Pope in Poland

To the Editors:

I have never been so conscious of a hero in our midst until now. Pope John Paul [June 27] is consistently a man of conviction, courage and sympathy. Poland may not be freer because of him, but for a time that country was able to be a nation again because of him.

Christine A. Grzyb

Pittsburgh

While the Polish people struggle to become masters of their fates, they have certainly proved that they are the captains of their souls.

Jean N. Harwell

New York City

The Pope's visit to Poland is a lesson to all, but especially to the politicians who try to delude their constituencies into believing that the greatest bulwark against tyranny is an arsenal of nuclear warheads. John Paul has no armies at his command. His strength is truth. John Paul has not a single armament at his disposal. Courage is his only defense. The military power of a Caesar, a Hitler or a Stalin is short-lived compared with the moral power of leaders like Jesus, Gandhi and John Paul.

(The Rev.) Thomas P. Hall

Washington, D.C.

Abortion Decision

I am not a member of NOW, Planned Parenthood, the National Abortion Federation or any other pro-choice group. I am the mother of three children and the guardian of my 50-year-old retarded sister. Until faced with an abortion [June 27], few women could say with certainty what they would do. For those of us who subscribe to God's will, so be it. For those of us who simply cannot handle it, so be it. But let the decision be ours.

Joan Graham

Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

With the decision that it is a woman's right to choose whether she wants an abortion, the Supreme Court has given women permission to continue to kill the unborn within their wombs.

Philomena Haas

Denver

Women do not need the Supreme Court to support their right to choose to have an abortion. Rather, women need to decide beforehand whether to avoid pregnancy or to accept it, should pregnancy occur. By the time a woman is pregnant, she has already made her choice. Though women are the bearers of life, they are not the creators of life, and therefore have no fundamental right to destroy the life they carry in their body.

David Westerfield

Paris, Texas

What is the greater good that we seek to attain by extinguishing the life of the unborn child?

Mark Stumme

Iowa City, Iowa

Neither the Supreme Court nor anyone else has the right to decide what is right or wrong for others. If abortion is a sin, a power greater than our high court will take care of both sin and sinner in its own time and way.

Charlotte Ely

Columbus

Stirring the Sod

Sodbusting, the ripping up or overturning of marginal, native grasslands in the West and Midwest [June 27], is one of the greatest environmental rapes of this nation's land. This conversion of the topsoil to the wrong side up, as the Indians call it, will yield a fast buck for those who care little for the earth. It is encouraging that the Reagan Administration has adopted a right-side-up environmental position by opposing this abuse.

John G. Sidle

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

West St. Paul, Minn.

The Florida developer looks you straight in the eye and says with sincerity, "I appreciate the natural beauty you have here in Florida." Then with indecent haste he proceeds to cut down, fill in, pave over and finally build on all that "natural beauty" that so touched his soul. The same kind of land misuse is now occurring in the Western states, where the farmer, dressed in cowboy hat, boots and worn jeans, professes to be a lover of the wide-open spaces. But he has become the sodbuster, ripping up fragile range land in order to plant more and more wheat, for which there is no market and for which the Government with our taxes will pay a tidy sum.

Marion L. Knudsen, President

Citrus County Protective Association Inc.

Crystal River, Fla.

Peru's Perils

In your report on the recent terrorist attacks in Peru [June 13], you state that I, as a leader of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, have said the state of emergency decreed by the Belaunde government was "justified." My position is the opposite. While I condemned the terrorists' acts, I also noted that the military response by the government puts them in the same class as the guerrillas. Thus, in addition to unsolved social problems, Peru faces violations of human rights in the areas now under military control. This unfortunate policy places the Peruvian people in a situation in which they could lose their democratic rights. That is what the leftist insurgents, as well as those on the authoritarian right, seek.

Enrique Bernales, Senator

Lima

Binding the Tie

I have been privy to several original wedding ceremonies similar to those described in your Essay "The Hazards of Homemade Vows" [June 27]. Like you, I vote for a return to the traditional marriage vows. Whether a couple decides they want to use the old "Let no man put asunder" or the new "Let no man divide," their contract is specific and touching in its simplicity.

Cynthia Lee Ahart

New York City

The most exaggerated wedding vow I ever heard was "I hereby accept all responsibility for meeting your total needs from now on."

Sidney J. Hall

Hampden-Sydney, Va.

Weddings are considered to be services, rituals and sacraments that belong to the churches and are made available to individuals by the churches. In this sense, weddings have a community orientation. The couple does not do the wedding; the church does the wedding for each couple as they come along, "from generation unto generation."

(The Rev.) Robert A. Morgan

Austin, Minn.

Debating Evolution

Reader Charles Beck's letter [June 20] criticizes the acceptance of evolution as a phenomenon because it is not "repeatable and verifiable." Neither is the entire historical record. Does Beck really doubt that George Washington or Jesus Christ ever lived? The evidence for the fact (not theory!) of evolution is far stronger than for the existence of Jesus, though not quite as good as for that of Washington's. The Pope's own Pontifical Academy of Sciences recently put it well: "We are convinced that masses of evidence render the application of the concept of evolution to man and the other primates beyond serious dispute."

Arthur C. Clarke

Colombo, Sri Lanka

Jew Against Jew

Your report "Hooliganism in the Holy City" [June 27], describing the animosity and battles between Jerusalem's extreme Orthodox Jewish groups and secular Israelis, bespeaks an inherent antireligious bias. You use the term ultra (meaning extreme or fanatical), to refer to Orthodox Jews only. Yet certainly those officials who arranged for the production of Handel's Messiah in the heart of a Jerusalem Orthodox community may rightfully be termed ultrasecular. So, too, are those who intentionally defy both "God's law" and local ordinances, by driving their cars through Hasidic communities when they are closed to vehicular traffic on the Sabbath.

I do not condone the acts of violence noted in your story. As an Orthodox Jew, I am repulsed by them. Yet, as difficult as it may be for some people to understand, the state of Israel is a Jewish state. The movement to return Israelis to their religious roots and practices should not be condemned because of the violent acts of a few.

David B. Hamm

New York City

The division between Orthodox and secular Jews in Israel is ridiculous. Unfortunately, to make this situation worse, any moderates who voice an opinion in the dispute are considered repulsive by both sides.

Barry Weintraub

New York City

Godless Church

The current campaign in the Unitarian Universalist Association to delete mention of God from its founding statement of principles [June 27] mocks the Unitarianism and Universalism of William Ellery Channing, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Theodore Parker and Hosea Ballou. If this radical proposal is ratified, the association should seriously consider changing its name to the Humanist Feminist Association.

Charles R. Gredler

Roseland, Va.

The tone of ridicule in your article on the Unitarian Universalist Association was offensive. I was lucky enough to have discovered the U.U.A. when I was 18. Its free, open approach to theology helped me through a confusing and difficult period in my spiritual life. The U.U.A. is the only denomination that accepts agnostics, atheists, humanists and other "godless heathen" as religious people who have as much right to ministry, fellowship and communion as anyone.

Wayne B. Ditsworth

Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Look Back for the Future

Your article "Whatever Became of the Future?" [June 27] made me think of the past. I grew up in the '30s, when Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer and other Bauhaus architects were beginning to influence American architecture. During the building boom that followed World War II, I looked forward to seeing homes and office buildings that would excel the architecture of previous eras. I was disappointed. Few American buildings in the past 40 years have equaled the beauty of Monticello, the White House, the Chrysler Building, or even the average American home built prior to the war. Perhaps next year's Aspen conference on design should look to the Greek's Parthenon as a guide to "the future."

John Eastman Jr.

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