Black vs. Jew

Sir: TIME'S story on "Black vs. Jew: A Tragic Confrontation" [Jan. 31] was excellent. Both the Jews and the Negroes share a history of oppression. Both share a history of ghetto existence. But one thing was in favor of the Jew: his skin is white.

Many Jews have forgotten what it was like living in a ghetto. The American Negro is experiencing the persecution that Hitler and Christianity inflicted on the Jew. Granted that Jews to some extent have reversed the taskmaster situation. But let it be known to one and all: Jews are ordered by the Torah to aid the Negro and all that are oppressed. Men like Rabbi Arthur Lelyveld have made it known that the war is on. To the Negro and my fellow Jews: we shall overcome.

PETER J. MOLAY Cleveland Heights, Ohio

Sir: I feel that TIME failed to articulate a fine sociological distinction between Jew and militant black that sheds light on the recent confrontation. The Jew may question the propriety of a law but recognizes its validity. Any discriminatory statute will find the Jew in the forefront of those attempting to change it. He will fight for the rights of all men, for in the refinement of democracy his rights will be better preserved. Yet, there is a firm recognition that should law itself be disrupted, his personal freedoms would be lost.

The militant black, however, seriously questions the validity of law itself. He has no faith in due process and seeks not to alter a specific statute. Rather, he denies the very authority and claim to validity of present democratic legal processes. He feels that his rights will be protected only if there is a fundamental change in the societal legal order. He has passed the stage of legal protest into the sphere of revolt. The Jew, his former ally, can not and will not make such a transition and is therefore abused as a faithless lover. The militant black, on the other hand, is now viewed by the Jew as a serious threat to the hard-earned safeguards of American democracy.

JACOB SIMCHA COHEN Forest Hills, N.Y.

Sir: Your cover should have included white non-Jews washing their hands, beating drums, applauding, snickering and pointing fingers.

MILDRED DRANGEL Manhattan

Democracy's Destiny

Sir: "To Heal a Nation" [Jan. 24] is your finest hour in 45 years of enlightened journalism. You could have titled it "Democracy's Destiny." It points up the unbelievable potentials of capitalism, effectively organized and efficiently exploited.

JOHN KETTLEWELL Saratoga Springs, N.Y.

Sir: How do we heal a nation that demands proof of God? Why not look inward and ask for proof of man? Are we really here? Science cannot explain our embarrassing presence. It says matter cannot be created or destroyed. I suggest that if science can glibly accept our own presence, it can also accept God's.

ED WOOLVERTON

Cook, Minn.

Sir: What do we have in this modern-day society besides each other? If we have peace and harmony with our fellow man about us, we have everything we need to live a well-ordered life. If we will S:o out of our way to accept our fellow man as he is and for what goodness he may have, we will have come a long way in making this country the safe, secure place it should be. I think President Nixon in his inaugural address was at times pushing the necessity of mankind's working together and accepting one another, but Jesus Christ, in his three-year term, pushed it much harder and stronger. Here in America, we have a heritage of hymn-singing, churchgoing Christianity, but I think the age demands that we start acting like Christians or go to pot.

BROTHER LOUIS BENOIT St. Bernard Catholic Church New Bloomfield, Pa.

Sir: Your method of healing the nation is a little like seeking a Band-Aid for a case of tuberculosis. Why not step even farther back for perspective and work on the virus of our disease--that 73% of Americans live on 1% of the land? A system of tax incentives could be used to relocate companies and corporate headquarters outside the teeming cities. With a communications system such as ours, there is no reason for so many sources of employment to be located on overcrowded, crime-infested, air-polluted islands of humanity. The answer must surely be to make 99% of our land attractive to more than 27% of our citizens.

CHRISTOPHER J. CARPENTER San Francisco

Let Us Pray

Sir: Richard Nixon [Jan. 24] wanted them and now he has them: Viet Nam, ghettos, taxes, inflation, France, Russia, Cuba, gun control, hunger, nuclear nonproliferation and strikes. Also, he faces added worries because: 1) the majority of the voters rejected him, 2) he must live up to his promises of a modern Shangrila, and 3) he must accomplish all this with a fresh Cabinet and a Vice President who is the biggest joke in the history of American politics. Due to these factors, Richard Nixon should become the most prayed-for President in our nation's history.

CHRISTOPHER H. FOREMAN Baltimore

Sir: The game of attempting to categorize the "Nixon style" goes on. Permit me to suggest that Mr. Nixon is, above all, tough-minded. The nation has never been more ready for such a quality of mind. Toughness, by definition, is like leather--durable, flexible, dynamic, and should in no sense be equated with hardness--inflexible, brittle and weak. Our new President will need--and possesses--firmness, judgment, commitment, compassion and dedication. History, of course, will make the ultimate judgment. I believe that the times demand these qualities and that President Nixon will demonstrate them.

J. D. BATTEN Des Moines, Iowa

Sir: I hope Nixon's suggestion that we stop shouting and start speaking softly catches on. How wonderful it would seem to be underwhelmed for a change!

(MRS.) PHYLLIS L. SCHRAMM South Bend, Ind.

A Certain Imbalance

Sir: I am a proud black man, who was a ghetto orphan at six, but now surpass at least 97% of whites in education and income. What I resent is that when you publish a "Black and White Balance Sheet" [Jan. 24], you do not also explain that according to the 1960 census, a black man with four years of college can expect to earn less in a lifetime than a white who just finishes high school. What does this tell us about working hard, being clean, getting an education? Isn't this proof of how racist the system really is?

SAMUEL L. WOODARD Director, Program Implementation Board of Education Philadelphia

Sir: Black students demanding courses in Afro-American studies? I'm with 'em. Courses in Afro-American studies leading to terminal degrees? I'm with 'em. A hyperactive four-letter-word demagogue to head the Department of Afro-American Studies? I ain't with 'em. Black students determining what shall be taught in Afro-American studies? I ain't with 'em. Terminal degrees in Afro-American studies leading toward solving black social, psychological, education and economic problems? I'm with 'em--all the way. Black students demanding segregation within integration? Never!

W. WHITTLER ECHEWA (A Black) Instructor Special Education Center Grambling College Grambling, La.

Sir: A hypothetical interview of a Negro applicant for employment with a major corporation:

Interviewer: "So you want to work for Magna?" Applicant: "Yes, sir." Interviewer: "Our shortage at present is in the business administration area. Did you by chance major in business administration, economics, accounting, insurance or statistics? Did you take any courses in those areas?" Applicant: "No, sir. I majored in Black Studies." Interviewer: "I am sorry, but we have no openings in that field at the present time. As you know, we are an equal opportunities employer. We will put your application on file. Check back with me in six months or so and perhaps I may be able to do something for you. Come in and see me any time. Good day, sir."

REX A. COLLINGS JR. Professor of Law University of California Berkeley

The Curse of Competence

Sir: It is hard to imagine a more bizarre example of justice distorted than the action brought against IBM by the U.S. Government [Jan. 24]. Although the case is not unique in the history of antitrust suits, it serves to dramatize the subtle but steady deterioration of the notion that ability and competence are a blessing, not a curse.

I, for one, recoil at the prospect of men defending themselves against the state for having committed the unforgivable crimes of achievement and success.

RABBI DANIEL FRIEDMAN Congregation Beth Or Deerfield, Ill.

Backfire

Sir: I'm worried about Mr. Giovanni Agnelli [Jan. 17] dashing here and there through a frantic 36-hour day. He'd better get rid of that Ferrari and drive a Fiat.

I drive a Fiat, and I live at a much slower pace. I spend lots of idle hours on lonely roads wondering when the tow truck will come, or sitting at the repair shop waiting for the mechanic to explain why the door handle fell off, the clutch cable snapped, and the horn doesn't work on a car that's only three months old.

MARILYN STOVALL Houston

Sir: Would you please ask "Italy's richest man" how I can start my '67 Fiat 500 during these winter days? But first, ask him how to open the frozen doors so that I can get in it.

DIANE F. DELBEKE Detroit

>> Herewith Mr. Agnelli's reply: "Our skiers leave their cars out in the open at night in the high mountains. When a little frost freezes in the keyhole of the door, they heat it with a lighter. If the ignition system is in order, there should be no trouble in starting the car. The 500 has even been used in a scientific expedition to the Antarctic."

Look Ahead

Sir: I must take exception to your assertion that ESP "contradicts all known physical laws" [Jan. 24]. A 19th century scientist could have asserted (correctly) that voice communication between men on earth and men on the moon would be impossible in principle because sound waves require a physical medium for their transference, while between the earth and the moon there is nought but hard vacuum. Yet we assuredly voice communicated with Apollo 8 in apparent defiance of all known physical laws of the 19th century, laws that are still valid today. The point is we didn't use sound waves. We used electromagnetic waves, undreamed of by our 19th century savant.

The most that 20th century science can reasonably assert is that the information transfer mechanism that appears to operate in some forms of ESP is at present unknown.

J. FUTTERMAN

Long Beach, Calif.

Gelt for Guilt

Sir: As an interested observer of my peers, I found your article on soul food [Jan. 24] most relevant to the college scene today.

For the past few years, I have watched fellow students troop to class or sit-ins in blue jeans, surplus work shirts and tattered sneakers while their expensive wardrobes, paid for by their parents, gathered dust in the closet. The soul food phenomenon is intimately related to this rejection of affluence. We who have no trouble filling our bellies after the first or second rumble are beginning to feel guilty about it. To assuage this guilt we have turned being poor into an In pastime.

Guilt, not altruism, is the motivating force behind protest. We are actually spending money to look the part, to fit in, and once again the dollar has proven to be the indefatigable cureall.

GAIL B. TRACER, '69 Boston University Boston

Sir: You have the bad taste to say that soul food is tasteless. Your taste buds are so racist that they can't even deal with black food. Your comment that the "soul-food fad" is going to be short-lived is dumb. But then your whole culture is made of short-lived fads. So you white folks just keep on eating that white foam-rubber bread that sticks to the roof of your mouth and minute rice, instant potatoes and instant cereals, keep drinking instant milk and stick to your instant culture. And I will stick to the short-lived fad that brought my ancestors through 400 years of oppression.

VERTA MAE SMART-GROSVENOR Manhattan

In Her Fashion

Sir: A memo to the designers: Better get back to the old drawing board and quit trying to redo Pat Nixon [Jan. 24]. I predict that increased exposure to her tasteful grooming is going to send not a few medallioned, chain-dangling, flour-faced, sequin-eyelidded, thigh-exposing adult females back to their full-length mirrors.

Hope you're ready with lots of those "bland," "pedestrian," "overly cautious" designs when they decide they'd rather look like Pat Nixon than survivors of a bad trip in a psychedelic children's wear department.

MRS. JAMES C. FRAZIER JR. Ponca City, Okla.

Neither Why, When or How

Sir: Re "Greece--Breaking an Old Habit" [Jan. 24]: The old Greek habit you refer to is long dead. It died when Greek taverns became infested with local and international nouveaux riches, who don't know why, when or how to smash dishes and who, as you state, measure merrymaking's "success by the depth of the debris." Zorba would have smashed only one dish or glass--but with style. Spending no drachma or "buck" either.

POLLY PAPADIMITROPOULOU Athens

Yes, We Have a Havana

Sir: Re Ed Castillo's letter to the editor [Jan. 24]: There is a Havana, Florida (U.S.A.), in Gadsden County, approximately north and west of Tallahassee by 20 miles.

I am sure the town fathers would like an airport as described--maybe a cooperative one could be designed between Havana (pronounced locally HAY vanner), the airlines and the city of Tallahassee, which is experiencing engineering difficulties in enlarging its present airport.

DAVID LUTHER WOODWARD Tallahassee, Fla.

Sir: In your article on hijacking of aircraft, you make reference to Air Canada being one of six airlines flying to Cuba. I would like to point out that Air Canada operates throughout Europe, the Caribbean, Canada and to the U.S., but not Cuba.

HAROLD MILOFF U.S. Public Relations Manager Air Canada Manhattan

All Right!

Sir: Kenneth J. Yolla, in his letter to TIME, complains that the spiral notebook causes pain and grief to left-handed students [Jan. 24]. The last page of a right-handed spiral notebook will become the first page of a left-handed notebook if Reader Yolla has the wit to turn the notebook over.

WILLIAM CARD Professor of English Chicago State College Chicago

The Tick in Time

Sir: Re Rocky Mountain spotted fever [Jan. 24]: TIME is a lifesaver. The day before we received that issue, my wife had a 102DEG fever, a splitting headache, muscle pains and a rash on palms of hands and soles of feet. We thought it was probably a belated case of flu. Within minutes of reading your article, I was on the phone to our physician, who promptly prescribed a tetracycline drug. Blood tests have since confirmed the diagnosis. Since this is the only known case in this area, it could have remained unidentified but for TIME. Thank you.

PETER BOHAN New Paltz, N.Y.

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