Out of the Wilderness

Sir / Truth reveals its secrets only to those who search for it, and no one will ever corner the market. Each age produces its own men of destiny who recognize their role and play their inevitable part in the gigantic cosmic drama that is life. Bless Castaneda [March 5] and his kind! May their number increase! Perhaps they will lead us out of the wilderness of this plane and into that which is our true home, or at least alert those unaware that more is happening to many who are ready than has been reported by the media of every description.

KATHLEEN M. SLEIGHT Dearborn, Mich.

Sir / Who cares if Carlos Castaneda was born in Tahiti in 1945, served in the French Foreign Legion and hides it all from your clever journalists?

If he invented this fantasy, it is no less honest or true than if he did not, but to see you subject his work and his person to your hired leeches under the pretense of understanding is not easy to bear.

RON FISHER Paris

Sir / "Lo, the poor Indian." The ways of exploiting him appear to be infinite. One hopes that Juan Matus' sorcery will provide him with the necessities of life while his apprentice watches the money roll in.

NANCY WOOD Schenectady, N.Y.

Sir / The most significant part of the article was Castaneda's statement, "Oh, I am a bull-shitter!" How true.

LANNY R. MIDDINGS San Ramon, Calif.

Sir / Why try Mescalito, Jimson weed and "little smoke" if they cause ypu to meet up with a cricketlike being with a warty head, or a 100-ft.-high gnat with spiky hair and drooling jaws? Please pass me an aspirin.

JEAN SCOVILLE Palm Beach, Fla.

Sir / It is a disgrace that scholarship in this country has deteriorated to the point where Carlos Castaneda and his ramblings could be considered, let alone accepted, as works of scholarship.

CHRISTOBAL SOLER TORQUEMADA Los Angeles

Sir / I have the nagging feeling that Castaneda's Don Juan is Warhol's tomato-soup can.

ELLEN SAUNDERS Detroit

Legal Euthanasia

Sir / It is to be hoped that the publicizing of Dr. Geertruida Postma's courage [March 5] will start the changing of laws against voluntary euthanasia.

What right has the law to make pathetic prisoners of human beings who feel their proper time has come and beg release?

Euthanasia could so benefit the world.

BEATRICE BRAUN Los Angeles

Sir / No wonder Dr. Postma's mother wanted "to leave this life." The best thing her "merciful" doctor-daughter had to give her was a fatal shot of morphine to relieve her "unbearable mental suffering," instead of taking her home and giving her a daughter's love and care.

DIANA ESCOBAR Pensacola, Fla.

The Plaid Coat

Sir / I was surprised to read [March 5] of the addition of Cecil Stoughton to the ranks of the white-collar unemployed. It would have been more appropriate for the President to keep him around as evidence that the Nixon economic game plan is working by showing that you can still buy a coat for $19.95, eyen if you do have to go to Canada to do it.

DICK DIEFFENDERFER Columbus

Sir / What's the problem? Stoughton is croppable, no pun intended.

R.W. CONKLIN South Bend, Ind.

Bread and Fish

Sir / Regarding Mr. Nixon's suggestion [March 5] that a diet of fish is more patriotic than one of beef, might I, a humble subject, suggest King Richard I check on today's price of fish?

BARBARA A. CORNWALL Buffalo

Sir / The truth of the following jingle is unavoidable:

The high price of steak Leaves this to be said: Most eaters of cake Have plenty of bread.

COLIN G. JAMESON Key West, Fla.

Sinai Incident

Sir / Call it extremely bad judgment, but do not describe the tragic downing of the Libyan Arab Airlines plane east of Suez [March 5] as carrying "aggression to new heights."

Given the troubled, warlike atmosphere pervading the area, the response of the Israeli military to an "enemy" airliner overflying the territory it controls was understandable even if not acceptable.

EMANUEL FRIEDMAN, M.D. Burlingame, Calif.

Sir / As an Israeli, as a Jew, as a human being, I can say nothing. I weep; I pray.

IGAL HAUER Toronto

Dundee, Scotland

Sir / May your porridge forever be lumpy and your kilt be caught in an updraft! You've moved one of Scotland's finest cities [March 5]. "England's University of Dundee," indeed!

MARGARET GORDON KLEIN Knoxville, Tenn.

Doing Soapers

Sir / Your brief but informative coverage of "The Deadly Downer" [March 5] confirmed my suspicions concerning the pathetic effects of methaqualone. Many students here have been frantically doing soapers for more than a year, knowing little about the dangers and caring only that the pills are a great way to get loose. I appreciate TIME'S report of the frightening results of methaqualone abuse. Unfortunately, the people who need the information will probably be too soaped up to read the article.

LISA SIDNER Miami University Oxford, Ohio

SCM Verdict

Sir / The item on a California jury verdict against SCM Corporation for unfair competition [March 5] contained an unfortunate statement suggesting that SCM had "a policy of using sabotage as a sales tactic." That statement is an incorrect reference to equivocal testimony by an ex-SCM employee, himself fired for proposing unethical conduct to SCM.

We wish TIME had asked us for comment about the disputed 1968 incident.

For the record, we are proud of SCM's reputation for fair and honest dealing with customers and competitors alike. We are confident that the verdict will be overturned on appeal.

GERARD F. STODDARD SCM Corporation New York City

The Metropolitan

Sir / Your magazine [March 5] accuses me of "remarkable disingenuousness or extraordinary lack of judgment" in not immediately identifying the name of Mr. Hecht's source because "the name was difficult to spell." Here I must protest and explain. The New York Times called me at my home in the country on Sunday, Feb. 18, as I was making a snowman with my children. The name (Dikran A. Sarrafian) was in my files in the office, and since there are variant spellings of the name, I wanted to be sure that I gave the right one. This I did as soon as I was back in my office.

DIETRICH VON BOTHMER Curator of Greek and Roman Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art New York City

Sir / I read with distress of the Metropolitan Museum's recent selling of lesser art works [Feb. 26]. It seems likely to me that there are many smaller museums throughout our nation that could have afforded to purchase these pieces of art and would have been happy to have a Modigliani of lesser quality than none at all.

DOROTHY DANIELS ANDERSON Minneapolis

Sir / Hoving should resign. So should the whole damn board of trustees. They'll never get my paintings.

VERNON E. KNUTSON New York City

Press Freedom

Sir / In your review of press-freedom problems [March 5], Connecticut Governor Thomas Meskill challenges a reporter's right to professional standing, asking: "What specific training does he need? None. What examinations must he pass to be qualified? None."

The unkind, "caustic" reporter might respond: "What specific training does a Governor need? None! What examinations must a Governor pass to be qualified? None!" Unfortunately.

Fortunately, today's reporter needs and gets more professional training than ever before, which is more than can be said about today's gubernatorial aspirants.

JOSEPH L. VELTEN JR. Warminster, Pa.

Sir / The main trouble with protecting newspersons' sources of information is that it also protects the non-source--the fictitious "spokesman," "informant close to the situation," "usually authoritative source," etc., used by lazy, irresponsible and even malicious "journalists," the latter to mask the free expression of their own prejudices, of which the average press type is a bundle.

H.T. ROWE Ridgewood, N.J.

Sir / To enforce a law is one thing, but I ask you, how can any Administration attempt to enforce "fairness"?

JAMES P. WHITTEMORE JR. Worcester, Mass.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.