Sham and Shame

Sir / Re the TIME Essay [Oct. 16] "Is Nobody Indignant Any More?": I certainly want to voice my moral indignation about a man occupying and running for the highest office in the land when he is accountable for a Watergate scandal, ITT, etc. As to the reason other Americans have not raised their voices, I can only assume that Americans badly need something to cheer about rather than condemn; some reason to feel good about their country rather than to feel shame. Nixon has given us an overdose of sham and shame. My vote is for George McGovern, who offers us a change for the better. EMILY BING Cincinnati

Sir / Yes. I am indignant. I am ashamed of my country. Mr. Agnew will say I ought to criticize the North Vietnamese for atrocities, etc. Certainly I don't condone them, but Mr. Agnew misses the point: they are not my people. I don't want my men to commit My Lai massacres, my generals to conduct unauthorized bombing raids, my pilots to bomb dikes against orders. I don't want my President to let his people wiretap, sabotage the opposition and misinform the public on his behalf. I don't want the traditional warm human values of the American ideal subverted by cold corporations.

If you want to help those of us who are indignant, help us find each other and give us a voice, a spokesman. JANET. SPRAGUE Van Nuys, Calif.

Sir / In an America where intellectuals introduced drugs as the means to a meditative experience, where honored magazines are polluted with pornography, where ministers have forgotten that Jesus never interfered with Caesar's laws, where free love has unleashed an epidemic of venereal disease, where destructive protest has been honored as righteous dissent, where the killing of unborn babies is thought a small price to pay for the pleasure of sex, where the purpose of law is forgotten and the letter of the law is worshiped like a plastic god, where tradition's moral sense is spat upon--in such an atmosphere, can you truly expect a bone-weary citizenry to become indignant about still another Watergate? A.J. VENGLARCIK Struthers, Ohio

Sir / Perhaps your view of the public's failure to respond with indignation to scandalous disclosures is tinted by prejudice. Perhaps the American public has become weary and wary of the self-righteousness of the American press. WILFRED WEISS Middletown, N.Y.

Sir / Selective indifference is a matter of efficiency, if not outright survival. To be even moderately successful, indignation must be reserved for those situations over which we exercise some measure (however small) of control. In my opinion, indignation with no active follow-through is just another means of killing time. PAULE. SCHMID Vienna, Va.

Enjoy, Enjoy

Sir / Thank you for your cover story on pro football's Joe Namath [Oct. 16]. It was refreshing to hear nice things said about a man who has been condemned for a quality so few people have: the ability to enjoy and laugh at life. This world takes itself too seriously, and enjoyment of anything seems to be taken as a subversion of the "great meaning of life." So, Mr. Namath, please continue to sit back and smile at the world that would mold you into its conformity, and enjoy, enjoy. MARY ELLEN HEKHUIS Gulf Breeze, Fla.

Sir / Why, in the name of apple pie and the founding fathers, did you decorate your cover with Joe Namath, when there are so many really great people around?

So he plays football, likes big-bosomed dames, all-night orgies, is making boxcars of money and is generally "doing his thing." This is the American idol? GRETTER D. TALBERT Wilmington, N.C.

Sir / Now we have seen Joe Namath with Raquel Welch, on the football field, and good heavens, even in the tub . . . but he looked most relaxed doing what kiddies like to do most--blowing bubbles. ROBIN CHOATE Colorado Springs, Colo.

Aid for Soviet Jews

Sir / Re your abominable article, "Catering to the Jewish Vote" [Oct. 16]: the "more subtle means" that you suggest for aiding Soviet Jews obviously have not worked. The "diploma tax" that today enslaves them was imposed after Nixon's visit last spring. So much for quiet diplomacy.

If, as you suggest, money "speaks" to U.S. legislators, surely it will do the same for Russian bureaucrats. (MRS.) MAXINE LADOV Voorhees, N.J.

Sir / Sorry, TIME, but Jews are not sacrificial any more. We've paid our dues too many times over. You'll have to find another way to "cool off the world"--the freedom of Soviet Jews is not a negotiable commodity. Nor is any issue involving the security of Israel. Whatever we may cost the world in cash or anxiety, we've earned. Help our people go. IRV JACOBSON Syracuse

Sir / If TIME magazine has all too short a memory, American Jewry does not. Six million Jews died in Germany because the world was silent. The battle for the lives of Soviet Jews is best fought in the halls of Congress, not in the labor camps of Siberia --unless one assumes that power politics and humanitarianism do not mix. MRS. HANSSTERNBERG Baton Rouge, La.

Sir / In 193 81 came to the U.S. as a 14-year-old refugee. My parents' property had been stolen by Austrian Nazis, and we came as penniless immigrants. Today, 34 years later, I can look back on a fairly successful life as a U.S. citizen. This country has been good to me and my family.

If Israel or Tasmania, Australia or Germany is vital to American defense, then I'll say, "Let's give 'em all we've got," but I do not believe in overriding our interests for any religious or ethnic group. ROBERT C.MORGEN Skokie, Ill.

Sir / I never said Senator McGovern "should condemn Israel for its retaliatory raids on Lebanon." I did say that the Senator deplores the loss of life of civilian non-combatants anywhere, as do I. But George McGovern has made clear that only when all nations accept the existence of the state of Israel as a historic fact that no threat of terror or war can change will the bloodshed end and the work of building peace begin. GARY HART Campaign Director McGovern-Shriver Campaign Washington, D.C.

Balanced Satisfactions

Sir / Bravo. Midge Decter, for The New Chastity [Oct. 16]. There are many of us who enjoy the challenges and satisfactions of balancing homemaking and careers. JACQUY STROH Sturgeon Bay, Wis.

Sir / Right on, Midge Decter! Let the Ms. girls rant and rave; let them prefer usually dull 9-to-5 routines in business to taking care of their own kids. Poor things! They seem to have no sense of humor or of fun, but whom are they fooling but themselves? Although fanatics sometimes accomplish improvements that are needed, offensive tactics make the job much harder. MAY GOULD Carmel, N.Y.

Sir / What a pity that Midge Decter, who has obviously discovered the secret of feminine success in a masculine world, chose not to write an upbeat book, but rather to put down her sisters. Ignore her, sisters--she deserves only small change. GRACE L. DAVIS Wilmington, Del.

Encourage the Daughters

Sir / As a female medical student planning to be a gynecologist, I was distressed by your "Self-Service Setback" article [Oct. 16]. The tone implied that all gynecologists are men, which is not the case. Gynecology, as well as other formerly male-dominated specialties, has benefited from the recently augmented number of female M.D.s.

I sympathize with the feelings of the women in your article, but they are doing themselves a disservice by not receiving the thorough medical attention that only an M.D. is trained to provide. I might suggest that they encourage their daughters who are interested in medicine to pursue careers as physicians. VALERIE M. PARISI Brown University Medical School Providence

Sir / I can think of nothing I'd like less than having other females, with no medical experience, practice do-it-yourself gynecology on me. What happens after their diagnosis and treatment are wrong? I suppose they will refer the patient to a licensed gynecologist--like my husband--to repair the damage. (MRS.) PATRICIA JARVAIS GEARY Middletown, R.I.

A Clockwork Orange

Sir / Knowing your usual penchant for drawing parallels between events and culture, I'm most surprised that your piece on "The Girl Gangs" of London [Oct. 16] did not point out the striking similarities of their mindless violence-for-kicks with that of Alex and his gang in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange.

Their disguises and slang could have come directly from Alex's own gang. DANIEL R. WALTERS Managing Editor Times-Standard Eureka, Calif.

Highways a Godsend

Sir / May I suggest that not every state has mass transit problems [Oct. 9]? In Texas, as throughout much of the Midwest and Southwest, we still do not have severe traffic congestion between the principal population centers; thus the interstate highway program is a godsend.

Let New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Massachusetts divide their allocations from the Highway Trust Fund any way the people see fit. In Texas our need is for broad, fast, safe expressways. Dallas and Houston are capable of financing their own rapid transit needs when the time is ripe. RAY ZAUBER Dallas

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