To the Editors:

Bruce Springsteen's verse [Oct. 27] is one with my soul. His switchblade songs are finite anthems to my state, and the infinite emotions of my friends.

Bill White Jr. Shrewsbury, N.J.

A year from now we'll be wondering whatever happened to Bruce Springsteen.

Paul McDowell Rockmart, Ga.

Maybe with Springsteen, a new generation of rock and unselfish rock musicians will emerge. Perhaps they will be musicians who want to give audiences good music with emotion and skill, not flash and trash.

Michale A. Cadger Knoxville, Tenn.

Please do not imply that American youth is eating up the products of "rock's new sensation." I am not.

Bruce Holmes Arlington, Va.

Five years ago Bruce Springsteen was making the best rock music in the country. Now he is a rock act, not a rock musician. Bruce, you sold out.

Glenn Habel Richmond

Bruce Springsteen is a living example of Longfellow's "All things come round to him who will but wait."

David Wells Pittsburgh

I am beginning to wonder about the intellect of TIME'S editors when they are so quick to put a mush-mouthed, off-keyed nothing like Bruce Springsteen on their cover and yet take five years to bestow that honor on the one who deserves it the most--Elton John.

Dawn Thorogood Upland, Calif.

Bruce is a musical messiah whose time has come. I only hope he is not crucified by renown.

Esther J. Rolnick Providence

Keeping Karen Alive

Why all the fuss about terminating life [Nov. 3]? It's done every day in abortion clinics.

Sue Shellenbarger Waynesville, Ohio

I certainly agree that keeping Karen Quinlan alive is cruel and unusual punishment. What I can't understand is how a person can be dead in one state and alive in another.

Betty Buehler Schenectady, N. Y.

Death is natural. Tubes and needles protruding from useless bodies hooked up to a machine are not.

Carla Y. Amparan Manhattan Beach, Calif.

Charles Manson and Richard Speck can be protected forever, but God help the sick and the children!

Chris Dennis Dallas

I'd be tempted to pull the plugs myself. The quality of life is the most important issue, not the prolongation of it.

Evelyn Dzengeleski Endwell, N. Y.

Theologian Marty should rethink his belief that extraordinary treatment be stopped on Karen Quinlan because "in any other age she would be dead anyhow." Termination of treatment hinges not on whether she could have survived in any other age but whether Karen's state is human existence.

Feodor F. Cruz Columbia, Ill.

Thanks to science we have artificial flavoring, artificial coloring, artificial sweetening and artificial life.

Mike Phelps Ames, Iowa

Amnesty for New York!

Has no one heard the phrase "a second chance"? The U.S. Government has granted it to Japan, the Soviet Union, Lockheed and Richard Nixon. Yet it badgers New York [Oct. 27]. Amnesty for N. Y.C.!

Mary Beth Bryan Whitewater, Wis.

As far as I am concerned, the San Andreas Fault is on the wrong coast. Why should the rest of the nation support the symbol of urban decadence?

Mark Pumphrey Enid, Okla.

In the 1930s money from New York City helped build the TVA. For decades the city's residents have paid farmers for crop subsidies that only raised their own food prices. The same congressmen who cry that "the city must live within its means" are happy enough to take some of those means to enrich their own constituencies.

Cynthia Dobosy Madison, Wis.

You indicated that the police require a day off following the ordeal of donating blood. This clearly is another example of how New York City is different. The vast majority of blood donors can and do return to work within an hour of giving.

Herbert F. Polesky, M.D. President, American Association of Blood Banks, Minneapolis

We should let New York go "cold turkey," according to Ron Nessen, while we maintain the habits of half the world.

Judith Weisenfeld-Weinberg Pittsburgh

We are warned that if we allow New York to collapse financially there will be violence and insurrection in the streets.

Splendid! Nothing has proved more salutary than a "whiff of grapeshot" at the right time.

Peter H. Peel Los Angeles

I care. New York is everybody's city.

Nina Polcyn Moore Sauk Centre, Minn.

Vote or Run?

Judging by how many have decided to run for President it seems to me that the Democrats are confused. A democracy is where everyone votes, not where everyone runs.

Elmer Bell Dunnellon, Fla.

Reluctant Revolution

If Boston's Faneuil Hall survey on current attitudes toward supporting the American Revolution [Oct. 27] can be considered legitimate, I should think there is room for hope. After all, historians tell us that only 33% of the colonial population supported the Revolution, compared with the reported 44% today.

If this per century rise of 5.5% continues, by the year 2976 we shall at last all agree that it was worth the effort; better late than never.

Dean C. Curry Claremont, Calif.

Not Guilty

The 600 union printers employed at the Washington Post are not on strike [Oct. 27]. They are involved in it only by indirection.

Our members are honoring the Post picket line, but we are not on strike. Since printers do not man the Post presses, our members were not involved in any damage to those presses.

Jesse B. Man beck, Acting President Typographical Union No. 101 Washington, D.C.

No Answer, No Money

You stated that the U.S. Department of Labor has established a standard for payment within 28 days of filing a claim [Oct. 27].

I lost two fingers in an on-the-job injury over ten months ago. I haven't even been able to get a reply, much less a payment.

Dennis D. Lindsay Silver Spring, Md.

Off Target

Your "No Prime Time for Ford" [Oct. 20] was off target. Our law department states that the FCC has held time and again that presidential speeches do not qualify for exemption from the equal-time law as "on-the-spot coverage of bona fide news events" unless they are of utmost national or international emergency.

We agree that the President's speech was indeed "newsworthy," and CBS News hardly "blacked it out." The night of the speech, at 11:01 p.m., we fed out a summary and highlights of the speech. We also fed the entire speech to the stations, beginning at 11:15 p.m. The next day we included several minutes of highlights. On the evening news on Tuesday, we included a followup.

Richard S. Salant President, CBS News New York City

Why should the President always have prime time? One network carrying his speech is enough. Let them rotate. Give the President some competition and see where he comes in the ratings.

Shelley Frey Lancaster, Pa.

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