Impeachment

Sir / If, as Gallup says, the majority of Americans believe the President culpable but overwhelmingly oppose impeachment [July 23], that is a sad commentary on the complexity of modern life.

If Nixon is indeed guilty and arrogantly refuses to resign, then he is a threat to the liberty of every American. In such a case, impeachment is the only recourse the Constitution provides. The process is fraught with uncertainty, and it is reasonable that people should fear it. But it seems strange that a nation quick to war against imagined enemies abroad should be afraid to protect its freedoms against subversion by its own leaders.

DON B. WITTENBERGER Seattle

Sir / While I must readily admit that Mr. Dean's testimony appears quite damaging on the surface, if one looks at it closely it contains nothing that would support impeachment if not corroborated by others very close to Mr. Nixon.

CLARENCE J. ROBERTS III Baton Rouge, La.

Sir / Nixon can never bring us together now; at the very best, he can only keep us dangling in this awful limbo.

DONALD F. SCOTT Pocatello, Idaho

Sir / On the matter of impeachment: this country has survived a Civil War, two World Wars, a Depression, and a dozen or so assassinations. I think it could survive an impeachment. Such action could in fact strengthen the country by demonstrating that no one is above its laws.

RICHARD RYNEN Madison, Wis.

Other Reflections on Watergate

Sir / The U.S. appears to have come full circle on the eye of its bicentennial. President Nixon implies that he is not answerable to the people as represented by the Senate investigating committee. He answers only to God. This was and is the answer of all dictators, tyrants and absolute monarchs. What a sad and sobering thing to see in a modern democratic state.

JOHN BLAIS Ottawa

Sir / Why all the excitement over Watergate? What is taking place in Washington these days is simply a reflection of ourselves and that creed we have adopted as being gospel: Win!

We pay homage to those who advance that creed through testimonials, tributes, fame and adulation. We scramble for tickets to fill the stadiums and fieldhouses of those institutions and organizations that adopt the win-at-all-cost philosophy.

It is time that we look to other things in the education of our kids. We have an obligation to teach that the journey, not only the destination, is what life is about.

FRED HEINLEN Baseball Coach Shaker Heights Senior High School Shaker Heights, Ohio

Sir / I stayed with Nixon all the way, even though thinking him guilty, until about two weeks ago when I saw he was continuing his old ways instead of housecleaning the leftovers in the White House, etc. I see no real change, just in me. I am turncoating. Now I don't believe anything he says.

I voted for him. I was wrong. But I didn't like McGovern at the time and still don't. Lord only knows what we really should have done.

MARY D. ISRAEL Shermans Dale, Pa.

Sir / By crippling the President of the U.S., you cripple the U.S., yourselves and myself. This reflects poorly on your wisdom.

JAMES J. DUFFY Livonia, Mich.

Living with Scandal

Sir / Re your "Learning to Live with the Scandal" [July 16]: too bad the media's new role as savior does not prevent the indecencies of harassment, persecution and exploitation of personal tragedy that have so long characterized reporting.

SCHUYLER YATES Toledo

Sir / I do feel sorry for the Watergate children. I wonder if their fathers feel sorry for my children, whose confidence in America's political leadership they have shattered.

WILLIAM M. DAVID JR. Westminster, Md.

The Freeze and the Thaw

Sir / There has never been an article that depressed me so much as "A Threat of Food Shortage" [July 9] along with the picture of a farmer, a contented expression on his face, killing baby chicks.

There is only one man I can think of to thank for that: Mr. Nixon.

LESLYE SMITH Poughkeepsie, N.Y.

Sir / I think it's a good move on President Nixon's part to thaw the price freeze on food, so that we'll not have to worry about the food shortage we were all warned about. However, when this thaw does occur and the food is plentiful, I fear no one will be able to afford any of it.

ALLISON CAINE Los Angeles

Fallacious Files

Sir / The FBI's treatment of Government criminal files is just another sign of Big Brother's taking over [July 23]. So they record arrests as well as convictions? How many people--possibly victims of unwarranted and/or illegal arrests--have their records tainted by a fallacious FBI file?

There should be a federal law permitting each citizen to inspect (and correct, if necessary) any possible FBI file held in his name. Bravo to Massachusetts' Governor Francis W. Sargent!

WILLIAM G. PENNER Alliance, Neb.

Work or Welfare

Sir / In "The Rewards of Poverty" [July 23], you reported on two studies: one which showed that public-welfare programs in New York City can discourage work by providing high benefits and by making work financially unprofitable; and one which showed that welfare recipients are very like working nonrecipients in the sense of having limited opportunities to earn good wages.

The article did not state the implications of these findings for welfare-reform policy. In my judgment, they lead us to the following conclusions:

1) It is inequitable to provide one group of the poor more for not working than others earn.

2) To eliminate this inequity we must supplement the incomes of poor workers--men and women alike. Most of the poor do work, for whatever portion of the year and at whatever wages. Thus they require partial income supplementation, not total welfare support. This means that the old dichotomy between work or welfare is counterproductive and must go.

MARTHA W. GRIFFITHS Chairman Subcommittee on Fiscal Policy Joint Economic Committee United States Congress Washington, D.C.

False Equation

Sir / Don't the Chicago promoters of Watergate bracelets [July 23] realize that there are many people still wearing the true P.O.W.-M.I.A. bracelets? These people hope that something will soon be done to identify the thousands of American men still unaccounted for in Southeast Asia. To equate in any way the dregs of American politics with the brave men who were prisoners and those still missing is abominable.

SUSAN L. YOUNG Boston

The Meaning of Helga Sue

Sir / Your article about Helga Sue's escapades [July 16] exposes the ultimate problem in education today: teacher and administrative apathy. The sense of alienation revealed in Helga Sue's creation cannot be compensated for by mod courses (same issue), smoking rooms, open campuses, etc., as so many panicky systems have been attempting to do, but by a sense of appreciation and respect for the student as a fellow human being.

MURIEL B. ROSENBERG Natick, Mass.

Next Prex

Sir / The Watergate spectacle has introduced us all to a number of shrewd congressional faces we may have had little knowledge of: Senators Inouye, Baker, Ervin, Weicker. Watching them, I have wondered why none of them has been proposed to the public as a presidential possibility. And a poll tells us Senator Kennedy is an odds-on favorite for the '76 Democratic Convention. Why does our system stress familiarity over merit?

RALPH E. WEST JR. Philadelphia

Sir / Baker has to be the most dynamic and honest politician to enter the American political arena since John and Robert Kennedy.

MARY LEE CASEY Belleville, Ont.

Sir / I predict that some years from now the first woman President of the U.S. will be Julie Nixon Eisenhower. I further predict that she will prove extremely successful.

HELEN HERRICK MALSED Seattle

Forced Sterilization

Sir / As a welfare worker, I cannot condone the methods used in obtaining permission for the sterilization of Mary Alice Relf [July 23]. I am, however, in favor of sterilization of the retarded. I am far less concerned with the loss of the right of choice than I am with the physical and mental damage I have seen in children raised by retarded parents who are unable to provide proper care.

DAVID M. SPIWAK Bloomsburg, Pa.

Sir / Above and beyond the debate on whether or not Mrs. Relf knew what she was agreeing to is the issue of her right to make this decision at all. Should any parent have the power to authorize the performance of this type of surgery on his or her child without a medical emergency or other genuinely unusual circumstance?

ANITA M. SLOANE Atlanta

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