Reliving the Riots

Sir: Because I am a mere 17 years of age and am one person in a country of millions, what I say doesn't make much difference to anyone else. But what I have witnessed in the past week makes me feel somewhat sorry that I am even the small part of it that I am. I have seen my city, the fifth largest in the U.S., reduced by one-sixth its original size. Not by a tornado or flood, or any other act of nature or God, but because of people who somehow seemed to lose every bit of their sanity and proceeded to loot, burn and murder innocent citizens. Why? I don't know, maybe someone does, but all we who do not know see is smoldering rubble, homeless people, and the corpses of those who were the sniper's prey. There is nothing more frightening than seeing what appeared to be a sane world turn into a grotesque horror picture. I am sad. I cannot even begin to describe how sad I am to see what has happened to my people. I will be proud to tell my children that I was alive when the first astronaut went up into space, and how I saw science and medicine advance at an unbelievable speed, but it will be nearly impossible for me to look at them and say that I was here when my city went mad, when the people arose, took all the good and peace in my city, and destroyed it.

ELIZABETH HOFFMANN Detroit

Sir: The riots are not a bit surprising. They are a natural result of bunching all who can't work, won't work or aren't allowed to work off in one area, out from under social pressure from the rest of us. What is shocking is that we Americans, who so revere work and learning, should consent that a man who does go to school, does work, does rear his own family, should be frozen out of our community into lodging in this distracting and demoralizing environment because of his race.

STEPHANIE MUNOZ Los Altos, Calif.

Sir: Yes, there is nothing to do but call out the troops--after rioting starts. No, I am not shocked at "police brutality"--after rioting starts. But rioting would not start if the Negroes' road to better living were not blocked by so many million white clods--shortsighted, selfish and ill-mannered.

SHIRLEY HOUDE Shirley, Mass.

Sir: No majority can be expected to submit indefinitely to a reign of terror like this, brought about not only by a minority, but a minority of a minority, of whatever color. Planned or accidental--and I am sure it is the former--this nation is being torn in two against the best interests of all races. Are we to have night riders and vigilantes again? Is the North now to be persuaded that the KKK--and the latter-day Wallaces and Bilbos--had the answer after all?

JAMES P. ROGERS Portland, Ore.

Sir: I am a widow woman, am a Negro, and I have to say the truth is I don't have anything to fear from white folks, but the colored boy hoodlums in my neighborhood scare me to death. You might as well be living in the Congo. The white folks in neighborhood stores where you get a little credit have moved and are moving away and property is not kept up and is ruined. I have to say we Negroes did it all. We destroyed a fine neighborhood that others built. We got to quit blaming others and depending on the Government and expecting miracles overnight and now we got to work ourselves up. It's up to us and it's going to take time.

WINNIE MAY BOSTON St. Louis

Sir: Too bad we can't somehow get the rioting black-power radicals and the white-supremacist Ku Klux Klansmen into the same arena. They're so deserving of each other's throats.

PHYLLIS JAQUETT Pennsville, N.J.

Sir: Want my advice? Establish a Negrostan. Set aside one or two of your Southern states where Negroes can enjoy privileged status. The rest of America can be their diaspora.

J. Ross Johannesburg, South Africa

Plans for the Planner

Sir: Re your cover on Urbanologist Moynihan [July 28]: why, in the name of all that's good and sociological, was there no mention made of needed efforts in birth control? Before the liberals can yell "foul," I mean effective education and supplies for all our population.

LOUISE M. ELLIS Cloverdale, Calif.

Sir: Mr. Moynihan's plan of giving allowances to families with children, such as exists in Canada, has merit. New York State allows $1,500 a year for raising a foster child. Consider how inadequate is the $600 a year per child federal income tax exemption.

EDWARD V. MONAHAN Newark

Sir: You tell of new ways to solve racial trouble in the cities, especially Detroit's example (among others), expenditure of $27 million this year for employment centers, clinics, etc. We Southerners wait with bated breath for your next installment.

JAMES D. BROWN Jacksonville

Sir: I am beginning to think that the least well-qualified person to solve urban problems is the Horatio Alger offshoot from Ireland, Poland or Italy whose attitude toward the Negro is: We made it; let them. I hold that Paddy and Sambo are not the same people. Paddy's ancestors came here because they ran out of potatoes in Ireland, while Sambo was dragged here in chains, and kept in ignorance by Southern plantation owners.

W. H. RICHARDSON Wakefield, R.I.

Sir: Paddy was part of a strong family unit in which the father's word was law, and, whereas the Negro's basic spirituality has been castrated by the splintering of sects within the Negro community, the Irish exiles were united in one strong religious faith. Thus, young Paddy could be kept from allowing his fine temper to prevail by fear of family wrath--or worse, a session with the priest. But more's the power to you, Mr. Moynihan. A grand young man like you could even give the Kennedys a run for their money.

HELEN BRYAN EMERSON Los Angeles

Hip! Two, Three, Four!

Sirs: I greatly enjoyed your cover story on the hippies [July 7]. Several buddies and I decided not to worry about marching, inspections, shining and polishing, field problems, or getting up at 5 a.m. I told the sarge that we were merely "flower children." Now we are in the stockade. Where did we go wrong?

(Ppc.) LARRY ASMAN Neu-Ulm, Germany

Sir: Within your issues on Hippiedom and racial violence, there lies a simple solution to our nation's problems. Let's just keep pushing Hippiedom in hopes that an even larger segment of young, white, middle-class Americans drops out of society, leaving huge pockets into which the poor, lower-class Negro can move.

MRS. HERBERT G. LEVIN Huntington Woods, Mich.

Sir: In your hippies issue, you reproduced four of the heroes of the hippies. The depiction of Christ is attributed to Fred Nagler. We have shown at Midtown Galleries many of Nagler's poignant interpretations of Christ, but TIME erred in naming Nagler the creator of the seated Christ reproduced in your article.

DIRECTOR ALAN D. GRUSKIN Midtown Galleries Manhattan

Memos from Muscovy

Sir: Spaseeba, TIME, for your usual fine job of accurate reporting ["Travel in the U.S.S.R.," July 28]. Two years ago, I took a trip around the world by myself. A believer in independent travel, I shunned just about all tours. The place I regretted this decision was in Russia. For, unless you know the language, you feel like a lost soul. Russia, unlike most European countries, is insular. An American tourist in Kiev, speaking only English, is about in the same boat as a Leningrader who speaks only Russian would be in Omaha. On domestic airplane flights, announcements are made in Russian only, and if you want to experience a weird feeling, be the only American on such a plane when it runs into weather.

Incidentally, I entered Russia with a copy of TIME, which was okayed by customs officials at the border. I carried that copy under my arm everywhere I went, and it served as a veritable magnet to draw to me those Russians who spoke even a little English, plus Americans and visitors from all over the world who were starved for some real news from outside. The best tip of all--take your TIME Magazine with you!

FRANCES DAVIS Beverly Hills, Calif.

Sir: American postage stamps, especially the 50 commemoratives, are eagerly accepted in place of tips by people who have made themselves helpful. So are membership buttons from any sort of union, club or association. But don't, under any circumstances, sell any of your clothing or personal effects to a Russian. This is strictly illegal. Small gifts are fine, but don't sell anything and don't give away any item of enough intrinsic value to be construed as a bribe of some sort.

WILLIAM A. ERWIN JR. Norwalk, Conn.

Sir: There is a place in the U.S.S.R. that has night life. It is the extremely beautiful little city of Vilnius, the capital of the Lithuanian S.S.R. I spent two weeks there and discovered Daineva, a modestly swinging nightclub that stays open until 5 a.m. The doors will swing open if you say that you are a tourist.

ALDONA JONAITIS Woodhaven, N.Y.

Sir: De luxe is not the only way to see Russia during July and August. Those who travel in Europe by purchasing or renting a car may be interested to know that camping is available through Intourist for about $17 a day per couple.

MRS. LEON SNOBERGER Denver

Shaky Memories

Sir: It may be Mr. Walgreen's belief [July 28] that the malted milk shake originated in his organization. Not so. Before, during, and after World War I, I was myself making them at soda fountains in the Middle West, as were probably a good many thousand other soda jerks. Later, the thick malted milk came along, the one that was called a "gedunk."

ROBERT J. NEEDLES, M.D. St. Petersburg, Fla.

Sir: I can recall, several years before 1921, when the meeting of Boy Scout Troop Eleven let out on Friday nights, the Golden Seal Drugstore on the East Side of Market Square in Harrisburg, had an influx of hungry kids guzzling chocolate malted milk shakes to stave off imminent acute starvation and give us strength to hike a good mile to our homes where we could get into the ice-operated refrigerator and take on enough to enable us to survive until breakfast.

ROBERT STUCKENRATH Lewistown, Pa.

Home Remedies

Sir: Re your story regarding Argo starch addiction in many pregnant Negro women [July 28]: This is nothing new or astonishing to many Northern doctors. As a former Yankee who was a medical student and intern in Cincinnati during the mid-fifties, I was well aware of this common practice, which was frequently discussed on our ward rounds. While some may believe this eating of starch has profound psychiatric implications, our understanding (based on talking with many of these mothers) is much homelier. Through folklore, many women believe that the starch, in some fashion, enhances the production of vernix caseosa, thereby making delivery of their babies easier and quicker. Vernix caseosa is the slippery white stuff that covers the skin of newborn infants. It looks and feels like a thick starch paste, although its Latin name means "cheesy varnish."

PAUL A. PALMISANO, M.D. The Children's Hospital Birmingham

Sir: Thirty years ago when I became pregnant with my first child, I began to bleed. The doctors tried everything, but nothing helped. My grandmother, who was born in Rumania, suggested I try one-half glass of starch dissolved in water three times a day. My bleeding stopped, and I had a full-term, normal son.

MRS. S. WHITEMAN Torrance, CaliL

Sir: To my surprise, a friend of mine truly believes that starch is the reason her children were born with light skin. And she is not from the North or South, but came here from St. Croix in the Virgin Islands.

JOYCE L. BROWN Manhattan

Settling the Hash

Sir: Durocher ["Leo the Lamb," July 28] a gourmet?! Absurd! If my son's godfather has ever had anything other than steak and potatoes for dinner, it was because the menu was in French and he didn't know what he was ordering.

CORNWELL JACKSON London

> Quoth the Lamb forevermore: "Jackson is a very old friend of mine, but I'm still a gourmet."

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