Faubus & the 48
SIR:
NOW THAT ARKANSAS HAS TAKEN THE FIRST GIANT STEP TOWARD SECESSION, WE CAN USE ALL THOSE OLD-FASHIONED FLAGS WITH 48 STARS.
CLAIR W. BRUGENER
SAN DIEGO
Sir:
Well, anyway, you will have to admit that Governor Faubus knows his Southerners.
J. E. JOHNSON
Conroe, Texas
Crying Over Spilled Point
Sir:
For all the explosive quality of "The New American Painting," I find abstract expressionism rather dull. Relying on sensational color and muscular painting techniques does not make a painting exciting. The most honestly painted section of a De Kooning canvas is his signature, and Kline is just plain boring after you've seen your first three.
DUANE S. MICHALS
New York City
Sir:
Gruesome thought: What would Michelangelo have done with the Sistine frescoes had A.E. been the mode under Sixtus IV?
SAMUEL A. WOOD
Baldwin, N.Y.
Sir:
Allow me to inform you that someone spilled some water colors on the pages of your Aug. 4 Art section.
CARLOS J. INDEST III
New Orleans
Sir:
To paraphrase another artist: "Never have so many been duped so much by so few."
WILLIAM G. HUNDT
Cleveland
The Ugly Facts
Sir:
We are shocked over the murderous way that Iraq was taken over, but how could you bring yourself to print such pictures [Aug. 4] as those of the butchered victims? I really thought you were above such things.
SYLVIA W. ADLER
The Bronx, N.Y.
Sir:
Never have I seen anything so gruesome. If this is a manifestation of that "inevitable force"--Arab nationalism--then Arab nationalism poses as great a threat to the civilized world as Communism, since both appear to revel in savagery and slaughter.
RICHARD F. JONES
Toms River, NJ.
Sir:
What a display of poor taste were your pictures. Is TIME one of those publications that feels it has a mission to educate the U.S. public to the ugly facts of the rest of the world ?
ROGER S. DARLING
Falls Church, Va.
P: Ugly and fine, yes.--ED.
Middle East Dateline
SIR:
READ YOUR AUG. 4 PRESS STORY AND WOULD LIKE MAKE ONE CORRECTION: FIRST MEN IN BAGHDAD WERE TWO, STAN CARTER AND MYSELF. WHEN WE ARRIVED ON IRAQI MILITARY PLANE FROM DAMASCUS, OFFICERS AT BAGHDAD AIRPORT DIDN'T KNOW WHO WE WERE. THEY SEEMED TO THINK WE WERE EITHER AMERICAN OFFICERS OR MOON MEN. I WAS FIRST MAN TO INTERVIEW BRIGADIER EL-KASSIM.
ARNOLD LACAGNINA
BRITISH COMMONWEALTH INTERNATIONAL NEWS FILMS
ROME
Of Man & Oil
Sir:
I found Nasser more interested in the rights of minorities and less bitterly intransigent against Israel than most other Arab leaders whom I met. Most of Washington's Arab friends in Iraq and Saudi Arabia are (or were) extreme social reactionaries: kings, sheiks and corrupt and extortionate landlords. We Americans loved anyone who professed antiCommunism, especially if he had oil property. As for Nasser, he clearly wants to be a Tito, not a Kadar, vis-`a-vis Moscow.
NORMAN THOMAS
New York City
Sir:
If we speed up the peaceful use of the atom bomb, the use of petroleum will become obsolete. Then the Americans will not choke in anger, but the Arabs will drown in oil. And nobody will care.
HANS FREUDENTHAL
Sao Paulo, Brazil
Sir:
Let those praising Arab nationalism or any other ism that is actually another form of Communism find out what it will be like to be governed by Moscow. They will soon realize what they have let themselves in for. Instead of worshiping Allah or Buddha, they will have to bow to Khrushchev.
L. MEREDITH
Calcutta, India
On the Shores of Lebanon
Sir:
The U.S. will reap heavily for its foolish intervention in Lebanon. You Americans are worse than the Communists in Hungary.
J. ALBAROUN
Accra, Ghana
Sir:
Eisenhower moved swiftly and courageously in coming to the defense of Lebanon. Too often in the past, America, the fortress of freedom, has talked big but done little.
R. K. EKSE
Minneapolis
Sir:
In the dusk of U.S. foreign policy, I offer this amendment to the Marine Hymn:
From the coast of Okinawa
To the shores of Lebanon
We will fight all nations' battles
At the call of Washington.
First to keep oil interests guarded,
Then to land and intervene
We are proud to claim all nations
Love a United States Marine.
RICHARD O'CONNELL
Philadelphia
Sir:
The picture of your Marines going ashore at Lebanon was as good as anything ever done in Hollywood. The Marines do not impress us Canadians.
JAMES J. EALEY
Toronto
Sir:
Thank you for your articles on the Middle East. Like many other people, I was quite confused about why we are in Lebanon (a barber I talked to thought it was in South America).
ROBERT E. OLSON
Chetek, Wis.
Call Me Doctor
Sir:
Harold Seymour, Ph.D., suggests that all Ph.D.s should insist on being addressed as "Doctor" [July 28]. It would be well to recall Shaw's admonition that titles embarrass the truly gifted and elevate the mediocre. If Mr. Seymour should see fit to thrust his academic position into the public view, he would be better advised to use "Professor," which carries more prestige and saves identification with mere artisans.
STEPHEN ABRAMS
Durham, N.C.
Sir:
I suggest we all join in singing this (the tune is Pretty Baby) to Professor Seymour:
Everybody loves a doctor,
That's why I'm in love with me
Call me Doctor, call me Doctor.
And whenever you address me,
Don't forget the Ph.D.
Call me Doctor, call me Doctor, etc.
RALPH C. WALKER
Lewisburg, Pa.
Sir:
Congratulations to Dr. Harold Seymour for his idea of creating the degree O.C.C. (Outstanding Citizen of the Community) as a substitute for the honorary Ph.D. The initials are wonderful, but don't they really stand for Outstanding Contributor to the College ?
THOMAS V. ROBERTS
Syracuse
Hucksters & Pilgrims
Sir:
I read your article [on the way the town of Lourdes exploits the shrine's fame] with saddened interest. Why go so far from home when many stores in the U.S. are reducing sincere religious convictions to a conglomeration of candy-coated devotions?
(THE REV.) PAUL LINSSEN, SJ.
Chifornak, Alaska
Sir:
Protestants everywhere must have enjoyed your reporting of Bishop Theas' pious crusade against the religious hucksters at Lourdes. Let the good bishop learn that Paul ruined the silversmiths at Ephesus with the only weapon that really works--a church that has no place for shrines or gimmicks.
JAMES I. COOK
Blawenburg, NJ.
Plans for Parents
Sir:
I have to smile every time I read someone's vehement argument against birth control [July 28]. My husband and I thank the Lord for each of our beautiful, healthy children and love them dearly, but we don't want ten more like them. Surely the Lord doesn't approve of cranky, physically worn-out parents who haven't the time to give each of their children the care he needs.
DAWN JARVIS
Seattle
Sir:
If the Planned Parenthood League preached only the most effective (also cheapest) contraceptive--self-denial--I am sure the Catholic Church would object hardly at all.
JANE FARRELL
Royal Oak, Mich.
Sir:
Let's have a law against the P.P.L. Let's all have the wealthy Roman Catholic Church subsidize our large families.
BLANCHE FREES
Lake Bluff, Ill.
The Whiskery Past
Sir:
So a Neanderthal man's body may have been a trifle too hairy for modern taste [July 28] ? Now who told you or anybody else how hairy the Neanderthaler was? The hair (whether a little or a lot, whether long or short or light or dark) seen in familiar pictures and on museum dummies of early man is merely artistic verisimilitude intentionally lent to otherwise bald restorations.
LESTER HARGRETT
Tallahassee, Fla.
From the Ivory Tower
Sir:
I am eleven years old, but I think I know what I'm talking about. I feel no sympathy for Reader Fitzgerald or her wailing about "pre-chewed" classics, especially her heartfelt statement about the opening sentence of A Tale of Two Cities being deleted. I have just finished reading both the comic-book form and the original version of this book, and the former inspired me to read the latter. Personally, I don't think the children's condensed classics are any worse than the adults' condensed everything.
RITA GOLOMB
Pittsburgh
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