Crimes at Home

To the Editors:

As a therapist working with brutal offenders, I am amazed by American reactions to private violence [Sept. 5]. Considering that more jail time can be given to a man for shooting a bald eagle than for molesting a child, it is no wonder that the violence perpetuates itself.

Bill Seals

Director of Sexual Assault Services

The Center for Behavior Therapy, Inc.

Minneapolis

The only way I could get your story off my mind was to do volunteer work for two local childhelp centers.

Kathryn Willingham

Macon, Ga.

I am disgusted by the animalistic crime of rape. But the statement made by Bert Graham of Houston's district attorney's office, "Now juries are quick to side with the complainant," prompted visions of future injustice. Awakening people to a crime like rape is fine, but we must be careful to keep public opinion out of our court system.

Mike R. Midkiff

Huntington, W. Va.

Your article on wife beating ended too optimistically. I am a domestic relations attorney who has spent the past four years representing battered wives. Before marriage, many of the women had already been physically violated by their prospective husbands. So, women, please beware! If he hits you during the courting period, he most assuredly will hit you again after marriage.

Sandra W. Barron

Rockville, Md.

I do not know whether to thank you for your horrifyingly graphic report on personal violence. Perhaps when I catch my breath I can decide.

Mary Ann Reitzel

Van Wert, Ohio

Recently an editorial in a local newspaper declared that only "sensationalism sells papers." That means your article should do very well. It glorifies the suffering, the horror and the perversion of our fellow humans. But your reporting does not explain why political, religious, social and educational leaders have so far failed to reduce our preoccupation with sex; nor does it give any satisfactory reasons why the media, the arts and particularly the press continue using sex and violence as means to exploit the public.

Henry J. Themal

Hartsdale, N. Y.

Space should be devoted to silent sufferers subjected to yet another crime, called mental cruelty, a kind of spiritual torture. One hears about husbands who exercise their macho attitudes without physically abusing their wives but who create Kafkaesque nightmares in their everyday lives. Cruelty between two partners is often too subtle to be snared in the nets of social and judicial justice.

Maria Beran

Welwyn Garden City, England

There is a message missing in your child abuse article: Turn the molester in! Speak up if you know or suspect something. It may be too late for some children, but others can be saved from injury. Turning in a violator is not revenge. It helps the child and the abuser.

James Isaak

Northboro, Mass.

Murder in Manila

I am sickened by the assassination of Benigno Aquino [Sept. 5]. In all the furor over human rights in Afghanistan, Iran, El Salvador and Soviet-bloc countries, the U.S. has consistently overlooked the atrocities committed in the Philippines. Now is the time to take a close look at what is happening there and with whom we are allying ourselves.

Joann Cole

Newport Beach, Calif.

For an American President to lend legitimacy to the Marcos regime by paying it a state visit would be an insult to the dignity and values of the American and Filipino people. The notion that the use of the Philippine bases is dependent on the good will of President Marcos is as wrongheaded as the thought that it is in the American interest to support and strengthen his regime. American security is not enhanced thereby; injustice is.

Herb Frank

Medford, Ore.

Having lived in Manila as a foreigner for the past two years, I know the people are too scared to speak out against the corruption that goes on within the government. The lack of freedom experienced by Filipinos leads one to speculate on the true assassin of the former Senator. It is unsettling to think that a government possesses the power to cover up such an act. Carin E. Freeman Washington, D.C.

The anxieties TIME expresses about Philippine stability in the wake of the Aquino shooting echo the fears and doubts voiced about American democracy after the killing of the Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s. No society ever really depends for its survival on any individual, no matter how commanding or heroic. Marcos is in good health, but if he is unable to carry on, the 1973 constitution lays down an orderly method of succession.

We join in grief over the tragedy. The government will leave no stone unturned to get to the bottom of things. We ask that the independent commission of inquiry not be prejudged.

Gregorio S. Cendana

Minister, Office of Media Affairs

Republic of the Philippines

Manila

Global Gullivers

It is one shock and disappointment after another. If our elected representatives in Washington are not raising their pay in devious ways, they are involved in sordid sexual adventures. Now we learn that they are living the life Riley never aspired to, traveling the world over at the taxpayers' expense [Sept. 5], with no legitimate end in view. Is it any wonder that Senators and Congressmen are viewed by the U.S. public as less trustworthy than used-car salesmen?

Warren S. Josephy

New York City

Truly Mozart

The real problem with the original-instruments movement described in your story "Letting Mozart Be Mozart" [Sept. 5] is that performances too often sound cold, clinical, antiseptic. For all their lack of authenticity, I still find the recordings of Mozart by Sir Thomas Beecham and the incomparable Busch brothers far more alive and satisfying and ultimately more faithful to the composer than those of Harnoncourt, Leonhardt and others.

Donald Wilson

Clayton, Mo.

The idea that 18th century music should be played only on 18th century instruments is based on a faulty assumption: that there are two homogeneous and isolated categories of musical instruments, period and modern. Instruments have always changed because musicians want the best ones they can find. This constant search for refinement is part of the innermost soul of living music.

Mats Moberg Hisings

Backa, Sweden

Replaying the Rosenbergs

I am the sister of Julius Rosenberg and am responding to your book review of The Rosenberg File by Ronald Radosh and Joyce Milton [Aug. 22]. The lies and smears prevalent to this day have blinded Radosh and Milton to the truth of the Rosenbergs' total innocence.

The Rosenbergs were not martyrs. They cherished life and wanted to live and see their sons grow up, but not at the price of surrendering their dignity and lying, as did the Government's star witness, David Greenglass. Had the Rosenbergs been guilty as charged, they would be alive today! It wasn't the Rosenbergs who committed "the crime of the century" but J. Edgar Hoover, who was desperately searching for radicals in the early 1950s and was falsely accusing left-wing dissidents of espionage.

Ethel Rosenberg Appel New York City

Pared-Down Surgery

Your article on independent operating clinics [Sept. 5] reminded me of my home leave from Africa six years ago, when I consulted a physician about removing a benign but unsightly tumor from my arm. He said I would have to enter the hospital on Wednesday afternoon, have surgery Thursday afternoon (general anesthesia), and maybe I would go home Friday afternoon. I opted not to have the surgery. Back in Africa, I consulted a physician at a mission hospital, where I went in for surgery at 4 p.m. (local anesthesia), walked out at 5:30 p.m. and never had any problems. It's good to see the U.S. is finally catching up with the Third World.

Leslie Ekstrom Reston, Va.

Calling Cars

Expanding on the article "Christening Cars" [Sept. 5], I wonder if it is coincidence or competition that the Big Three have three cars named after cities in southern Spain. General Motors has its Seville, Ford has its Granada, and Chrysler its Cordoba.

Melvin T. Bishop West Hartford, Conn.

With so many cars named after the swift and the strong in the animal kingdom, one name has been overlooked--the cheetah, said to be the swiftest animal on earth. Because of all the many recalls plaguing the car industry, this name would certainly cover all bases.

Vincent J. Unger Payson, Ariz. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.