The Devil Among Us

Sir / "Satan Returns" [June 19]. Since when did he leave? He came with Columbus and stayed for the entire exploration and colonization. He snatched the slave from Africa, lured the farmer to the city, and seduced the worker. He distinguished himself in every war from the Revolution to Viet Nam. He attends all elections, serves every institution and enjoys distinction in the sciences and the arts. And although people have professed Christ for centuries, they have truly worshiped the devil, as they pray on their knees on Sunday and prey on their neighbors the rest of the week. The open cult of the devil may accentuate the dichotomy, but it at least eliminates the hypocrisy.

JOSEPH VINCI

North Dartmouth, Mass.

Sir / In your cover story on the occult, you describe the ideas and beliefs of its followers as rather ridiculous and foolish. Why is it that when you describe other religions, which are also based on supernatural phenomena such as the resurrection of Christ, angels, heaven and hell, you do not imply that these beliefs are ridiculous and foolish? I say either all or none should be seen as ridiculous--I vote for all.

KATHLEEN VICK

San Jose, Calif.

Sir / I noted your article on satanic revival with shock and astonishment. It is truly incredible in an age of intellectual enlightenment that supposedly educated people would deliberately revert to medieval superstition--posturing in ridiculous costumes and even more ridiculous titles and rituals.

Let us hope that there is also a revival of old-fashioned Puritanism that will see the thing for what it is and permit these characters the ultimate conclusion of medieval witchcraft--burning at the stake.

ELINOR JONES

Omaha

Sir / Why do you call the occult a "substitute" faith when all faiths are occult? The believer in any faith behaves just as the "occultist" does; he invokes a noncorporeal superbeing by going through certain rituals, and he exhorts this being to reveal hidden meanings of the universe. And, like the occultist, the believer in another faith discovers that, ridiculous as his ritual may seem to the uninitiated, it sometimes works for him.

RUTH J. SMOCK

Professor of English

Montgomery College

Takoma Park, Md.

Complaints on Commercials

Sir / Re TIME'S article "Now the Lemmies" [June 19]: three cheers for efforts by the Committee for Rejection of Obnoxious Commercials to upgrade the quality of commercials, but to complain about their quality without protesting their quantity misses and perhaps condones through silence the greatest insult to the TV viewer. These commercial interruptions completely destroy the continuity of TV viewing. While watching a recent Dick Cavett Show, I carefully recorded twelve separate commercial breaks with a total of 39 individual ads. Total ad time--22 minutes out of a 90-minute program, which works out to roughly one minute of ads for each three minutes of program time. NBC's Tonight Show was no better, with nine separate breaks and 45 individual ads for a total ad time of 22 minutes again.

RICHARD NEWMAN

New Haven, Conn.

Sir / Hallelujah! The Lemmies are long overdue. Maybe aesthetics and advertising are not compatible, but how about some real truth in advertising for a change?

"Try it, we'll like it!"

BARBARA E.SEWALL

Orono. Me.

Sir / The public can strike back! I suggest they join me in the Big Turn-Off. When a really objectionable commercial comes on, turn off the set. Write to the network and to the sponsor. Refuse to buy the product and stay away from commercial television until you get a satisfactory answer.

JANE G. FRY

Oak Ridge. NJ.

Milton the Musk Ox

Sir / Perhaps it's a small matter to those who do not know and love Milton the musk ox. but the photo you show [June 19] as Milton is not Milton, but Matilda.

Milton was lovingly hand-raised here at the Children's Zoo. After hours we used to let him run and snort and smash around in a field behind the zoo until he was thoroughly worn out. He loved it. We feel he loved us too. because he would always come when called, charging full tilt toward us and then hauling up just short of minor disaster. Of course, this was when he was still small, playful and hornless.

We had few regrets when we heard that Milton was going to China, because Peking has an excellent zoo, and we knew that his keepers would love him as we did.

LANDES H. BELL

Manager

Francisco Children's Zoo

San Francisco

Beautiful Vultures

Sir / Your picture and story [June 19] about a vulture in Washington, D.C., surprised me. When I was reared in Washington around the turn of the century, vultures (we called them buzzards) were always visible, gracefully wheeling in the sky. They were beautiful in the air, though, as your picture shows, hideous in closeup.

Have they become so rare as to be worthy of a picture and story in your magazine?

BLANDFORD JENNINGS

Maplewood. Mo.

God-Given Talents

Sir / Your article, "To Dad from Allan" [June 12], was beautiful.

It just goes to show that as soon as our society is willing to assign the same priority as the Schenkeins do to working with mentally retarded children, we will all benefit from their meager yet God-given talents.

JAMES B. KELLY

Pennsylvania House of

Representatives

Harrisburg, Pa.

Sir / Thank you for writing about Allan. Such articles serve as an inspiration to us parents of children who share his condition, and who of course live day to day with the special values and extra dimensions that our special children give to us. We know that there is no greater gift that we can give to our children, be they retarded or not, than love and the loving support that encourages them--and all of us--to reach our maximum potential whatever it may be

(MRS.) ARLINE SILVERMAN

Framingham, Mass.

Breach of Trust?

Sir / At a time when medical and hospital costs are becoming outrageously high, it is especially apropos to heed the criticisms that Dr. John Knowles [June 12] has leveled at the medical profession.

The essence of the Hippocratic oath is its recognition that doctors are bound by ethical laws. The promotion of the selfish goals of a physician or medical association at the expense of the quality of health care available to the American populace is a reprehensible breach of the trust and confidence that Americans for too many years have unquestioningly vested in the medical profession.

GREGORY KERWIN

Tower City, Pa.

Sir / Dr. John Knowles is an acknowledged expert in pulmonary medicine and hospital administration. Regardless of this fact, his charge that 30% to 40% of American physicians are "making a killing" in practice is a cheap shot, one that is amenable neither to proof nor to refutation, and is in the worst sense inflammatory rhetoric. Statements of this kind will only polarize people: they confuse the patient, anger the practicing physician and, most important, offer no smooth avenues to the alleviation of health problems.

Nor, for that matter, will the censure of Dr. Knowles by the Massachusetts Medical Society, whom he refers to as "jerks," serve a worthwhile purpose. If we are to improve health care in this country, we must first stop vindictive insinuations and distrust on both sides.

JOHN C. BAGWELL. M.D.

Dallas

To the Rescue

Sir / A correction on "Piping Hot" [June 12], which said that Gary Grant, Victor McLaglen and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. were marching to the rescue at the end of Gunga Din. As any buff could tell you, they themselves had to be rescued after being taken captive. The pipers were terrific.

DAVID STEINMAN, M.D.

Scarsdale, N.Y.

Demise of Freedom?

Sir / Escalation of postal rates for newspapers and magazines [June 19] is a step toward the demise of freedom of the press. Political freedom becomes meaningless when restricted by economic controls.

At a time when distortion and secrecy have become hallmarks of Government policy, it is imperative that the free exchange of ideas be unhampered.

JOSEPH B.C. MARTIN

Wayzata, Minn.

Sir / TIME'S Essay strongly suggests that "second-class rates are ... a subsidy for the readers, not the magazines." Unfortunately, the Essay dealt with only 40% of the issue. The U.S. Postal Service is presently subsidizing not only 40% "information and intelligence" but also 60% advertisements.

PAUL CAVALLO

San Diego

Sir / I think the big thing that you could do is to pressure Congress or whomever to stop trying to make the Post Office a paying proposition. If we are to be a service organization, then why is there so much concern about running in the black?

No other Government agency makes money. Why should the Post Office?

JACK BAUER

Postal Clerk

Upland, Calif.

Sir / There is no reason for having the Government in the postal business. Presently, the Independent Postal System of America is rapidly and economically delivering third-class ("junk") mail in many cities. Free-enterprising businessmen can do the job faster, more accurately and cheaper.

DAVID MICHAEL MYERS

La Plata, Md.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.