A Bus Is Not a Bridge

Sir: It was heartbreaking to see the photo of the little girl holding the sign that said "I don't want to go to school with the blacks" [March 9]. I was sickened to think that any parent could knowingly corrupt his child with such senseless hatred. Until human beings cleanse themselves of bigotry, busing will do nothing to bridge the gap between the races.

STEVAN SYLVESTER

Brunswick, Me.

Sir: Do that child's parents realize that in hanging their hate message around her neck, they have truly hanged their own daughter?

BARBARA MAURIELLO

Oxford, England

Sir: On behalf of myself and other concerned Georgians, I wish to offer an apology to the black people of this country for our Governor's offensive and distasteful behavior in the Capitol restaurant. Ironically, it has been our gracious Governor who has been acting like "an ass and a baboon" for the past four years. Lester Maddox has made the state of Georgia the laughingstock of the nation for the last time. In the future, everyone else will sympathize with Georgia's "problem."

DIANNE DAY

Smyrna, Ga.

Sir: You failed to state that much of the slowing of integration is due to the actions of the Negroes themselves.

In this city, Negro high school students in an integrated high school struck, demonstrated and caused various difficulties because there were no "black studies" offered in the curriculum. Such studies are offered as an elective in every college and university in this area. As one white parent commented: "We speak French and my family arrived in Louisiana shortly after Bienville laid out the city of New Orleans; however, I do not expect that French history and culture should be taught my child in a public high school. If they are so anxious to be first-class American citizens, let them study American history."

A local private Negro college has let it be known that it wishes to be "all black." It plans to eliminate the 50% white of the faculty as soon as possible.

The Black Panthers, excessive demands and segregation in reverse are hardly conducive to good race relations.

JOHN W. HILLTON

New Orleans

Sir: "Retreat from Integration" will undoubtedly strengthen the myth that racism and bigotry are unique to white America. Truth is, there isn't a country on earth where large populations of two different races live in harmony.

The Irish hate the British, and the British hate the Jamaicans in their midst; the Swedes hate Norwegians; most Europeans hate Russians; Russians hate everybody. Frenchmen hate Germans and vice versa; Arabs and Jews hate each other. Malaysians and Indonesians hate Chinese; Chinese hate everybody. All tribes in Africa hate one another; Pakistanis hate Indians and vice versa, ad infinitum.

So take heart, racists and bigots of America; shed your hair shirt. You've got plenty of company the world around.

C.H. ALEXANDER

Phoenix

Sir: In your discussion of school desegregation, you did not mention the large Mexican population of Los Angeles. They are the only reason I'd like to see children bused around my native city: to spread out the Mexicans, in the hope that their beautiful natural graciousness would transfer itself to the younger generation (including some of my own relatives) and perhaps bring back some of the atmosphere of gentle living and good manners that Los Angeles once had.

HELEN RICKABAUGH

Lakeport, Calif.

A Certain Few

Sir: After reading the article on the Chicago Seven [March 2], I thank God for his decision to make me a Samoan. On our island we have customs and traditions that define the duties and obligations of the young to our society. These same traditions hold back the young generation from disturbing or trying to destroy in any way the order that we inherited from our forefathers. We have a mutual understanding that the young generation will have its say when its time comes to take over full responsibility in our society.

It is a shame that the freedom your forefathers unselfishly sacrificed their lives for is now being slowly destroyed by a certain few.

ERIC T. ROWLAND

Pago Pago

ESPopularity

Sir: There you go, quoting Clairvoyant Maurice Woodruff on his grim predictions in McCall's magazine for the Messrs. Reagan and Agnew [March 9]. Fine. But you neglect his one really important prediction, "Richard Nixon will gain great popularity in 1970. Comes time for reelection, I guarantee that he will be almost unopposed." Ah, but you don't like that.

MRS. S. MADOUR

Flushing, N.Y.

Strength in Purity

Sir: TIME includes my name among U.S. sources who supposedly have stated that Tran Ngoc Chau reported meetings with his Communist brother "not only to other Vietnamese officials but also to the CIA" [March 9]. If you had checked with me first, I would have told you truthfully that I had no knowledge of Chau's meetings with his brother or of what he did about telling anyone of such meetings.

The direct quote attributed to me that Chau is "a very loyal, patriotic Vietnamese" is correct. It was my privilege to have known Chau when he was a province chief in Kien Hoa, later as the director of Revolutionary Development cadre training at Vung Tau, and then as an elected Deputy in the lower house of Viet Nam's National Assembly. He impressed me with the firmness with which he believed and followed the tenets of Confucian ethics in his public life, tenets that provide ideal guidance for a public servant in any human society.

In talks with me, as in his actions, Chau expressed a deep love of his country and his opinion that the Leninist system the Communists were trying to force on his fellow countrymen was a form of immoral slavery every man of good will must fight against. He was critical of some of the things done in the name of the Nationalist cause. He wanted it pure enough to gain the strength needed to win out over Communism and bring meaningful new life to the Vietnamese people.

EDWARD G. LANSDALE

Major General, U.S.A.F. (Ret.)

Alexandria, Va.

Case Dismissed

Sir: There is absolutely no case for war. The conclusions drawn by British Sociologist Andreski [March 9] are superficial. The only purpose that war serves is to spread hatred and fear and to deprive a country of a large part of its resources, which could otherwise be used to fight poverty, disease and ignorance.

It is absurd to say that military superiority had much to do with the spread of industrial civilization. The present industrial society has come into being because of the rationalization of the methods of production and the application of scientific mentality.

G. PARDESI

Munich

Sir: Realists recognize war as being man's "ultimate" conflict, resulting from a multiplicity and complexity of minor ones. And society without conflict ceases to be. War satiates an innate desire in man that is as basic as love. Being moral (?) beings, we don't like to acknowledge this aspect of our nature. But no solution to any problem was ever found by denying its origin. Might we not find the answer in that age-old maxim "Know thyself"?

BETTY O. HATRICK

Leesburg, Va.

Sir: By stating the case for war, one is stating the case for mankind. Of all the species on earth, there is only one that, when in conflict with its own species, will die for what it believes in. This dignity of sacrificing one's life for ideas and beliefs has brought us out of the forests, built our civilizations and brought a good many of us liberty and freedom.

JEROME ZERO

Los Angeles

People to Feed People

Sir: Human cannibalism [March 9] has one problem. To keep human victims really plump for the dinner table, we would have to feed them high-protein foods such as beef or fish, since men are not able to synthesize effectively from the monocotyledons (grasses) and plankton (both plant and animal) the necessary amino acids to create protein the way cattle and fish do. The most efficient course, then, would be to eat the beef and fish ourselves and, so to speak, cut out the middleman.

JOSEPH E. HALL JR.

Manhattan

"Over There"

Sir: Three cheers for Mme. Pompidou for conserving the French President's clothing budget by becoming a Paris-based international mididress mannequin [March 9]. However, I would borrow the title from an old W.W. I song and plead with her to puhleeze keep the midi "over there." The mini is such a pleasant distraction from scholastic rigor.

WALLACE M. WILSON, '70

Florida Southern College

Lakeland, Fla.

Sir: Before we all panic and sew 16-inch ruffles onto our minis, let us remember that the French rejected the mini from the start.

The fashion was begun in London by English working girls, to my knowledge the only worldwide trend ever to get under way without the benefit of the Parisian designers.

WINI MASTIN

Nicholasville, Ky.

Sir: What group do you think gives a damn whether the French President's wife goes to the White House in a Mother Hubbard or stark naked? The only people who really care are the manufacturers on Seventh Avenue, and if they listen to Women's Wear Daily long enough, they can wear their midis after they've lost their shirts.

R.V. LANCASTER

Hamilton, N.Y.

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