Shaker and Mover

To the Editors:

Your treatment of Bert Lance [Sept. 19] reminds me of old-style Western justice: "Hurry up with the trial so we can get on with the hanging."

It is probably just as well that we got Bert Lance out of Washington before he had a chance to apply any of his innovative ideas. Perish the thought that a shaker and mover should work for the Government; he might have done some good for all of us.

David B. Baglien Balboa Heights, C.Z.

Bert Lance is proof of the old cliche "with friends like this, who needs enemies?" Wasn't Bert Lance intelligent enough to know what he was doing to his friend President Carter?

Mary DeLucco San Francisco

Remember when the gift of a vicuna coat was enough to get a respectable Republican hounded out of Washington?

B.M. Cool Clemson, S.C.

A Republican in my bones, I am unable to chortle at the fall of Bert Lance. Surely he is a decent man who lived within the system until he was exposed to the public eye for infractions few of us would consider twice.

John P. Berkeley Chicago

Let the banker who is without a similar sin cast the first stone!

Joe Sullivan St. Louis

No Newf Is Good Newf

Your Newfoundland dog article [Sept. 5] failed to mention the many disadvantages of owning a Newf. They slink and often have the breath of a camel; demand to sit in the front seat of an automobile, often requesting to drive; wake their owners in the middle of the night with loud snoring and blowing bubbles in the toilet bowl; are first to their master's bed and never give up the pillow; and when you take them down to the local tavern for a beer, they drool in their Budweiser.

Todd Marlatt Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

Hymning and Hawing

Oh, Frank Trippett, your beautiful "Season for Hymning and Hawing" [Sept. 19] will help me sublimate my painful yearnings for a northern autumn while I sweat in the non-shade of a Florida palm tree.

Esther Carlson Bradenton, Fla.

Poor Frank Trippett. He does have a problem. Imagine being happy, weatherwise, for only two months out of the twelve! I like all the seasons except winter, and my only objection to that is that it's too expensive--what with fuel bills and snowplowing.

But I love summer most of all, every degree of temperature, every beam of the sun, every gulp of iced tea.

Eloise Lehnert Blairstown, N.J.

As a relocated Easterner I have tried for two years to pretend that Southern California has an autumn season. I put corn on the door, wheat by the mantel --and long for a brisk wind to put "apples" in my cheeks. For all my hard work I'm rewarded with a Santa Ana wind and hot, dry, hellish weather. I think it's a cruel price to pay for a gloriously sunny January.

Susan G. Clemente Laguna Niguel, Calif.

Police Brutality

Finally, the truth! I was very much amazed at your article "Police Story: Two Hard Towns" [Sept. 19]. I think it's about time the media recognized the brutality of some police officers. I'm sure that all police officers do not react to situations with brutality, but I'm also sure a lot do.

Although you recognized Philadelphia and Houston in your article, there are plenty of other cities with police brutality. I have seen acts of brutality in the city in which I live. I have even heard the officers talk among themselves about the time they got someone "alone." Police officers wonder why the citizens of the city treat them like they're inhuman. Patricia Miller Columbus

I am 27 years of age, black, a medical student, and have lived in Philadelphia all my life. I have both witnessed and experienced systematic "police excess" as a youth in the all-black ghetto of North Philadelphia and in the mixed, upwardly mobile, student-residential neighborhood known as University City.

Lest you be left with the impression that I am some rabble-rousing radical, let me say that the majority of black people in the city do not resent a police presence --indeed, many welcome it. What is resented is the irresponsible excesses of the few officers against whom citizens can seek no remediation. Mayor Rizzo, Police Commissioner O'Neil and their subordinates refuse to even entertain the possibility that a police officer could be guilty.

What the mayor seems incapable of perceiving is the fact that his attitudes are exacerbating the very problem which they attempt to alleviate. But if there is hope for TIME magazine, as this cover age indicates, maybe there is hope for Rizzo.

P.C. Helem Jr Philadelphia

I'd like to say that while I certainly do not approve of the use of excessive force by police officers, I would have a lot more respect for the critics if they would simultaneously scream for strict sentences for citizens who attack police officers. The last time my police officer husband was assaulted (by a member of a minority group, by the way), the judge lowered the charge to a misdemeanor for malicious mischief with a 30-day suspended sentence.

Marguerite Snow Balboa Island, Calif.

The Taste of Soap

TV's Soap [Sept. 12] is definitely not biodegradable. ABC has succeeded in releasing pollutants consisting of bad taste, bad acting and very bad lines.

Penny Davit Poolesville. Md.

Adultery, mental illness and homosexuality can all be fit subjects for comedy. (I'm not so sure about skin blemishes.) But I object to the artless, cheap way in which they were treated. If Soap is a success, we can only despair at America's standards of entertainment.

Monte Merrick Los Angeles

Koreagate In your article on Tongsun Park, "Still Waiting for Harvest Time" [Sept. 19], I find the rebuke to Congressman Caputo by Speaker Tip O'Neill ("Korea has always been an ally of America") a bit disturbing. How is it that Korea came to be our ally--through the dealings of such people as Tongsun Park? You don't buy your friends.

I strongly urge that Congress demand extradition of Mr. Park, or cut off aid to South Korea. To do less may arouse the suspicion that someone has it in mind to stall the investigation, as was done with the Watergate affair.

John J. Baker Victorville, Calif.

Soccer Craze

Pele's mission was also the soccer enthusiast's dream: having soccer spread across the U.S. [Sept. 12]. Now millions of people are into soccer, and it is evident by the record crowds that soccer is here to stay.

I got into soccer when Pele joined the Cosmos in 1975, and from then on it's been the only sport I enjoy playing. I soon found out that more and more people were getting into soccer, and it made me feel great to think that soccer was becoming a big thing in America.

And I owe it all to just one man: the Black Pearl.

Richard Pawlak Berwyn, III.

The Lousewort's Role

Even nature has done its best to stop the destruction of one of the most beautiful rivers in northern New England, the St. John. The Furbish lousewort [Sept. 19] has done for a time what a very large number of informed New Englanders and others have tried to do, stop the Army Corps of Engineers from making a great financial and ecological mistake.

The Dickey-Lincoln dam project would cost over $690 million, flood 88,000 acres of prime wilderness inhabited by thousands of deer, moose, beavers and waterfowl. It would also drown about $8 million worth of lumber and lumbering land. In addition, the inadequate water supply would seem to make it a very inefficient source of energy.

Christopher C. Gregory Newport, R.I.

Pastors' Fears

You are to be congratulated on the article "Gulyas and the Gospel" [Sept. 19]. I happened to be in Hungary up until the day of Mr. Graham's arrival and visited with a number of pastors who were being persecuted by the very people responsible for inviting Billy Graham to come. Many of the pastors feared that the West would accept their government's ploy as proof that there was true religious freedom in Hungary.

Only when the Hungarian Christians are allowed to evangelize Hungary will the Hungarian government give genuine proof of religious tolerance.

John W. Larwood Ottsville, Pa.

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