20TH CENTURY BLUES

"Feeling miscast in our own lives, we experience depression almost as a moral stand, a protest against a world we do not understand." ANDREW LEWIS CONN New York City

Technology in modern society has made great strides in bringing us more free time, and Robert Wright shows us how we are spending it: being depressed [COVER STORY, Aug. 28]. The quotes from the Unabomber raised some interesting points. I just wish he would convey them in a humane manner. SETH MAYERI New York City

As Wright's report on the roots of widespread depression makes clear, we are relational beings and find close, loving associations with others the most effective source of the trust, self-confidence and security that can relieve our anxiety. However, anything that increases insecurity triggers a self-preservation withdrawal. This makes close relationships impossible and cuts us off from the source of emotional nurturing we need, further intensifying insecurity, increasing withdrawal and so on in a spiraling cycle of despair. There are many more things than technology in our society that make us feel anxious and insecure. MARILYN KRAMER Wausau, Wisconsin

I was enraged by Wright's constant use of the Unabomber as an authority on the problems that plague our times. Wright seems to have forgotten that the Unabomber is a killer, not a leading expert on the causes of despair. The biggest threat to our well-being is not in our genes but in the absence of moral clarity and purpose. When we start quoting serial killers, we have lost our moral compass. I am disgusted that TIME and other publications have legitimized rather than condemned this murderer. RICK SHUMAN Los Angeles

The secret dream of most of us is not to seek a sense of community but to flee from it. Our stress comes from being mired in a forced and artificial "civility" when what we really want is to gather those few people we truly care about and then find a mountaintop where we can live like the primitives--fewer in number, less diverse, more honest and less civil. DIANE E. FOLTZ Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

I got so depressed reading Wright's article that I could hardly finish it. Science now confirms what my girlfriend told me when she dumped me: I am an evolutionary wreck. Cro-Magnon is the term she used. I had to watch Mary Poppins twice to snap out of it. CARROLL MILLER Lufkin, Texas Via E-mail

I live in a turn-of-the-century house where the dining room is bigger than the living room. This suggests that family meals together were once an important ritual. They provided cross-generational contact, practice in civil conversation and early experience in intimate socialization. ELIZABETH MURTAUGH Winnetka, Illinois

There is no mismatch between our genetic makeup and the modern world, for our genes have given us the ability to forge this modern world. They have been built to satisfy our needs, to meet our requirements, to solve our problems. We have evolved to this; the path of human history is not some fluke: it is all that is true; it is who we are. STEPHEN KRIEGER New York City

It is hard not to feel alone and at times depressed when society is so fragmented. This very feeling caused me to move from San Francisco to Bozeman, Montana. For three years I enjoyed being part of a tiny community where, although I made no effort to make friends, I was rewarded with a constant intimacy. However, the sense that life was passing me by and the almost stifling closeness of the community led me to return to the San Francisco area. I moved back to "the real world" for the choices and differences I was missing. The irony is there is plenty to do in San Francisco but more friends to do things with in Bozeman. BRETT WILBUR Burlingame, California

Evolution declares that all life is the result of random chance and that there is no underlying meaning or point. Evolution is not only not an answer; it is very likely also a major part of the problem. How about this outstanding puzzle from Wright: "Natural selection...is our creator, but it isn't God." Why would not our creator be our God? Why is not God our creator? If God is not our creator, then he is nothing; and if he is nothing, then why even mention him? Wright should stick with the Unabomber. He's more relevant today. OWEN W. DYKEMA West Hills, California Via America Online

If the "pursuit of more" is part of human instinct, then so is the pursuit of better. Human progress calls not for a return to the nontechnological past but for a progression into a more social and altruistic future. And someday, like the first creatures to crawl out of the sea onto land, humankind will pull itself out of a system that inhibits and abuses the individual and move on to something better. Let's just hope we can make it through the journey. SCOTTIE WINGFIELD Winchester, Virginia

Evolution designed our minds and bodies to maximize the potential for getting our own genes into the next generation. But the same forces now fuel a growing population that is rapidly destroying the natural world. The reproductive behavior that helped us survive as a species may no longer be beneficial. DON C. SCHMITZ Tallahassee, Florida What we crave is people--the closeness of relatives, the cup of sugar a neighbor hands over the fence and the unexpected guest for dinner. These are not Darwin's so-called social instincts but the valuable fruits of peace and contentment. They are never gained by quick phone calls, handshakes, cards, promises to get together or the intrinsic closeness of the nuclear family. They are gained by reaching out. MARY MERRIMAN CATES Grosse Ile, Michigan

FUROR OVER FAULKNER

Shannon Faulkner would have been a quitter if she had dropped out during the two years it took her just to get into the Citadel [SOCIETY, Aug. 28]. Had her classmates at the school been kinder and more welcoming, she probably could have made it. Even though she quit, I still think she is one of the bravest women in the U.S.--certainly braver than most of the men in the Citadel. MATT CALCARA Overland Park, Kansas AOL: Cal Clan

As a woman, I can't help finding the photos of the cadets celebrating Faulkner's departure chilling. These aren't men; they are seven-year-old boys locking the little neighborhood girl out of the clubhouse. I can understand (indeed, I share) their contempt for Faulkner, but I hope it doesn't extend to the gender as a whole. However, I fear it may. Grow up, guys. Women are people too. ADELE S. HODLIN Northville, New York

The events described in the report on Faulkner bring back dark images from 30 years ago: federal marshals having to escort a student onto a Southern campus; messages of hate, this time in the form of misogynistic T shirts and graffiti; and the whoops and infantile revelry of the skinheads at this bastion of the Old Confederacy. Is it any wonder that the chart you published in the same issue [CHRONICLES, Aug. 28] shows that of the 11 states that made up the Old Confederacy, 10 are ranked "below average" or "low" in percentage of women legislators, and that South Carolina ranks 43rd in that category? TERRENCE M. WALTERS Rochester, Minnesota

Everyone knows that the military puts enormous emphasis on physical activity during training. One would have expected Faulkner to have got herself into shape (both mentally and physically) before she showed up. As for the emotional stress, unless there was some gross abuse that has not yet come to light, her giving up right away was a sign of unforgivable weakness. Women have every right to be in the military, but to have us represented by someone like Faulkner can only set us back 100 years. CATHERINE CHARTIER West Chester, Ohio Via E-mail

The Citadel: All male, no men! JOHN KELLY Garden City, New York

BLACKS WANT TO ADOPT

I was quoted in your report "Adoption in Black and White" [SOCIETY, Aug. 14], but my full remarks did not appear. I feel your story presented a one-sided, microscopic view of a macrosystemic problem. No pointed questions were raised about the failure of the child-welfare system to work in partnership with the black community. Willing, capable blacks actively seek to foster-parent and adopt black children under the aegis of the Black Community Crusade for Children, coordinated by the Children's Defense Fund. The exceedingly small percentage of blacks who are ever deemed qualified to adopt raises the ugly specter of gross discrimination. A community denied the opportunity to rear and care for its children is indeed a community under assault. RUTH-ARLENE W. HOWE Associate Professor Boston College Law School Newton Centre, Massachusetts Via E-mail

JAPAN SAYS IT'S SORRY

Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama's apology for the mistakes, aggression and colonization policies of his country during World War II has infinite value [JAPAN, Aug. 28]. It essentially admits that a massive moral debt is owed to countless victims who were physically, emotionally and spiritually ruined by Japanese militarists. It is said that sincere repentance will eradicate the unfortunate fate of an individual, a family or a nation. Murayama's honest confession and apology far surpass the efforts of those few obstinate conservatives who refuse to repent. His apology is helping others change their destiny. MAURICE DANIEL Havelock, North Carolina

Once again America is applauding Japan for its supposedly sincere apology to its former enemies and the Asian nations it once occupied. What good is an apology after 50 years? RANDY WANG NGAI KWONG, age 15 Gresham, Oregon

BRADLEY'S POLITICAL FUTURE?

Bill Bradley, in announcing that he will retire from the Senate at the end of next year [CAMPAIGN '96, Aug. 28], said he was tired of working in a political system that was broken. That statement is despicable. The New Jersey Senator's hopeless pessimism is a slam-dunk in the faces of his constituency. ALFRED ("SONNY") PICCOLI Bloomfield, New Jersey

Bill Bradley for higher political office? Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! NELSON HAM Errol, New Hampshire

CREDIT TO RUTGERS

Your article "Glimpses of the Mind," about research into the workings of the brain [COVER STORY, July 17], included a photograph of a woman demonstrating how sign-language gestures are displayed as a computer-graphic image and correlated with brain activity. I feel you should have noted that the picture was taken and the research carried out in my laboratory at the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience at Rutgers' campus in Newark, New Jersey. HOWARD POIZNER Professor of Neuroscience Rutgers University Newark, New Jersey

SPECIAL SCHOLARSHIP

Oseola McCarty has lived most of her 87 years in a country that offered her little opportunity. Now, in her old age, she is finally spending a bit of money on herself, and has given $150,000 to a scholarship fund exclusively for black college students. Instead of congratulating her on her thrift and industry, Michael Kinsley nitpicked about reverse discrimination and quotas [ESSAY, Aug. 28]. One hears scant protest when wealthy alumni donate far greater sums to the Harvards and Yales of America for the benefit of wealthy whites. How quickly white people refer to the Constitution and equal opportunity when their interests are even minutely affected. In this instance there is no need for debate. McCarty has been a good and faithful citizen in a land where, for nonwhites, love of country has been rewarded with scorn. I applaud the McCartys of the world for their generosity of spirit. GEORGE ADRIAN BARRETT Washington

I think McCarty's blacks-only scholarship is sending the wrong signal. It's not just whites who can't have the scholarship. What about the Chinese, Indians and Spanish? Blacks aren't the only ones who need financial aid. I am a 17-year-old Greek American who will be attending college in the fall. I have been awarded three scholarships for my intelligence--not for my color or my race or my sex. However, some of my friends aren't able to attend college because they just can't afford it. Instead of offering a scholarship for blacks only, McCarty should offer aid to people who aren't able to pay their college tuition. The money should go to those who want to be something in life, no matter what their color, race or sex. KATHY TSANGARLIS Jersey City, New Jersey

SUPPORT FOR A WHISTLE BLOWER

The report on Mark Whitacre, who acted as a whistle blower in an investigation into price fixing at the Archer Daniels Midland Co. [BUSINESS, Aug. 28], suggested that there were people in Decatur, Illinois, who considered Whitacre a villain. You inaccurately cited my letter to the local newspaper as representative of that view. My letter merely observed that Whitacre had violated the unwritten protective code of executive conduct shared by large multinational corporations. I also expressed sympathy for Whitacre and his family for what I thought they were about to experience as a result of what I presumed to be his tragically naive act. I have no reason to believe he is a villain, and I'm at a loss to understand how my letter could have been construed as saying so. EARL GATES Decatur, Illinois

PILOTS GET THEIR DUE

Hooray for the television movie the Tuskegee Airmen, about World War II's all-black fighter squadron [HISTORY, Aug. 28]! I was a top turret gunner on a B-17 bomber in Italy in 1944, and the troops always felt good when we saw the P-51s flown by those men. They stayed with us over the target, even through flak. At our base in Foggia, Italy, we thrilled to hear the roar of a P-51 "buzzing" our tents and to see its red nose appear above the olive trees. I am now copying my diary of the missions I was on for my grandchildren, and have many accounts of the protection we received from the Tuskegee airmen. CLAIR H. SCHMITT Greeley, Colorado

CORRECTION

Our report on the Tuskegee airmen mistakenly identified Lieut. General Benjamin O. Davis Jr. as the first black graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. That distinction belongs to Henry Ossian Flipper, an 1877 graduate.