Pride & Prejudice

Sir: Thank you for that wonderful cover story on the Negro in Viet Nam [May 26]. As a Negro living here in America, I have never felt such a deep sense of pride for my people. I believe that your story has accomplished almost as much, if not more, than many of the civil rights demonstrations that have taken place.

BETTY MCCRARY The Bronx, N.Y.

Sir: Your story on foxhole democracy is an interesting illustration of American hypocrisy and misconception. It is true that the Negro has attained a semblance of equality in Viet Nam. But American racism still exists at home; it has disappeared only in a temporarily Americanized environment 10,000 miles away and in a context of wholesale killing. Negroes should reject a freedom achieved amidst a deluge of non-American blood. All Americans should be appalled at the fact that it is now necessary to kill an Asian to free an American.

JOHN C. SCHNEIDER Minneapolis

Hearts & Flowers

Sir: The Manhattan march in support of our fighting men in Viet Nam [May 19] was like a brilliant, glowing candle in a huge stadium; how it must have warmed the hearts of thousands of Americans.

For many months, it has been discouraging that no public patriotic support has been given to our fighting men, to the wounded and to the heroic dead who have given their lives in support of our country. We pray for the awakening of all the American people, including the Administration, to full-fledged support of our fighting men and for the Administration to permit the leaders of our armed services to go ahead and win this war now.

MRS. G. R. OWEN Altamonte Springs, Fla.

Sir: You describe the marchers as looking like "the kind of people who think bananas are for eating."

As neither a banana eater nor "user," I remind you that gorillas also think bananas are for eating. Judging from the antics of some of the parade's participants, I would say that this species was well represented on Fifth Avenue.

ROBERT PHILLIPS The Bronx, N.Y.

Sir: I, too, am a patriot. I love my country, its flag, and all they stand for. It is in part for these reasons that I work to see my country release its degrading death grip on Viet Nam. I cannot stand by and see America being lured into supporting a war effort antithetical to the kind of moral principles upon which the country was founded.

I, too, support our fighting men in Viet Nam. In fact, I support them so much that I propose bringing them all safely home rather than rooting them on to their pathetic deaths for a cause that requires video tapes to convince them that their efforts are somehow warranted.

STEWART PROCTOR Bloomington, Ind.

Johnny-on-the-Spot

Sir: "Midnight Idol," your cover story on the Johnny Carson phenomenon and on television in general [May 19], was excellent. Carson is a refreshing breeze in what is literally a wasteland, with the exception of an occasional documentary or sports event.

The average television series is created for an adult with the mentality of a twelve-year-old. This is an egregious affront to the American populace. When will the TV program planners realize that the "average" viewer does not identify with the antics of Petticoat Junction or Gomer Pylel

SALLY SAX Malibu, Calif.

Sir: Your article on Johnny Carson was as boring to read as he is to watch.

ROBERT E. CONNELLY Director of Forensics King's College Wilkes-Barre, Pa.

Sir: You have captured the true spirit of Johnny Carson, the man who has made insomnia a pleasure.

BYRON LOVE Hiram, Ohio

Sir: The bust of Johnny Carson may be art, but it reminds me most of "John Brown's Body Lies A-mouldering in the Grave."

ELIZABETH LYNCH Los Angeles

Out of Mothballs

Sir: Your photographs [May 12] of Danang East, the Saigon River and Danang West give even the most cursory reader a feeling for the incredible amount of supplies being shipped to South Viet Nam every day.

An inquisitive reader might wonder how all this equipment reached its destination. It came by ship. In fact, it came by 167 World War II-built cargo ships broken out of the Reserve fleet for the Viet Nam supply run, and operated for the Military Sea Transportation Service by U.S. flag operators. It came also by some of the 88 U.S. naval ships under this command that are additionally engaged in the supply of U.S. bases around the world.

LAMAR HOLT Editor, Sealift Magazine Department of the Navy Washington, D.C.

Two-Horse Team

Sir: Fine piece on Nixon [May 19]. And about time. When you put aside all the drivel about "new faces," you find two men in the G.O.P. with the knowledge, brains, experience and savvy to be good Presidents: Dick Nixon and Nelson Rockefeller. Putting the Michigan Moose Jaw on the track with these two is like running a mule in the Kentucky Derby.

DAVID DINKINS Manhattan

Another Salute

Sir: Taiwan may be a model for Asian economic development [May 12], but its neighbors are not far behind. Witness Thailand: G.N.P. is now $4 billion, and its ten-year compound annual growth rate is 7.4%. Thailand's low labor rates, level cost of living, stable government and investment incentives are becoming increasingly attractive to foreign investors. Finally, the 31 million Thais represent a population 2 1/2 times larger than Taiwan and a market potential certainly that great.

RICHARD M. SIMON Private Enterprise Adviser, USAID Bangkok

Soul Searchers

Sir: I was extremely gratified to see the article on the "new" eschatology [May 19]. The concept of a chthonian hell or an Elysian heaven as grandiose, otherworldly repositories for "evil" and "good" souls has been a chief selling point for the fundamentalist evangelists. But to espouse a religion solely from fear of eternal perdition vitiates the power of the ethic contained therein and engenders only more fear in the believer.

The writings of Paul Tillich, for example, give one the promise of an "eternal now," reflected in what Martin Buber called the full cognition of the "I-Thou." With the deep awareness of the self and of others, and the ensuing love, one's existence is enriched to its very depths. That theologians are excluding the old notion of an afterlife has value in that it might turn some more fully to the theme of love, which should be the reason for faith.

DOUGLAS L. DORSET Baltimore

Sir: It is increasingly disturbing to many thoughtfully religious people to see theologians seeking to accommodate the church to the deteriorating moral standards of the day. Instead of making every effort to upgrade them, they have discarded those moral laws that are most unpopular. This new view of eschatology pursues the same idea: no one wants to go to hell, so there is no hell, and to remain consistent, there can be no heaven. Granted, one can make a heaven or hell of his life here, but that does not preclude the probability of a continuation of this life after death.

VIRGINIA F. DAVIS San Diego

Allegations Denied

Sir: I write you in connection with your reference to me and my family in "Potted Ivy" [May 19].

When the police broke into my home, after weeks of unseemly surveillance, they did not discover anything remotely resembling "a pot-and-hashish party." They found my wife, my oldest son, my daughter-in-law and me about to set out for the movies, and another son, as well as two Negro friends of my children, at widely scattered points in a large and rambling house. That second son--absurdly charged with "possession of marijuana"--happened to be taking a bath!

There were no university students involved, and neither my wife nor I have ever used or possessed any illegal drugs. What we are accused of is "maintaining a premise" in which other people are alleged to have been in possession of marijuana.

The fact that my own nonuse of drugs is widely known in part impelled the officially recognized chapter of LEMAR--a society interested in the legalization of marijuana--on the campus of the State University of New York at Buffalo to ask me to serve as its adviser. I feel myself confronting not a proper criminal action but a movement to silence me, to limit my freedom of expression. Your offhand references to my case may serve--however unintentionally--to strengthen the anti-libertarian forces which beset me.

LESLIE A. FIEDLER Buffalo

Sir: Your use of the word alienation conveys only part of the truth. Some students who use marijuana are "the bored, the unhappy, the apathetic," but not all marijuana smokers are alienated. Your article reinforces a kind of unreasonable social stigma analogous to the irrationality of the Prohibition period. Marijuana merits less social stigma than does alcohol. Marijuana does no physical damage and, according to The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics, "psychic dependence is not as prominent or compelling as in the case of morphine, alcohol, or perhaps even tobacco habituation." The "two-thirds ... on the dean's list" at Princeton are not alienated; their scholastic accomplishment reflects acceptance of adult values. Even if we accept the hypothesis that marijuana symbolizes alienation, legalizing it would destroy its value as a gesture of protest.

DOUGLAS A. BRYANT Harvard College Cambridge, Mass.

Deserved Tribute

Sir: As a lawyer who has had the marked professional satisfaction of appearing (albeit unsuccessfully) in Judge Frank Johnson's well-run courtroom, I am pleased that you published a deserved tribute to him [May 12] and, through him, to those other Southern federal judges who have been stalwart in their even-handed enforcement of federal constitutional rights.

LOUIS H. POLLAK

Dean

Yale University Law School New Haven, Conn.

Sir: Your superlative piece on Judge Johnson spelled out beautifully what it means to be not only a judge but a genuine American. Judge Johnson's fearless adherence to legal justice helps those of us who live abroad to hold our heads high as U.S. citizens.

DAVID L. SWAIN Tokyo

Before the Bar

Sir: I do not pretend to know the merits of F. Lee Bailey, but "Handbook of Success, Chapter III" [May 19] was unnecessarily cruel and biased. Instead of demeaning Bailey, you have demeaned TIME.

GLORIA WILLIAMS Needles, Calif.

Sir: Thank you for the brilliant piece about F. Lee Bailey.

This gentleman has been insufferable in his antics since the Coppolino decision --he is more objectionable in defeat than in victory. Some censure is in order for him. I believe he has been violating every canon of ethics set down by the bar associations.

KENNETH S. COHEN Manhattan

Chuting Match

Sir: Having read your story on parachute riding [May 19], I find it strange that students at Colorado have invented an old sport.

At Turners Falls Airport in Massachusetts, grass-chuting and snow-chuting are far from new.

In the winter, the chute is secured to the front of a toboggan and opened. It is released at a predetermined point so that it is not destroyed in the trees. In the summer, grass-chuting is done.

The dangers of Colorado parachute riding do not exist here. It seems foolhardy to strap on a parachute in a high wind. Here the chutist, wearing sneakers, sits on a piece of heavy cardboard and holds the risers (straps) in his hands (the canopy has been disconnected from the harness and container). No one is needed to stop the chute or collapse it; this is done simply by releasing one or both of the risers, giving the chutist adequate safety control.

ROGER A. FRENCH University of Massachusetts Amherst

Sir: Sigma Chis, you are out of your tree! You didn't invent parachute riding. We Air Force brats have been using surplus chutes for a number of years.

DENNIS WATT BOB TOWER Ellsworth Air Force Base, S. Dak.

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