What a Light Amid the Tinsel

To the Editors:

With the bulk of the year's news made by "living sinners," what a marvelous, original and inspiring article in your Christmas-week issue about "Living Saints" [Dec. 29]. May their tribe increase, in no matter what ethnic or religious group they be found.

(The Rev.) Raphael Kamel

Dallas

What a light she is amid the tired tinsel.

Mary Ellen Webb

Davenport, Iowa

When I think of her, the word "Wow!" comes to mind.

(Mrs.) Barbara Chachulski

Dorr, Mich.

I admired her until I noticed that the only birth control method offered by her is the rhythm method. If Mother Teresa and others realized that preventing suffering is better than relieving suffering, their efforts would be more valuable. Or do saints need misery?

(Mrs.) Frances Berger

Easton, Pa.

A woman shall lead us, but not in the style of the strident, power-hungry libbers. I recall Mother Teresa's thought that the best part of love and service in life has been given woman. The beauty of women has always been not in love of self but in love of others.

Barbara Fallon

Phoenix

While reading your moving description of modern saints, I realized the difference between me and them. I get emotional; saints get involved.

Robert J. Hastings

Springfield, III.

"She died beautifully," she once said of a reeking, wasted human pulled from a dung heap. The intensity of the love and peace she showers on the abandoned can hardly be expressed on paper.

Michael Alvares

Rocky Mount, N.C.

Let the saints go marching on.

Dorothy Morin

McLean, Va.

Was It Camelot?

Re J.F.K. and recent revelations [Dec. 29]: I had thought he was King Arthur in the Camelot analogy. It appears that he was Sir Lancelot all along.

Bruce E. Ingmire

New York City

J.F.K. had a little fun while in the White House. So what? What man with his charm, wit and charisma would not have enjoyed the likes of Monroe, Mansfield, et al., if given the chance? Apparently it did little harm to the country.

Ronald A. Sanders

Washington, D.C.

I have always thought that John Kennedy's most significant contribution was his example. To his fervent supporters, your revelations of his lascivious conduct can be described in a word: heartbreaking.

James T. Donovan

Monroeville, Pa.

If all this about J.F.K.'s other women is true, it must be good medicine for a President. I have yet to see another one bring so much laughter and so many smiles to the American people--something all of us need and haven't had since J.F.K.

William Baptiste

Exeter, N.H.

Even if Jack Kennedy went around in black garters, it's none of your business or anyone else's.

Peggy Moore

Los Aingeles

It is time to extinguish the perpetual flame and stop worshiping false gods!

Alice W. Timler

Fort Wayne, Ind.

He was a good man and a great President. I shall remember only that.

Anahid Agemian

Hollywood

Pray tell, O omniscient keepers of the almighty Fourth Estate, why were ye so quick to claw at the warts of conservative King Richard, yet so long and loath to lance the boils of the late liberal Lord Camelot?

Harold H. Seward

Arlington, Mass.

You deserve the Worm of the Year award.

Joyce Vaughn

Wichita, Kans.

Even amateur psychologists recognize that people want to cherish their heroes and will resent those responsible for tarnishing them.

Gerald Czerak

Lisle, III.

I know the diehard J.F.K. supporters will assail you, but there are many taxpayers who think it appropriate that what he was really doing in the White House be made known.

Gary N. Hamby

Reston, Va.

I did not think it possible to assassinate someone twice, but TIME managed in your contemptible account of J.F.K.'s sex life. Was the drawing and quartering of J. Edgar Hoover the previous week merely a warmup?

I look forward to next week's character mutilation. May I suggest Abraham Lincoln?

William P. McGrath

Farmington Hills, Mich.

Two Hoovers

I know it is a modern journalistic trend to set about denigrating famous men after they are dead, but I must deplore the bundle of inferences of a discreditable nature drawn in your story about J. Edgar Hoover [Dec. 22].

I am aware of Hoover's sometimes irksome quirks and foibles. Every one of us has his faults, but that man built the FBI into the most incorruptible and efficient police organization the U.S. has ever seen. To British policemen, who have always sympathized with their U.S. counterparts whose appointments so often depend on political influence, that was a colossal achievement; as a nation you should be immensely proud of it.

Ranulph Bacon

London

Sir Ranulph is a former deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police (Scotland Yard).

Down to the Drains

Re "Bathrooms for Living" [Dec. 22], it is obvious that Mr. Kira has never experienced a broken leg, an abdominal operation, sacroiliac or hip trouble. He must not consider lowering toilet seats; they should be raised 5 to 9 inches. The user can then get back to an upright position without the aid of two strong assistants. Even hospitals today are installing "elevator" seats for postoperative patients.

I do agree with his premise that householders need larger and better cleansing facilities, and I trust the mass-housing producers will take note--right down to their drains.

Priscilla S. Seabrease

Fort Washington, Pa.

Pop Power

So 984 of 1,000 unmarried girls became pregnant while listening to pop songs during fornication [Dec. 29]. No abnormality here.

Edward C. Rogge

Petersburg, III.

Wizard's Theory

Students at the City University of New York [Dec. 29], or at any college, should have a twelfth-grade reading level for admission, not merely an eighth-grade level.

Otherwise, we will end up following the educational theories of the Wizard of Oz, who told the Scarecrow, "I can't give you brains, but I can give you a diploma."

Glenn T. Wilson, Professor

Southern Illinois University

Edwardsville, III.

"Better Luck, Leonid"

Re the issue of U.S. involvement in Angola [Dec. 22]: All that is necessary is for President Ford to pick up the phone and say, "Leonid, I've halted all grain shipments until you get the hell out of Angola.

"Hope you have better luck next year with your crops."

Robert B. White

Boulder, Colo.

The idea that the Soviet Union will take over Africa if we do not get involved in another Viet Nam is silly. If we can just curb our lust for bauxite and oil and depart from Angola, the Africans will soon tire of Russian neocolonialism and throw the Russians out, as Sadat of Egypt did.

Palmer Van Gundy

Los Angeles

Fur Still Flies

Re the article "Fur Flies Again" [Dec. 29], those old bats modeling pelts of dead animals were a disgusting sight, let alone the thought of the horrendous deaths many of those animals had suffered. For what?

So women can parade around hoping to look beautiful.

Paulette Wisnie

Chicago

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