The Man & the Papyrus Tiger

Sir: Perhaps it is a little early, but for Man of the Year, I propose General Moshe Dayan [June 16]. If he doesn't have it, it isn't worth having.

LISA ALLIOLI Napa, Calif.

Sir: Neither the U.N. nor any great power has the right to dictate the peace to a victorious Israel. The spineless withdrawal of U.N. troops was in large part responsible for the conflict, as was Russia's arming of Egypt and Syria. The U.S., whose foreign policy has made a sacred cow out of the status quo everywhere in the world, did little to help Israel. Those who think the Arab-Israeli confrontation is over are living in a dream world. Nasser will be back. Syria will be back. And if Israel has a right to exist, it also has the right to the means to continue that existence.

JOSEPH W. MOSSER Monte Carlo

Sir: The U.S. position in the Middle East crisis is less than laudable. "Neutrality in thought, word and deed" when the tiny land of Israel was threatened with annihilation by the collective armies of 14 nations will not be regarded as neutrality by future historians.

DAVID SHANDER, M.D. Denver

Sir: The perennial Middle East threat to the peace re-emphasizes the need for a permanent solution to control of key international waterways. The Suez Canal and the Gulf of Aqaba should be internationalized under irrevocable U.N. control. The world cannot permit Nasser to use those shipping lanes as instruments of national policy, to be turned on or off at will. Although Nasser wished to be the hero of a holy war of annihilation of Israel, the would-be tiger of the Nile has now earned the title of Papyrus Tiger.

SAMUEL B. RUSSELL Reading, Pa.

Sir: Your Mideast coverage illustrates the ineffectiveness of the U.N. as a peacekeeper. U Thant's wishy-washy attempt to discuss the issue with Nasser, his pulling out of troops, and the pointless speeches by delegates show the urgent need for reform.

MICHAEL J. FLYNN Orinda, Calif.

Sir: I am not a Jew, nor am I an Arab. I am an American who views the developments in the Middle East with not a little irritation. Is anyone insane enough to believe that tiny Israel would provoke war against the military might of the entire United Arab Republic? Come now! Let's dispense with diplomatic doubletalk. We all know who provoked this war, we all know why, we all know the outcome.

JOE WALDMAN Columbus, Ohio

Sir: If the U.S. is going to be a force for peace in the Middle East, we must include with our sympathy for the Zionists a certain empathy for the Arabs. Americans find it hard to see why the Arabs persist in not recognizing Israel. But Americans would do well to remember that the U.S. refuses to recognize the governments of China and East Germany, which are permanent realities just as Israel is.

JAY A. EKMAN Union Theological Seminary Manhattan

Sir: While in the Middle East last winter, I fell in love with the Jordanians most of all. But today my hat's off to Israel. What a tableau: There it stood, tiny and alone, cursed and menaced on every border by 14 scowling enemies. Yet today--"how are the mighty fallen!" But beginning with Abraham himself, Jewish history is replete with amazing exploits like this. Guts and stamina--the Israelis have them. Hail!

DAVID M. CAMPBELL San Diego

Seeds of Doubt

Sir: About the story on the anti-ballistic missile [May 26]: No one denies that an ABM system would stop only a fraction of incoming warheads--no defense of any kind in any war has ever been 100% effective. The idea is to sow enough doubt, uncertainty and expense into the plans of the enemy to deter him from striking. The daring technical innovations of high X-ray yield and terminal interception pioneered by the Soviets point the way to a viable ABM defense. Let's build one. NORMAN G. LOOPER Lieutenant, U.S.N. St. Paul

Time Payments & Taxes

Sir: In "Schools Yes, Taxes No" [June 2], you point out that rejection of school budgets and bond issues is the only avenue left to the frustrated taxpayer to express his protest. I take exception, however, to the notion that the cure for the school-funding problem lies in removing it from voter control: instead, the voter has every right to exercise as much control over other spenders of his tax dollars as he does over the schools.

The solution lies outside the educational sphere: reforms in taxation (moving away from a property to an income base) and in voter control over other public works promise better ultimate solutions than further centralization at state or federal level.

MARTIN S. HARRIS JR. Educational Consulting Services Brandon, Vt.

Sir: Could the reason for the defeat at the polls of so many school budgets be the condition of family budgets? Spending gets tighter and tighter with time payments on color TV, car, dishwasher, and "too much house" for the breadwinner's income. By that time, who can afford higher taxes for such incidentals as police protection and education?

VIRGINIA G. PONTIOUS Chester, N.J.

Execution Log

Sir: As one of 17 reporters who watched while Luis Jose Monge [June 9] choked to death in the Colorado gas chamber, I take issue with your statement that "five seconds after a pound of cyanide eggs had been dropped into the vat of acid beneath his chair, he was unconscious."

The public likes to believe that unconsciousness is almost instantaneous, but the facts belie this. According to the official execution log, unconsciousness came more than five minutes after the cyanide splashed down into the sulfuric acid. And to those of us who watched, this five-minute interlude seemed interminable. Even after unconsciousness is declared officially, the prisoner's body continues to fight for life. He coughs and groans. The lips make little pouting motions resembling the motions made by a goldfish in his bowl. The head strains backward and then slowly sinks down to the chest. And, in Monge's case, the arms, although tightly bound to the chair, strained at the straps, and the hands clawed tortuously, as if the prisoner were struggling for air.

Any account that leads readers to believe that death comes quickly, painlessly, almost pleasantly, is less than accurate. Send your reporter to cover a legal asphyxiation sometime.

GARY P. STIFF II Denver

Straight Talk

Sir: The excellent Essay "On Teaching Children About Sex" [June 9] leaves out one important point, the responsibility of every potential parent to the "innocent conceptus." Let there be taught a bill of rights for every newborn child: the right 1) to be legitimate; 2) to inherit from both parents a genetic endowment of reasonably good mental and physical health; 3) to be nourished in the uterus by a mother who has not had a damaging illness such as rubella in early pregnancy or taken damaging drugs; 4) to be fed, clothed and protected from birth through adolescence; 5) to be wanted by two parents able and eager to cherish and to give the love and guidance every child needs.

ARTHUR B. DAYTON Hamden, Conn.

Sir: Dr. Guttmacher's advice on having an affair makes sense and is the kind of talk kids listen to, no matter how "alarming" parents may find it. If more teachers talked straight instead of saying what they think parents would like to hear, there would be fewer "one-night stands" and unwanted pregnancies. Rules, such as "sex before marriage is bad," cannot be made; we must decide for ourselves.

LISA LEVALLY Chicago

Sir: Often the only sex education many of us teen-agers get is from what our pals tell us or from what we read in The Carpetbaggers. It's about time parents and teachers woke up to their responsibility toward us in this matter.

CHRISTOPHER A. BATES Auckland, N.Z.

Sir: When our daughter arrived, we assumed that her sex education was our privilege and responsibility, one we gladly accepted. Now, in order to make ours her first introduction to sex, we must begin at the age of 3 1/2, with frank facts rather than "icky imagery." As a former teacher who realizes that not every educator is equipped to handle this topic, I resent the schools' intrusion.

SUSAN TEMPLETON ART Boise, Idaho

Sir: Based on two years' study by a citizens advisory council, the Northern San Joaquin Valley Supplementary Education Center developed a proposal for preparing programmed learning materials for sixth, eighth-and tenth-grade students. Each student will get individual instruction through a self-teaching device including a recorded presentation, slides or a film strip and programmed text.

Because most teachers are no better prepared than most parents to provide sex education, the teacher's responsibility will be limited to the supervision of the students' use of the teaching devices. Parents will be encouraged to continue discussion at home, and experts will be used for individual counseling.

ROGER W. CHAPMAN BRIAN DOBROW Stockton, Calif.

To Kill a Flea

Sir: For years as a schoolmaster, I've been curing hiccups [June 2] in the schoolroom by frightening the sufferer. I suppose a visit to the operating table, or the introduction of a catheter, is as good for frightening the sufferer as is the bang of a desk lid. But why such sledgehammer methods to kill a flea of a complaint?

T. RAYBURN-HUGHES Ipswich, England

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