Baker's Spell

To the Editors:

Several years ago I decided that adulthood and the meaning of life are attained when one reaches for Russell Baker [June 4] first, the Sunday comics second.

Linda Wilson Long Valley, N.J.

Russell Baker is one member of an endangered species. He should be declared a national asset.

Marvin F. Diedrich Fond du Lac, Wis.

If Baker wants to stop "suffocating on polysyllabic, Latinate English," let him start by changing the name of his column, "Observer."

Without words with Latin roots, Baker would lose most of his professional tools and, indeed, a large part of his cultural and intellectual heritage.

Vincent J. Gambello Atlanta

We met not one but two fine journalists: John Skow's loving presentation of Russell Baker was rare and beautiful. Dorothy McCammon Goshen, Ind.

Wastrel Americans

Lance Morrow's Essay "The Weakness That Starts at Home" [June 4] said it all. America is a shocking wastrel.

The energy crisis could serve as a goad to reinstate ingenuity and selfdiscipline. If it does, America may save more than energy. If it doesn't, America will find that oil is only the first of many other shortages.

Corinne Norton Philadelphia

We are one of the most generous nations in the world. No one has a right to call us greedy or weak.

The fact that we've been sold a bill of goods time and time again and are a littie reluctant to give up what we have worked hard to earn does not make us besotted wastrels.

Mary Meyer Grants Pass, Ore.

High-Speed Germans

Detlef Hohl of West Germany, who in a letter to TIME [May 28] decried U.S. oil consumption, must not be among those Germans who zip along the speed-unlimited autobahns at 180 km an hour, or among those who are purchasing full-size American cars at an unprecedented rate.

Steve Parrino Austin

Enough oil was wasted by all involved during World War II in Europe alone that might have lasted all of us another hundred years. Do I have to remind anyone whose country started that mess?

Bob Mauger Chester, Va.

A Coy Kennedy?

Senator Kennedy [June 4] must be very smart. By making all the moves necessary to be elected President, but refusing to declare his candidacy, he's sure to be drafted as the Democratic nominee, thereby sparing himself all the expense and hard work of campaigning.

Linda Jackson Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Ah, come on, Teddy. Stop teasing us and run for the office of President of the U.S. We need you more than ever before.

Frank J. Sarna III Youngstown, Ohio

Carter may be bad, but we do not need a President with so many skeletons in his background either. Surely the Democrats can come up with a person who would be not only a strong leader but also someone we and our children could look up to.

Judith Stock Wooster, Ohio

The Insanity of It All

Why should we find it so strange that General Grigorenko [June 4] was considered insane by Soviet psychiatrists? Every society sets its own standards for "normalcy," and anyone who deviates is sick. It happens in the U.S. all the time, and no one is alarmed. In Iran, the Ayatullah Khomeini is presently quite sane as he orders political murder in the name of justice. Sanity is relative.

William E. Wilson East Peoria, III.

Reading by the Blind

You state that Telesensory Systems Inc. "hopes to produce a computer for the blind that will scan a printed page and turn it into speech" [May 14]. In fact, we already have such a machine for blind patrons. It is a Kurzweil Reading Machine (KRM), which over 50 blind New Yorkers are using to read everything from science fiction to Wittgenstein.

Julia J. Brody, Chief Mid-Manhattan Library New York City

Justice and the Death Penalty

How can a nation's judicial system be so unjust that Dan White of San Francisco can get off with manslaughter after committing two senseless murders, and John Spenkelink [June 4] is executed?

John Gavin Gunning Maplewood, N.J.

Capital punishment probably does not deter crime, but it is not social revenge either. It is simply removing a dangerous and apparently incorrigible criminal from our midst and turning him over to God, whose love will know how to deal with him as we cannot.

Canon Robert S.S. Whitman Lenox, Mass.

Disclosure by Representative Crane

In your article "Show and Tell" [May 28], you say that I did not file a Financial Disclosure Statement. Had you checked with the Office of Records and Registration, you would have learned that a statement was filed by me, for which I have received a dated receipt.

Philip M. Crane, Representative Twelfth District, Illinois

Trading Joe for Pierre

We've had eleven years of Pierre Trudeau and his schemes, and insults too [June 4]. We're well rid of him and his Liberals. With Joe Clark as Prime Minister, Canada has a chance.

G.J. Monroe Vancouver

Clark's election just goes to show that anybody can become Prime Minister.

Frank Martens Calgary

Giving Khomeini His Due

For more than five months now, our own small country of Uganda has shared the international headlines with Iran. On the occasion of the cessation of hostilities in this area, we now wholeheartedly concede to the government of the Ayatullah Khomeini in Iran the title of the world's most oppressive autocracy.

George Saaka Fort Portal, Uganda

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