Computer Kids

To the Editors:

I hope that in the midst of all the excitement about the oncoming computer age [May 3], we do not ignore the most powerful, important and imaginative computer of all: the one between our ears.

Richard G. Mallery Los Angeles

Finally someone has been willing to write about one of my generation's accomplishments, the knowledge of how to use a computer, instead of pointing out one of our mistakes.

Susan L. Arelt South Bend, Ind.

I was nearly smothered by my drug dependency. Now I am a computer operator in a data-processing tax service. Your story about young people who get their kicks by toying with computers makes me regret not having turned to computers instead of drugs many years ago.

Robert D. Graham Concord, Calif.

Since Plato, mathematics has been considered an integral part of a liberal education, forming the basis for deductive reasoning. Computers develop in the student an appreciation and understanding of logic and at the same time remove the drudgery of computations. They should be a part of every school's curriculum.

James M. Thelen

Associate Professor of Mathematics

Rockland Community College

Suffern, N. Y.

The computer craze is simply an expression of the layman's fascination for gadgetry and the age-old hope for an easy way out in thinking and doing.

James C. Gancher Whiting, N.J.

If Critic George Steiner believes "the computer generation will be out of touch with certain springs of human identity and creativity," he is wrong. Programming a computer is primarily an artistic and not a scientific activity. When I teach my students computer skills, I am offering them a new way to be creative. The art of writing programs is akin to the art of writing poetry.

Stewart A. Denenberg Associate Professor of Computer Science State University of New York at Plattsburgh

The only thing my six-year-old son wanted for Christmas was a Radio Shack TRS-80. And after years of struggling, he tied his shoes only when we promised him an Atari keyboard.

Folwell Wilson Youngstown, Ohio

Men and Machines

In his Essay "The Mind in the Machine" [May 3], Roger Rosenblatt asks if "anyone but a handful of zealots and hysterics seriously believes that the human mind is genuinely imperiled by devices of its own manufacture." The answer is yes, and the clearest example is thermonuclear weapons.

Martin Noval Rochester

Britain's Friends?

With millions of Latin Americans, black Americans, Irish Americans and Italian Americans, the U.S. is not so strongly Anglophile as your story states [May 3]. While there can be little sympathy with the way the Argentine government seized the Malvinas-Falklands, let's not take for granted that public opinion in this country is solidly behind a former colonial power.

Filippo Bosco Springfield, N.J.

Your article "America and Britain: The Firm Alliance" confirms what most Latin Americans already believe about the U.S.'s ties with its southern neighbors: when the U.S.'s concerns are at stake in a Latin American country, the action is decidedly to America's advantage; when the interests of a Latin American country are at stake, the U.S. goes with whoever is most likely to win. Latin America will continue to distance itself from the U.S. as long as we perceive ourselves as pawns of the U.S.

Marina Herrera, President

Educational Consultant for Hispanic

Organizations Inc.

Washington, D.C.

We do share with Great Britain a history and commitment to individualism. Nevertheless, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the American people to voice their support for Britain's ongoing interference in a part of the world in which it has no business. This may come as a shock to the East Coast, but folks around here either couldn't care less or regard the Falklands dispute as a colossal joke, secretly hoping for a good fight just to see who will win.

Jennifer Mattingly Austin, Texas

According to Lord Palmerston (1848), England has no eternal friends, England has no perpetual enemies, England has only eternal and perpetual interests. It is true that Britain has been our ally. It has been in her interest.

Armando Pujol San Francisco

Roger Rosenblatt's excellent piece on the Anglo-American relationship does, however, perpetuate a myth. America did not "save England's neck." This is particularly true of World War II. For well over two years America slept while Britain held Hitler's forces at bay. By the time the U.S. awakened, the Battle of Britain had been won.

Malcolm H. Taylor Tulsa

Many of us Marines who served in the Pacific in World War II would willingly take out our mothballed uniforms to defend our English friends with whom we served.

Bernie Watts Silver Lake, Ohio

How refreshing to read about things like sentiment, affection and even loyalty. Like a stubborn aunt and a boisterous nephew, our two countries have differences at every turn, but it remains the same family.

Valda Lynen Vallauris, France

Poverty According to CBS

Three cheers for Bill Moyers [May 3]. Perhaps President Reagan is fighting back because he knows he has something to feel guilty about. If Reagan is remembered for anything, it will be the expediency with which he has made "poverty" a household reality.

Julia M. Westphal Santa Fe, N. Mex.

Poverty has existed in every Administration. The same pictures of the poor starving children are shown year after year to gain our sympathy--and contributions. There will always be helpless people getting hurt. President Reagan should not have to take all the blame. He, like Presidents before him, could go on a spending spree of our children's future so that everyone would like him now!

Margaret Turpening Portage, Ohio

TIME's account of the White House tantrum over the CBS report People Like Us described Commentator Bill Moyers' presentation as "one-sided" and "unbalanced." What would have balanced the program? Portraits of the rich soaking up more riches? Or do you think there are pictures to be found somewhere of poor people who can say that they have been helped by Reaganomics?

L. Weldon Palmer New York City

If President Reagan were willing to show some sensitivity toward the plight of the poor of this country, he wouldn't have to worry about a public image of insensitivity. Typically he "ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to look into the cases cited and prepare a response." He should have asked the department to see how the four families so tragically victimized by his policies could be helped out.

Laurie Christiansen Teaneck, N.J.

exit from Sinai

In relinquishing the Sinai [May 3], the Israelis have given up $10 billion worth of military facilities, a buffer zone between their country and Saudi Arabia and Jordan, oilfields, roads and settlements. This does not even consider the loss of homes, jobs and businesses. Critics who have insisted that Menachem Begin is stubborn and inflexible should be silent now.

Robert Engel Nashville

Why is the West able to sympathize with the sorrowful experience of the Israeli settlers leaving homes in Sinai and yet unable to understand how Palestinians feel at being driven out of lands on the West Bank tilled by their forefathers for hundreds of years?

Christine Asmar Safat, Kuwait

Schell's Solution

Critics of Jonathan Schell's The Fate of the Earth appear to have nothing to offer but a continuation of the insane nuclear arms race [May 3]. This menace will be eliminated only when we decide to look beyond the East-West confrontation and address the global problems of overpopulation, poverty and hunger. If Schell's book serves only to stimulate thinking in that direction, it will have justified its early encomiums.

Richard T. Walnut Barnegat Light, N.J.

Reforming Immigration

The obituary on immigration reform contained in your article on Congress [April 26] is premature. In March we introduced the most fundamental immigration reform legislation in more than 30 years, the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1982. Hearings on our bipartisan bill are complete. It has the support of the Administration, business, labor and religious leaders. It has the support of state and local government officials. And, most important, it has the support of the American people.

Romano L. Mazzoli Representative, Fourth District, Kentucky Alan K. Simpson Senator, Wyoming Washington, D.C.

Fractured Femur

Guy Gertsch's completion of the Boston Marathon with a broken leg (May 3] is remarkable. However, even if he had run the race without this handicap, Gertsch's time of 2:47 is far from "ordinary," as you state. He averaged better than six minutes per mile.

Peter Gaffran Agincourt, Ont.

As a medical practitioner and long-distance runner, I have become sensitized to the pain of both patients and marathon runners. The incredible performance of Guy Gertsch in the Boston Marathon must rank as one of the finest and most courageous in the history of marathon running.

Martin P. Sandier, M.D. Nashville

Ex Libris

Your article on the current interest in collecting rare books [April 26] does not deal with the fact that, unfortunately, they can turn out to be extremely poor investments. There is an inherent problem with liquidity. A collector buys a book at a retail price, but he must sell it at wholesale. Several ways do exist, however, to invest successfully in rare books. The collector can build a complete collection that becomes worth more than the sum of its parts, or he can speculate by investing in volumes that he feels will increase in value over the years, thus outstripping the wholesale price.

Gordon Hollis Los Angeles

Love Between Women

It is revolting that in the name of heterosexuality a mother and father can arrange to have their daughter kidnaped and yet be able to walk away from the courtroom unscathed [May 3]. What ever gives these parents the idea that they are more righteous than the two women, who would never think of deprogramming their parents?

Diane Routhier Saugus, Calif.

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