Robin Hood Politics

Sir: Apparently the President's Commission on Racial Disorders [March 8] would like to impose a feeling of guilt on the self-supporting middle-class American for achieving what he has. In most cases, he has earned his position, not through family or friends, but through traditional hard work. However, when he winces at the proposals of increased taxes on his property and income to meet the demands of the unemployed and underemployed, he is variously pegged as racist or materialist. Robin Hood politics creates only dependency and defeatism within the rank and file,

(MRS,) KRISTIN WARMAN Philadelphia

Sir: I note the faults found and the remedies offered, including your estimate of possibly "hundreds of billions of dollars." In no public utterance or published news item have I read one important ingredient: What are the responsibilities of the Negro community?

SAM FISCHER

Chicago

Sir: Your analysis of the Riot Report was excellent. There is one point that I believe was not emphasized sufficiently: The Negro was forced to migrate from the rural South to the larger cities of the U.S. I suggest that the commission seek remedial action in these Southern states that still practice overt racism in practically every form, not only by white individuals, as is done in other parts of the country, but also by agencies, private as well as state. Subjecting white Southern society to law enforcement regarding civil rights would stop the migration of Negroes to our congested cities and eventually make Negroes want to return to the land of their birth.

S, H. TJAARDA Canton, N.C,

For Ladies, Too

Sir: To the bored thousands who sit in their plush offices, protected by a benefit program that only an affluent society looking for tax advantages could imagine, your Second Acts Essay [March 8] is exciting and challenging. Cutting the umbilical cord to the big mother corporation is hard, but in most cases, it does open up a whole new life. After 18 years with a fine company, I have made the change. Your article is reassuring.

H. S. GRANT JR. Burlington, Mass.

Sir: And to think I felt unique lying awake in the dark of the night rejecting the middle-age executive syndrome and its accompanying comforts and frustrations! A salute to those with starring roles in the second act.

THAD A. GUTOWSKI Bloomfield Hills, Mich,

Sir: I couldn't believe that my husband had really made TIME magazine. You described him perfectly, from the 4 a.m. sweating to the discontent with his present, albeit successful, occupation. Despite a thriving practice in ophthalmology, he has decided to master the stock market. It's nice to be reassured that all this is very normal.

DIANNE CHIRLS South Orange, N.J.

Sir: Your Essay put some life into this old girl! Why not include the ladies too? JEAN TAYLOR Milwaukee

Expedient Risk

Sir: In your article on the swearing-in of Clark McAdams Clifford [March 8], you stated that the "situation of U.S. troops" in Viet Nam is "dangerously exposed" owing to the need for more men, You also suggested, however, that a call for sizable reinforcements would be a "political risk" for the President. Does this mean to say that the man who is risking the lives of more than 500,000 of our boys in Viet Nam is unwilling to risk his own political life by taking a necessary action? If this is a just war, then let us fight it unreservedly and not according to one man's political expediency,

R, GERALD SCHMIDT Assistant Pastor The Methodist Church Girard, Pa.

Mismounted Fable

Sir: In Aesop's fable the tortoise plodded along the course while the hare slept at the starting line thinking he could win with a late dash. Your cover [March 8] has mismounted your politicians,

VICTORIA BOIES Chicago

Sir: Two presidents have we had whose name began with R. Never have we had one whose name begins with N. Think of n: negative, nothing, negligent, nebulous, No, nein, nyet, nix.

H, A. DEATON St. Louis, Mo,

Sir: If Rockefeller, with the wholehearted interest in his country that Governor Romney displayed in quitting the race, would take the vice-presidential nomination, what a victory we would have!

MRS. F. C. GOETH Portland, Ore.

Promise and Panacea

Sir: In one paragraph, you tell us that Richard Nixon eschews "winner's generalities," and then in the next, proceed to quote Mr. Nixon divesting himself of precisely those generalities [March 15]. He pledges to end the war, but talks of neither escalation nor negotiation; he promises peace in the Pacific, but gives us no clue as to a solution, an idea, or one single creative thought in that direction. He faults the Administration for urban violence, but comes up with not even a productive comment, let alone a panacea.

ROD SERLING Pacific Palisades, Calif,

Defeat for the Spirit

Sir: I found your story on "The Julio Incident" [March 8] particularly disheartening. An armed American ship stood by, while three helpless men who sought only freedom were repeatedly overrun by a Cuban vessel in international waters. The result was a defeat, not so much for this nation as for the spirit of common humanity, to which those unfortunate men in the lifeboat were appealing.

GORDON S, LIVINGSTON Silver Spring, Md,

Crime of Desire

Sir: I just finished reading your article concerning the executions in Rhodesia [March 15]. These inhuman acts are deplorable and have been denounced as such by the Pope and other world leaders. While I completely, agree with them, I wonder why these same leaders have not lifted a finger to protest the mass executions conducted by the regime of Fidel Castro against Cubans whose only crime is a desire to be free,

CARLOS A, HIDALGO Jackson Heights, N.Y.

Straining the Strains

Sir: According to your article "Closing the Gate" [March 8], it seems that after 20 centuries of introducing new strains to their stock, the British have finally decided that they're quite pleased with themselves as they are. The Celts, the Romans, the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, the Danes, the Normans, the Jews escaping the Inquisition, the ruling families of Orange and Hanover, and the political, religious and cultural exiles who have found in England a haven, all combined to make Great Britain one of the greatest nations in history. Parliament has forgotten this legacy.

DOUG BAXTER Delaware, Ohio

Lofty Placards

Sir: If there is something worse than neglect of our public schools, it is the spectacle of teachers manning a picket line [March 8]. No matter how worthy are demands that educators be given professional status and their institutions increased respect and support, locking a child out of his classroom is an unconscionable act. The riddle of ends and means has become an old cliche, but its implicit moral dilemma is timeless and might serve well for teachers to ponder amid all that walking with lofty placards.

DENNIS W. CROW Teacher Fellow in English University of Illinois Urbana, Ill.

Sir: It is difficult for some to comprehend that the teachers have left their classrooms not for the sake of salaries alone or even primarily, but in the hope that attention will be drawn to improvement of the "educational industry" itself. How many autoworkers in Detroit put their livelihood on the line in the hope that better Fords might be produced?

JUDITH PRETTYMAN SHARPE Miami Springs, Fla.

Dissent from the Bench

Sir: In the article "Obscenity," it is reported that I said that Lenny Bruce was guilty of obscenity [March 1]. The contrary is true. As a judge of the court, I voted to acquit Lenny Bruce and to dismiss the information. I dissented from the conviction and wrote a dissenting opinion that expressed some of my distaste for the whole proceeding--which opinion was found so sharp as to warrant the censorship of non-publication in the official reports. The reversal on appeal of the co-defendant cannot set aright the fatal judicial wrong done Lenny Bruce--a wrong that is one of the reasons for my retirement from the bench.

J. RANDALL CREEL Mill Neck, N.Y.

Discriminating Olympians

Sir: In its deliberations concerning the banning of South Africa from the Olympic Games in Mexico City [March 8], the International Committee should also consider banning Kenya for discrimination against resident Asians, the U.K. for discrimination against those same Asians, the Arab States for discrimination against the Israelis, Nigeria for discrimination against the Ibos, France for discrimination against the British, the Greek Cypriots for discrimination against the Turkish Cypriots and vice-versa, a majority of the nations sitting in the U.N. for discrimination against China, and the U.S. for discrimination against Ian Smith.

R. M. ETHERINGTON West Hartford, Conn.

No Defeat

Sir: I knew Carolyn Griswold, one of the Christian and Missionary Alliance workers slain in the Viet Cong attack on Ban Me Thuot [March 8]. When the Griswold home was bombed in the early-morning attack, her father was killed in the initial explosion, but Carolyn lay for several hours buried beneath the debris before she could be rescued. Then, with serious internal injuries, she survived the remainder of the siege and died later in a military hospital after having been evacuated by a helicopter crew. An excerpt from one of Carolyn's letters: "Pray with us that the Lord will keep the doors to this country open, for there are so many who have yet to hear for the first time the story of God's love. It is true that we do not know what the future holds, but as someone has said, 'We know the One who holds the future,' and that is enough." There is no defeat in such a death; it is total victory.

JANE KENNEY Corning, N.Y.

Thinking about God

Sir: Protestant theologians commemorating the bicentenary of Schleiermacher's birth [March 8] might well anticipate a similar distinction for G.W.F. Hegel in the year 1970 and consider his rejoinder to his rival at the University of Berlin in 1822: "If man's religion is based only on his feeling of dependence, the best Christian would be the dog, which lives primarily according to this feeling. A dog also has feelings of salvation when its hunger is gratified by a bone."

DAVID TRACY JEX Stanford, Calif.

Sir: Yet another resurrection of a long dead theologian? The past 400 years have seen the development of a dreadful sort of "homology"--as opposed to theology. We have come disastrously close to revering other human beings' thinking about God rather than God himself. We have dared to assume as our own the answers of another human's relationship with God --the results of agonizing search--without any seeking or questioning of our own. Each human individual who is or ever has been, or ever will be, has a unique relationship with God; one human's answers can only serve as the basis for another's questions.

PATTISON S. KUNTZ Newark, Del.

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