I wish to correct an error in your otherwise very excellent article on the National Center for Atmospheric Research [Sept. 22]. While the Place Ville-Marie complex in Montreal was the work of our office, my partner, Mr. Henry N. Cobb, should be credited with the responsibility for the design and execution of this project.
I. M. PEI
I. M. Pei & Partners, Architects
Manhattan
>As its most renowned member points out, the firm of I. M. Pei & Partners is indeed a widely creative partnership, with Henry N. Cobb responsible for the Place Ville-Marie, Araldo A. Cossutta for Washington’s L’Enfant Plaza and Eason H. Leonard for having performed a major design role in Denver’s Mile-High Center.
Perils of Parenthood
Sir: Your article on Roman Catholic priests and their adverse reactions to celibacy [Sept. 15] indicates what little value some of those clergymen place in their vows. Their oaths of poverty, obedience and celibacy symbolize the patterning of their lives to that of Jesus Christ. Reverend John A. O’Brien and his “countless thousands” should realize that by questioning their celibate state they are contradicting the way of life they chose to follow.
JOSEPH C. NARDINI
University Park, Pa.
Sir: As I prepared lunch for my active four-year-old son and two-year-old daughter, who was having her usual mealtime tantrum, I could not help thinking of those Catholic priests who were meeting to pursue a new church ruling regarding celibate or married life. If they could share some of our hectic meal ordeals, they would surely want to remain celibate.
(MRS.) P. B. MALLOY
Atlanta
The Real McGann
Sir: I herewith deny that I authored the tasteless albeit clever letter to the editor [Sept. 8] attributed to “Pat McGann.”
P. (PAT) H. MCGANN
Captain, U.S.N.
McLean, Va.
Barometer Falling
Sir: In your review of “The Lure of the Limerick” [Sept. 22], I was aghast to read that “limericks have never been a popular art form with women.” May I comment:
There was a young lady named Jean
Who preferred her limericks unclean,
To TIME she’d reply
That all girls by and by
Would rather hear limericks obscene.
JEAN A. GRAHAM
Sydney, Australia
Sir: Not all of the interesting young men and women in limericks are from New England cities. The Midwest has its share:
There was a young man from Livonia
Who loved nightly a girl from Ionia.
He became so entranced
He walked home without pants
And now he’s in bed with pneumonia.
ROBERT R. MONTGOMERY, D.D.S.
Livonia, Mich.
Sir: —”
TIME’S booh ed. is in for rough weather
He’s provoked limerickers to letter
In multiple verse
That will get worse and worse
As their thinking gets bawdily better.
JIM RICHARDSON
Covington, La.
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