That Man Again

To the Editors:

There's that man again, back on TIME'S cover [May 9]. To read that he's getting rich off Watergate is depressing. To learn that he still feels no guilt is disturbing, if not surprising. To be told that all this publicity could mark the beginning of his reincarnation as a public figure is chilling.

Ray Roberts Southampton, N. Y.

There you go again, from the worst picture of Richard Nixon you could find on your cover to the end of your biased article. Judge, jury and hangman. Didn't you halo-wearing ghouls draw enough blood during Watergate?

W.L. Congleton Perrysville, Ind.

Why bestow honor and publicity upon a man who betrayed us and disgraced us before the entire world, a man who probably headed the most corrupt Administration the U.S. has ever had.

Let's bury this man in oblivion once and for all, or send him to the ninth circle of the Inferno, where Dante might have reserved a niche for him.

Joseph A. Russo Oakland, Calif.

The intelligentsia went after Richard Nixon as they have no man in history. Taking a third-rate burglary and building it into a monstrosity, they were able to bring about the downfall of a great man. That he will be vindicated there is no doubt. We may see the greatest comeback in political history.

Jerry Toomey Sioux Falls, S. Dak.

In dry-eyed silence millions watched the purgatorial unpeeling of the Nixon soul as angel hosts intoned, "Will he ever say to the silent Witness, "God be merciful to me a sinner and save me for Jesus' sake'?" Colson and Magruder did it; why can't Richard Nixon?

Plarold Lindsell

Editor, Christianity Today

Washington, D.C.

Oh me, all I want to do is quietly live out my life here by the Pacific Ocean. But I'm being hounded, hounded, hounded. What is it that Richard Nixon wants of me?

Edward D. Scannell San Diego

Black Dominance

It escapes my understanding how O.J. Simpson can make the statement that blacks are superior to whites in sports [May 9] and merely be labeled observant, but if I make a similar observation about whites' superior intelligence, I must suffer under the label of racist.

Milo Sanborne Kansas City, Kans.

In a society where athletes and entertainers are worshiped as the new gods, is there any wonder that huge numbers of America's blacks spend countless hours developing and fine-tuning skills that they hope will place them in those elite groups? As to the alleged natural superiority of black athletes, it appears to me to be one more attempt at categorizing blacks as nonhuman. Frankly, it would be a more convincing argument if those long hours dedicated to sports by young blacks produced anything less than a disproportionate share of black athletes.

Charles Sampson Houston

In your article discussing physical differences among races, you have opened, I fear, a Pandora's box and must consider the consequences.

For once we discuss physical differences among races, we must, eventually, ask other questions. Do races differ physiologically? Do races differ mentally? More important, should these questions be asked?

Tread carefully, friends. You deal in this with no less than the idea of America.

L. W. Reynolds Poway, Calif.

You correctly state that throughout history, scientific findings have been twisted to serve social theories of supremacists from ancient Greece to the present time. Unfortunately, it is also true that there are many social engineers of the liberal type who cannot bear the thought that their long-cherished claim of the absolute equality of the races is being questioned.

I believe that no race is better than any other. On the other hand, I think that our abilities range widely (for whatever reason), and we should recognize this fact for the good of all.

H.H. Schmidt Los Angeles

Success in most undertakings is derived from two sources: ability and desire. This is especially true in sports. Effort counts more than color.

Ray Chisholm Minneapolis

Illegal Immigrants

In your article on illegal immigrants in the U.S. [May 2], you talk about the flood of Third World people who are propelled toward a "better life." What is that better life? The right to work at a slave salary in a menial job that will always remain the same? In a country that treats them and thinks of them as a catastrophe?

Isabel Bueno London

I have been an exercise boy, and previous to that a groom, at several race tracks in Chicago and California, and have seen quite a few illegal aliens holding positions as grooms.

This is an extremely hard job with long hours and little pay, and some trainers are quick to take advantage of the fact that an alien will do more work for less money. This lowers the overall rate of pay for all the grooms at the track, and lowers the quality of people willing to take the remaining jobs.

I feel stiff penalties should be imposed on people who employ illegal aliens. It is very seldom that the employer is ignorant of his employee's resident status.

K. Ellsworth Hope, Ark.

I may sound a bit frustrated, but perhaps it is because of the long hard road I have traveled to get ahead as a Mexican American (Chicano) here.

The illegal alien from Mexico has more right to this land than any other illegal alien who comes from across the ocean, because the Anglos stole Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, etc. from Mexico during the Manifest Destiny period.

Why don't you write about discrimination against Mexican Americans simply because they are brown and talk with an accent?

Raymond Morantes Fort Worth

Scared of the Judge

Your article "Fools in Court" [May 9] raises a question that needs an answer. Why are obviously incompetent defendants choosing to defend themselves? Because the quality of legal representation offered to the poor in far too many cases is nothing more than token.

In states where attorneys are selected from a "pool," a large number of "repeaters" turn out to be young attorneys who need the business, and who have, more often than not, perfect records--no wins, all losses.

As one who has been forced to play the fool in court, all I can say is, what do you do when you meet your appointed attorney for the first time and he tells you he's scared to death of the judge?

Al Crespo

Connecticut State Prison Somers, Conn.

God's Little Hectare

Enough! While TIME'S effort to get us all used to metric measurement is probably commendable, "The Battle of Alaska" [May 9] assaulted me with no less than 13 different parenthetical metric conversions. Go easy on us oldsters for a while, eh? May your Environment editors be exiled to God's Little .405 Hectare for a time.

Robert G. Campbell Indianapolis

King Tut Rerun

It has been said that if you live long enough, everything will come around for the second time.

I was in high school when King Tut [May 2] came around for the first time. In the early '20s, you could buy shoulder-length earrings, imitation scarabs in rings, pins, paperweights, and other things ad infinitum in the five and dime. Anyone who was anyone in the younger set sported heavy eye makeup, Egyptian bracelets, God knows what, all stemming from the discovery of King Tut's tomb.

But nobody asks the previous generations what they know about King Tut --or anything else. Nobody asks me, "What do you know about a Depression recipe (which I am not about to divulge to anyone) for an eggless, butterless, milkless cake?" Who knows what problems might be solved if the older generations were consulted?

(Mrs.) Marjorie Senterfitt Austin, Texas

Hark, Hark!

The title "Hark, Hark, a Quark --Maybe" [May 2] was the mark of an aardvark who crawled in from a stark Ozark park and was really in the dark. As Professor Gell-Mann could tell you. Quark rhymes with torque, pork, stork, cork, fork and Sergeant O'Rourke of New York, New York.

David Kirk land

William Bain

New Haven, Conn.

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