That Special Gift

Sir: To attempt to brag about your "special gift to homogenize a diverse society" in your "American Notes" [Oct. 26] at the moment when your neighbor is burying a murdered leader is the height of cruelty and conceit. Undoubtedly there were Canadians who expressed feelings other than anguish when American leaders were murdered--but for those of us who consider you a friend, your words are senseless. You owe us a retraction.

R. WARREN PHILLIPS

Pointe Claire, Que.

Sir: From the same people who brought us Viet Nam, Watts, Kent State and Chicago now comes the secret ingredient behind all these blockbusters: "America's special gift ... to subdue tribal turmoil and to homogenize ... a diverse society." As Quebeckers (and Canadians) recovering from recent violence, we can only despair that our nation, too, does not possess this unique quality.

GREN NORTON

DERK VAN DASSEN

CATHY HOLDWAY

Montreal

Sir: Gift? A distressing choice of terms.

ROBERT F. QUAINTANCE JR.

Amherst College

Amherst, Mass.

Here Stands a Man

Sir: As a former Canadian citizen of French extraction fed up with the spineless approach of American authorities to law-and-order, I say "Hurrah for Pierre Trudeau" [Oct. 26]. Here stands a man nine feet tall, unafraid of the maniac minorities. May the powers-that-be in America take heed--while there are still powers-that-be to take heed.

LORRAINE CROTEAU MEAD

Anchorage, Alaska

Sir: Trudeau for U.S. President!

JULIUS WOLFF

Baltimore

Suggestion from Kent

Sir: The indictments of students and professors rather than National Guardsmen at Kent State [Oct. 26] suggest that it is a crime to throw rocks and shout obscenities, yet legally justified to fire bullets into a crowd of people.

GEORGE F. ELLING

Chagrin Falls, Ohio

Sir: The thing about Kent State was that professor standing on the hill overlooking the "battleground." He was quoted as saying, when he became aware that blood was flowing, "My God, this is for real!" Well, for goodness sake, did he think it wasn't? Do the students think they are playing games? Maybe they'll put away the rocks and dynamite and the rest of their little toys and go home if we get the message across strongly enough --"You're damn right it's for real!"

(Mrs.) PAULA BERNARDI

Pleasanton, Calif.

Sir: The Ohio grand jury findings made me violently ill. It's funny, but for some reason I thought that somewhere, somehow, justice could and would be found for those four martyrs. I knew and laughed with Sandy Scheuer. I lived in Youngstown for 18 years and loved it. I was proud to say I was from Ohio. Now I can't say it with the same pride. Pretty soon it's going to be hard to say I'm from America.

SHARON GARFIELD

Philadelphia

Sir: According to the logic of the grand jury, the party guilty of inciting to riot ends up to be President Nixon. His order of troops to Cambodia caused the peaceful antiwar rally, which caused the order to disperse, which caused the students to ignore the order, which caused the arrival of troops, which caused a confrontation, which caused frightened, ill-trained young men to feel endangered, which caused the killing of four students, which caused the violence and horror of Indochina to be brought home hard to Middle America.

JOSEPH SABA

Cambridge, Mass.

Sir: Why don't we let the Ohio grand jury investigate My Lai? We could then accuse the women and children.

ROBERT M. SCHIFFMAN

Jersey City, N.J.

The Baffling Professor

Sir: TIME is correct in pointing out the aura of bafflement surrounding the Angela Davis affair [Oct. 26]. Miss Davis is variously described as "brilliant," "cerebral," "rational," and we are told that she chose active membership in the Communist Party, U.S.A. because of her commitment to strict Marxist rationality. But her advocation of freedom in the "act of refusal" is not consistent with the determinist world view of dialectical materialism, which leads any good Communist ideologue to define freedom as the recognition of necessity and to dismiss any other notion as bourgeois sentiment. Nor did her flamboyant Afro coiffure lend itself to the proper image of an austere Communist. And her association with a spoiled playboy who had Communist connections is the stuff of an Irving Wallace novel. So what gives? Are the Communists using Miss Davis to revamp their dreary image? Is Angela using the Communists and the sensationalist media to put us all on? Or beneath all those academic trappings, is Prof. Davis simply a crazy, mixed-up broad?

SP5 JOHN R. DUNLAP

APO New York

Sir: When the U.C.L.A. board of regents refused to renew the contract of Angela Davis, they justified their action on the ground that she talked too much. According to some, she believed in free speech only when she had her mouth open. But this was not the reason for her actual discharge: it was for talking anywhere and everywhere (except at U.C.L.A.) as a proclaimed member of the Communist Party. And now she runs to keep from talking to anyone anywhere about anything.

CHARLES H. MANAUGH

Los Angeles

Hemlock All Around

Sir: A bust of Socrates in Vice President Agnew's office [Oct. 26] is utterly inappropriate and misleading. Socrates was a true champion of moderation and reason, a great teacher who fearlessly sought the truth regardless of self. Aristophanes, one of the men responsible for permanently silencing the voice of Socrates, is described thusly in the latest edition of the Encyclopedia Americana:

"[His] . . . writing is flavored with coarse invective, conservative prejudice, championship of rural life, animosity toward urban society, irresponsible lampponery, and inconsistent buffoonery. Utilizing satire, he denounced new trends in education, literature, music, theology, philosophy, science and politics, and he denounced or ridiculed personalities behind these innovations."

OSCAR ROSEN, PH.D.

Associate Professor of History

Wisconsin State University

Whitewater, Wis.

Sir: Socrates--the bearded, sandaled, hippie-type, radical-liberal antiestablishmentarian--must be laughing up his invisible sleeve as he looks over the shoulder of Agnew at the latter's pretentious, choleric, sesquipedalian prose.

SARAH MONTOYA

Monterey Park, Calif.

Feelings of Sympathy

Sir: I was delighted with your article on my The Boys and Girls Book About Divorce [Oct. 26]. You have accurately described my central point--that parents should be honest with children. However, you have emphasized those aspects of the book that encourage the child to assert himself against being victimized. You have not given enough attention to my attempt to foster in him feelings of sympathy for his parents' plight and appreciation that some of his pains are not due to deliberate hostility on his parents' part, but rather to misguidance, ignorance and helplessness.

RICHARD A. GARDNER, M.D.

Columbia University

Manhattan

Freedom Now?

Sir: So Salvador Allende [Oct. 19] believes "man is freed when he has an economic position that guarantees him work, food, housing, health, rest and recreation." That kind of "freedom" can be found in prison, but then that may be what Allende has in mind for Chile.

JERRY NORTON

Suitland, Md.

Sir: Intrigued by your marvelous cold war headline, MARXIST THREAT IN THE AMERICAS, I read on to see who is being threatened. Apparently it's some U.S. copper firms, the telephone company, and assorted juntas. Somehow, I'm not alarmed. I am, however, irritated by your persistent assumption that any form of Marxism enjoying any form of success in any part of the world is, ipso facto, a threat. This kind of thinking gave us Viet Nam. And it ignores the obvious: non-Marxist politicians have generally failed to meet the needs of the masses. I suggest we let our humanity transcend our cold war reflexes and hope that the people of Latin America are finding some kind of solution to their problems. We haven't been much help.

MICHAEL DODGE

St. Paul, Minn.

Alienating the Able

Sir: If the armed services are serious about removing unnecessary irritants of military life [Oct. 26], they would be wise to revise their regulations to make military service more attractive to women. For instance, at the present time, married men in the service may collect a housing allowance regardless of the economic condition of their wives, but a married female cannot collect a housing allowance even if she totally supports her husband. This, and other sex-oriented disparities, are alienating many able women who would otherwise find military life pleasant and highly productive.

(Mrs.) SHARRON FRONTIERO

Lieutenant, U.S.A.F.

Montgomery, Ala.

The Hams What Am

Sir: You had a rather good story about electronic pollution [Oct. 26], but you apparently had a semantics problem at one point, perhaps in trying to translate idiom. U.S. radio amateurs, or "hams," and "radio lovers" in the U.S.S.R. are highly skilled, service-minded hobbyists who --in both countries--have to pass stiff exams to operate their radio equipment. They'd be the last people to play games on airport frequencies because they fully appreciate the importance of uninterrupted communications, not to mention being fully aware of the penalties for such acts. Amateurs have a couple of colorful epithets for such "hooligans" as figured in your story: "pirates" and "bootleggers!"

PERRY F. WILLIAMS, WIUED

The American Radio Relay League Inc.

Newington, Conn.

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