It makes my blood boil to see the belligerent stance you take against OPEC.

Since the principle of rule-or-ruin has failed, the only option left to the shortsighted ex-rulers is to scream and call the oil exporting countries names more becoming of themselves for their predatory exploitation of the same countries during the past century.

Razach Monem Winterthur, Switzerland

The OPEC nations are actually supplying the incentive for their own replacement in the marketplace by making alternative energy sources competitive with petroleum. They are doing the world a great favor.

William E. Hensley Jr. Angleton, Texas

To the Arabs, this is war. They have told us many times that they will keep tightening the screws until we pressure Israel into returning Arab lands. They regard us as partners of Israel in their war.

Walter J. Knapp Columbus

I have found that there's at least one bright side to this energy mess: the high you experience when at last you succeed in refueling your car. It is like the caveman who knocks over a marauding dinosaur with one blow of his club: you feel as though you could lick the world -momentarily, at least.

Shirlie Stoddard Pacific Grove, Calif.

A Matter of Life and Death

In "The Fanatical Abortion Fight" [July 9], Congressman Henry Hyde is quoted as saying, "A constitutional right to want something doesn't mean the right to have the Government pay for it." Is Hyde aware of the federal money spent on children who were born but not wanted? Or of the federal money -my tax money -spent on children whose parents cannot support them?

H. Page Tiller New Orleans

As the oldest of eleven children (all married), I'd like to point out our combined family numbers more than 100 who vote only for pro-life candidates. Pro-lifers have children, pro-choicers do not.

(Mrs.) Kitty Ruckenback Montgomery, Ala.

Antiabortion groups are conducting battles not unlike those conducted during a holy war. Through hateful propaganda ("baby killers," "murderers," etc.), harassment, disregard of other people's civil rights and often plain violence, they attempt to force their own perception of morality on everyone else.

Ufa Landy, Executive Director National Abortion Federation New York City

The important thing to realize is that no one considers abortion a morally insignificant form of birth control for the careless. It is rather an emotionally painful decision that is arrived at after a great deal of thought and soul searching. Women have abortions only when the alternative is unendurable.

Stacy Seldin Flushing, N. Y.

The Logic of the Weber Case

The Supreme Court decided in the Weber case [July 9] that discrimination is acceptable as a means to end discrimination. This logic reminds me of nothing so much as those haunting words from the war in Viet Nam: we had to destroy the town in order to save it.

Irwin I. Shapiro Cambridge, Mass.

We have gone way beyond integration. We are now telling whites to sit in the back of the bus.

Robert Joel Yaes St. John's, Nfld.

In the Weber ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court captured the spirit of the civil rights movement. Such an interpretation can act to reassure many that possibly the American dream can be realized by all.

Ulysses Weldon Hyattsville, Md.

Heat over the Thermostat

In "Fahrenheit Eighty (Gasp!)" [July 9], you seem unaware that mankind survived and productivity grew by leaps at temperatures far lower than 65DEG F and far higher than 80DEG F. In pre-air-conditioning days, books and clothing survived, people did not faint by droves in the street, and some of the world's classiest restaurants struggled by.

Jodie Allen Washington, D.C.

If President Carter wants summertime temperatures in public buildings to remain at 80DEG F or above, we are going to have to turn on the heat in my office.

Christopher R. Steele Duluth

Which Human Rights?

I am quite puzzled as to what President Carter specifically meant by "human rights" when he lectured President Park of South Korea [July 9]. There are many different rights for different people. My nephew died of hunger and parasitic infection. Today in South Korea no child has to starve to death. The most important human right is the right to life, the right to survival.

Suchoon Mo Pueblo West, Colo.

The Boat People and the Past

As a refugee from Nazism in the '30s, I thought the world was antiSemitic. Today, reading about the plight of the boat people [July 9], I know I was wrong. The world is not antiSemitic, it is inhumane.

Philip Schlossberg New Rochelle, N. Y.

Could it just possibly be that those who said 15 years ago that we had a moral obligation to intervene in Southeast Asia in order to prevent an oppressively totalitarian Communist regime from turning Viet Nam, Cambodia and Laos into a bloody nightmare were right after all?

Warren Levine Seattle

The Feathers Fly

Let me guess. You ran the insipid article on the chicken flying contest [July 2] just to see if anyone was reading American Scene. Well I read it, and I find chicken flying in the same category as fox clubbing, dog fighting, cock righting and rattlesnake throwing.

Kathy Boyd Wichita, Kans.

Spencer Davidson's account of the flying chicken spree at Rio Grande, Ohio, is the laughingest story to appear in your pages in all of the 52 years I've been reading TIME.

Theodore Hofler Cannes

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.