Number, Please

To the Editors:

TIME's report on the breakup of A T & T [Nov. 21] describes the consequences of a crusade by overzealous bureaucrats and overprotective courts. Confusion and higher rates will be the result. To the bureaucrats who forced this situation on us, I wish skyrocketing telephone bills and lots of wrong numbers.

Godfrey M. Elliott Sarasota, Fla.

We should never have allowed A T & T to be split up. The company was highly successful, and its services were well worth the nominal charge.

Scott Morrison an Mateo, Calif.

What irony. The judiciary orders the breakup of A T & T, a company providing the best telephone service in the world. Only in America!

Penny M. Johnson Racine, Wis.

It is a sad day when the competition and the courts dismantle a company that has provided efficient and progressive phone service. The antiquated postal system should have been broken up instead.

Don E. Dolan Signal Mountain, Tenn.

If there are any winners in the split-up of A T & T, they are not the customers. As anyone who has lived abroad knows, the U.S. has had the best and most reasonable telephone service in the world. The Government should have heeded the old saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Barnett K. Johnson Gumming, Ga.

P.L.O. Civil War

The battle for supremacy in the Palestine Liberation Organization [Nov. 21] is not a fight over who will better the lot of the Palestinian refugees. It is a struggle for political and personal power. The Palestinians are a symbol, and their worth increases with their sufferings. The P.L.O. leaders know that solving the Palestinian problem would benefit only Israel and the refugees.

Sherif Laoun Montreal

The P.L.O. is the only organization that elects its chairman by waging war in someone else's country.

Dale H. Wallace Lewisburg, Pa.

The events in Lebanon reveal hypocrisy and a lust for power. The Palestinians and Lebanese, betrayed by their own leaders as well as their Arab "brothers," are now facing a situation similar to that of the Jews in the 1930s and 1940s in Germany. As then, the world mouths pious rhetoric but does nothing.

Michael Kaplan Oceanside, N. Y.

Unpunished Terrorists

The U.S.'s failure to respond to suicide attacks against our troops in Lebanon [Nov. 21] is in sharp contrast to the Israeli reaction, which was to bomb suspected terrorist bases in the Bekaa Valley. It is no surprise that Captain George Tsantes was murdered in Athens. Do terrorists now believe that U.S. citizens can be attacked with impunity?

Bruce J. Friedman Philadelphia

No act of retaliation can bring back the dead. Getting even would only follow the Middle East's tradition of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

Moxie S. George Captain, U.S.M.C. Reserve and Jan Winter Santa Barbara, Calif.

Capitol Bombing

In a country like ours, where freedom of expression is a basic right, it is deplorable and ironic that extremists would bomb the U.S. Capitol [Nov. 21]. The Capitol is where debate and opinions, not terrorism, form American policy.

Brad Tracy Lebanon, Ore.

Semper Fi

Your story about General Paul X. Kelley's conversation with a wounded Marine [Nov. 7] reveals the general's naivete. In the language of the Marine Corps, Semper Fi does not mean "always faithful." The expression connotes something rather different.

Paul B. Waller Rockford, III.

The expression is from World War II. When Marines in the Pacific said "Sem per fi, Mac, " they frequently meant "Look pal, you 've got to take care of yourself out here."

Killers of a Kind

Reading your article about the two drifters who committed dozens of senseless murders [Nov. 14] put to rest my doubts about capital punishment.

Robert A. Radie Chelmsford, Mass.

Those two murderers are mistakes of nature. Our justice system should get rid of them.

Marta Andraele Miami

As long as our courts continue to be lenient, we must accept the 21,000 murders committed each year in this country. Murder has become as American as football and apple pie. The serial killers are surely guilty, but so are the parole boards that release these men into society to strike again.

Gloria P. Pope San Jose, Calif.

Man of the Year

My nomination for Man of the Year is U.S. Delegate to the U.N. Charles Lichenstein. When the Soviets complained about having the U.N. in New York, Lichenstein suggested they could sail into the sunset if they did not like the city. While his geography may be flawed, Lichenstein told the Soviets what many are thinking.

Alvin R. Ervin Lieutenant Colonel, U.S.A. (ret.)

Columbia, S.C.

The choice should be Sally Ride, America's first astrowoman.

M. Roy Brenner Johannesburg

Barbara McClintock, the Nobel laureate in medicine.

Joseph F.J. Curi Torrington, Conn.

Ronald Reagan, in whom the American people have found a leader.

William L. Knecht Oakland, Calif.

The martyred Benigno Aquino, who, despite threats of death, returned to Manila.

Julius Romero Manila

Barney Clark, courageous medical pioneer.

David D. Frasier Frederick, Md.

The 269 souls who died on Flight 007.

Michael Wood Grand Ledge, Mich.

Margaret Thatcher.

Robin Ette Bechtel, Kiunga Papua New Guinea

Lee lacocca.

Robb Scherler Akron

James Watt, for creating an awareness of this nation's natural resources.

Bill KlingJr. Huntsville, Ala.

Smoke-Free San Francisco

San Francisco's new ordinance protecting nonsmokers from colleagues who smoke [Nov. 21] is only the beginning of an era in which Americans will realize their right to a smoke-free environment.

Ron Miller Columbus

You wrote in regard to the antismoking referendum, "Enforcement will be annoying and probably impossible." A majority of San Franciscans obviously disagree. They voted for the law. Furthermore, your article states that Proposition P "narrowly passed." But you fail to mention that the tobacco industry spent $1.5 million, or $20 per vote, trying to defeat the legislation. Considering the effect of such lobbying, the bill could hardly pass with a landslide victory.

Phyllis Shapiro New York City

Finally nonsmokers have come to realize that even being in the same room with smokers is a serious health hazard.

George Russell New York City

Grenada Neighbor

The documents found on Grenada [Nov. 14] show exactly what the radical leftists planned. I am the student who the top-secret Grenadian report says "lives just below the Soviet embassy and seems to pay more than casual attention to all activities of the embassy." My relationship with the Soviet Ambassador and his staff was cordial though superficial. It amuses me to know that they suspected me of being a CIA agent. This accusation is just another example of Soviet paranoia.

Mark S. Lea Creighton University School of Medicine Omaha

Dangers of Lilac Time

In response to Reader Louise Skelly, who deplored Author Paul Theroux's gloomy view of Britain [Nov. 21], I have done what Skelly suggested. While living in London, our family did "go down to Kew in lilac time" on a lovely Sunday afternoon. That's when our Kensington flat was broken into for the third time. We still cannot forget that our favorite toys and personal belongings are scattered all over The Kingdom by the Sea.

Helene Bonin Middletown, Conn.

FCC's Fowler

Leave it to Ronald Reagan to appoint Mark Fowler chairman of the FCC [Nov. 21]. With his goal of stripping away regulations and safeguards, Fowler typifies the Reagan Administration's mercenary sensibilities.

S. Alane Mauter San Diego

Fowler's statement that "television is just... a toaster with pictures" betrays a frightening ignorance of TV's power to coerce and manipulate.

Theodore W. Jentsch, Professor, Sociology Kutztown University Kutztown, Pa.

Fowler should watch television more than one hour a week. If he did, he would not want to abolish the 16 min.-per-hr. limit on commercials. Without that maximum, it would be, "We interrupt these commercials to bring you entertainment."

Ralph A. Brooks New York City

Repeating History

Re your Essay on history's tendency to repeat itself [Nov. 21]: in the past two decades history has taught us that we must respect another country's right to self-determination. Failure on our part to recognize this aspiration only leads to intransigence by the emerging nation. That is why our position in Nicaragua could very well lead us into a repetition of Viet Nam.

Michael J.Hohl Cos Cob, Conn.

History repeats itself because the response to conflict is predictable. Governments usually try to solve disagreements with force or intimidation. If world leaders would abandon the military alternative, history would be made, not repeated.

Barbara L. Shoemaker Los Altos, Calif.

A Rave for Yentl

Thank you for giving Barbra Streisand's Yentl the rave review it deserves [Nov. 21]. By directing this film, Streisand has met another challenge, proving that her talent is immeasurable.

Eric J. Dodd Athens, Ga. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.