Woody's World

To the Editors: The world is as it should be, with Woody Allen on your cover [April 30].

Gabe Gibbons Houston

Woody is one who is a Great Reflector of our national psyche.

Sherman Shand New Orleans

Woody Allen a genius? Well, if he is, he is a sick one. He and his characters are so trapped in themselves and their hang-ups, sex and masochism that they don't know the world out here is beautiful and that most people aren't like that.

Katherine Hoyer St. Louis

Far be it from my missionary zeal to suggest Christianity as a cure for Woody Allen's suffering. To put an end to his torment would put an end to his art--and that would be a sin.

Carolyn Armstrong Silver Spring, Md.

I find only two words for Woody Allen's films: fetid Weltschmaltz.

Michael J. King Los Angeles

Maybe if Woody Allen had children, he wouldn't be so obsessed with death. Funny the genius didn't think of it.

David G. Clark Rutland, Vt.

Not many humans can be funny and serious and be remembered forever as I predict Woody will be.

Ed Aronson Pittsburgh

CIA's Importance Edwin Warner's Essay on "Strengthening the CIA" [April 30] correctly emphasizes the CIA'S importance to our national security. However, it fails to note the need for intelligence charter legislation. The aim of charters is to authorize proper CIA activities and provide for effective congressional and executive oversight. Such legislation, which will reflect a broad consensus, should do much to remove what you term a "debilitating cloud of suspicion" from CIA operations and let it go ahead with its vital work.

Walter D. Huddleston U.S. Senator, Kentucky Washington, D.C.

Strengthening the CIA is a step in the right direction. If we're so intent on being the world's baby sitter, we need to know what the kids are doing.

Todd Fedoruk Pilot Knob, Mo.

The CIA is crippled because of its own stupidity and highhandedness. That we suffer an intelligence gap is its fault, not the fault of those who reacted to scandal and are understandably mistrustful of its "Trust us--just one more time."

S. G. Finefrock Midwest City, Okla.

Congressmen on the Wing Flying Congressmen around the world [April 23] is a lot cheaper than paying for the programs they foist on us. I suggest we "Keep 'em flyin'."

John A. Klima Mercer Island, Wash.

Congress may feel it needs a breather, but when do the taxpayers footing the high salaries, perks, trips and dozens of other self-indulgent acts get a chance to take a breather?

James Brescoll Lisle, Ill.

The Plight of Gifted Children What does it say about the future of the U.S. when school districts like that in McHenry County, Ill. [April 23], spend $700 more on each handicapped child than on each gifted one? Although it makes us appear humanitarian, it also indicates dangerous shortsightedness.

(Mrs.) Cheri Pierson Yecke Lawton, Okla.

Your article would have the public assume handicapped children are receiving adequate educational funds while the gifted students suffer. Now I can tell my learning-disabled child how lucky she is in comparison to the "disadvantaged" gifted child.

(Mrs.) Ty Malloy Bethel Park, Pa.

As the mother of both a gifted child and one with learning disabilities, I am very grateful for the special-education opportunities that have usually been available for my learning-disabled child. However, the needs of a gifted child to be identified at an early age and appropriately challenged are important.

Robin Gilroy Burke, Va.

Your article tends to perpetuate the questionable notion that a high IQ is synonymous with giftedness. It only tells us that a person has the potential for gifted behavior, but unless intelligence is combined with creativity and commitment, and shows up in performance, we have no rationale for assuming that a child is gifted.

Joseph S. Renzulli, Professor of Educational Psychology University of Connecticut, Storrs, Conn.

Hook vs. Wills Your book reviewer R.Z. Sheppard tells us that Garry Wills [April 23] "refuses to accept the free market of ideas where one opinion is worth as much as another." If so, Wills clearly does not understand what a free market in ideas is. In no market, free or not, is one thing worth intrinsically as much as another, even if their prices are the same. In a free market of ideas, one opinion can be as freely expressed as another--but this has no bearing whatsoever on its worth.

Sidney Hook Hoover Institution Stanford, Calif.

Justice for the Mennonites The situation of the Mennonite immigrants in west Texas [April 30] is a stark example of the great gap that can exist between the law and justice in any nation. That these devout and industrious people can be deprived of their life savings and deported under the laws of the U.S. constitutes a tremendous travesty of justice.

Robby Burke Louisville

Of course the Mennonites aren't welcome here. They don't have any of the qualifications: they are law abiding, hard working, English speaking, interested in schooling and settle in sparsely populated areas.

Sara Upland Redwood City, Calif.

Spying on South Africa The childishness of the U.S. aerial espionage operation in South Africa was only surpassed by the Carter Administration's unwarranted retaliatory expulsion of two members of the South African military mission in Washington, and the statement that "the State Department flatly refused to deny the charges" [April 23]. May we conclude that the U.S. emphatically insists on being guilty? Since when is it the prerogative of the Carter Administration to decide who should join the nuclear club and who not?

Chris Viljoen Stellenbosch, South Africa

All this uproar over a plane operated by the U.S. embassy in South Africa being used for "spying" strikes me as a bit on the contrived side. Several American pilots--I was one --flew all around South Africa in 1968 in a group of small planes rented from the South Africans. No government official even hinted that we should not use the dozen or so cameras we carried, and all of us did.

Max Karant Bethesda, Md.

Bring Viet Nam Closer As a Vietnamese of French nationality who has lived in France for 25 years, I think the best way to forget Viet Nam [April 23] and the pain of the war is, paradoxically, to normalize relations with Viet Nam, to help rebuild its too fragile economy. In your conscience you know that the misery is caused by your destruction of this poor, small country. The farther away you get from Viet Nam, the more it remains in your mind and heart as a kind of reproach and remorse.

Nguyen Hoai Nhan, M.D. St.-Mars-d'Outille, France

George III Kept His Head Re your account of the Reign of Terror [April 23]: perhaps the reason the "American Revolution was a notable exception" to the usual postwar "period of vengeance and terror" is that it was not a revolution. To be a revolution, an armed rebellion must overthrow the central government and replace it with a new system of government. The Americans successfully established a republic not by overthrowing a government but by kicking out a colonial administration. George III kept his head, and Lord North lived to see the early stages of the French Revolution.

Charles Crow New York City

Marvin's Maid? What the Lee Marvin decision [April 30] boils down to is that he has to pay $104,000 in back wages for a domestic.

Ted Berkelmann New York City

Will Michelle Marvin have to pay sincome tax on her palimony?

(Mrs.) Phyllis R. Johnson Needham, Mass.

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