Expensive Luxury

Sir / How dare you! Don't you realize that you are taking on the most sacred cow of all time when you start printing facts and figures about King Alcohol [April 22]?

It may bring more misery, degradation, and even death to loved ones than wars, disease and boozeless crime all put together, but loyalty will remain steadfast and true. Those who are dedicated to liquor will worship it, brag about it, shield it from criticism like a doting mother protecting a spoiled and criminal son, even when statistics show John Barleycorn to be probably our most expensive national "luxury."

DON C. MCMILLAN

Shandon, Calif.

Sir / Drinking is far more devastating than smoking. I think liquor packaging should carry a warning: "May be dangerous to your health and others. May cause hallucination, irrational behavior, brain damage, even death."

Sitting next to a drinker is worse than sitting next to a smoker any time. Not only does he smell bad, but his conversation is usually bad also.

MARY L. MCCOY

Sarasota, Fla.

Sir / Your candid, responsible, unbiased description of an age-old affliction now reaching epidemic proportions in American society will encourage many problem drinkers to seek early treatment. While it is true that there is no miracle cure, alcoholics can and do stop drinking. Self-recognition of incipient alcoholism is an important first step in this process.

Senator Hughes may be right when he says the problem "is gaining on us," but enlightened public attention on the subject such as TIME'S article will greatly accelerate progress toward achieving a sensible national approach to the consumption of alcoholic beverages.

MORRIS E. CHAFETZ, M.D.

Director

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism Rockville, Md.

Sir / How ironic to note that the same issue of TIME that looked at the problems of alcoholism also carried commercial advertisements for alcoholic beverages. TIME would provide a great public service by refusing to run such ads.

CRAIG CLARK

Denver

Sir / What do you want? Another round of Prohibition?

TOM LIND

Boston

Sir / Pity you didn't devote at least a couple of paragraphs in your story to the benefits of alcohol.

There are certainly millions of people who have better digestion, pleasanter marriages, more genial friendships and happier lives in general because they have learned to use alcohol at the right time and the right place judiciously.

JAMES IRONS

Hollywood, Calif.

A Squalid Norm?

Sir / You have my applause for the TIME Essay, "The Delicate Subject of Inequality" [April 15]. I now know where America's much lamented heroes have gone. They have been shamed into mediocrity and a drab conformity by those embarrassed by excellence: the liberals who roll that stone of Sisyphus known as equality. In their search for a standard of equality, these new egalitarians never dare to look up. They seek the lowest common denominator and establish it as the norm so that no one, however squalid or vulgar, need be left out of the American Dream.

MARCIA LITWIN

Kent, Conn.

Sir / Yes, there is economic inequality, but as long as our national heritage, tradition and beliefs perpetuate the idea of "human equality," America will have the basic moral foundation and human understanding to eradicate the less important inequalities (e.g., economic and political).

JOHN DIBELLA

New York City

Sir / We heretics who work for personal satisfaction rather than to achieve financial status will only survive if liberal sociologists stop trying to condemn all Americans to their definition of equality at the expense of the taxpayer.

LOIS M. FREY

Johnson, Vt.

Fatal Obituary

Sir / Your story "Hurrying a Heart Attack" [April 15] gives Rosenman and Friedman's suggestion that an aggressive, competitive Type A personality might be able to slow himself down by writing "his own obituary." But wouldn't this Type A fellow, upon reading the obituary, decide that he had not accomplished enough, that time was running out on him, and that he had better hurry back to the grind?

PAMELA H. IKERD

Clarksville, Tenn.

Locker-Room Language

Sir / Reading "Why Those Tapes Were Made" [April 22] gave me a warm feeling. It is comforting to know that the President like everyone else harbors a bitter and savage hatred for people who have angered or crossed him and that he is not above using locker-room language. Why should anyone find such human traits offensive? Had Harry Truman's presidential conversations been recorded, an asbestos tape recorder probably would have been required.

LANNY R. MIDDINGS

San Ramon, Calif.

Sir / If in fact Nixon is innocent of all wrongdoing in Watergate, he must prove his case by making public all relevant tapes. But for the public to hear such "locker-room language" by a President would degrade the presidency, and that is unthinkable for Nixon.

Thus we have another dilemma, but at least this one is self-inflicted.

RUSSELL JONES

Santa Barbara, Calif.

Sir / Speaking of salty presidential language, one recalls when John Kennedy referred to the Prime Minister of Canada as ans.o.b.

(MRS.) CEIL ALLEN

Ann Arbor, Mich.

sb "I couldn't have called him an s.o.b. I didn't know he was one--at that time" was President Kennedy's comment when he heard of Prime Minister Diefenbaker's accusation, according to Biographer Theodore C.Sorensen.

Prerequisite for Peace

Sir / Qiryat Shemona [April 22] is another senseless page in the bloody history of the Middle East. The present Arab governments may at last be willing to officially accept the existence and territorial integrity of the state of Israel. But not until they stop harboring, condoning and supporting the terrorists morally and financially, not until they start treating them for what they are --common criminals--can there ever be a true and lasting peace in the area.

HELEN AMINOFF

Ann Arbor, Mich.

Sir / One wonders how long it will be before Israel sees the wisdom of withdrawing behind its pre-1967 borders and accepting the Arabs' willingness to recognize Israel's right to exist. The recent war showed that the Arabs are closing the technological gap; with their superior numbers and Soviet aid, they pose a growing threat. Another war may prove to be a total catastrophe for Israel. And how much longer should the U.S. support an intransigent client in an area that must be defused?

MELVIN W. MANSUR

Groton, Mass.

White Advantage

Sir / Your excellent article about my book Getting Ready [April 22] omitted only one important point. Your readers may wonder whether we "sacrificed our children's education" in their mostly black schools. The answer is no.

Our three children exhibit tremendous benefits. They show far more independence and self-confidence than we see in children who attended private or suburban schools. Their national test scores are high and their values all we hoped for.

Unlike their black classmates, our children were seen by their teachers as capable of learning and were encouraged. It is sad that this is not true for all children.

LOIS MARK STALVEY

Philadelphia

Reportorial Offenses

Sir / While I am sickened by the conduct of those responsible for Watergate, after reading about Reporters Woodward and Bernstein [April 22], I am almost as disgusted by the cloak-and-dagger conduct of the two Washington Post reporters.

A reporter signaling with a flower pot containing a red flag, meetings in an underground garage at 2 a.m. and the code name "Deep Throat" are typical examples of the techniques that led to false accusations based on triple hearsay, trial by the press instead of by jury, and criticism of the press even by those who feel that the President is guilty of numerous criminal offenses. It is inexcusable for reporters, even in desperation, to attempt to obtain secret information from grand jurors.

When members of the press realize that they, like the President, are not above the law, perhaps the cries of irresponsible journalism will cease.

LEONARD M. CAPUTO

Shreveport, La.

Carpeted Bug Sir / Re your Texas "Letterbugs" [April 22]: there's a VW rolling around Portland. Me., with plates that read RUG BUG. It's fully carpeted--on the outside!

GARY S. MAYBEE

Cumberland Center, Me.

Fertility Myth

Sir / The legend of the "vast food-growing potential" [April 8] of the Amazon and Congo basins dies hard. It is a hydra of error, espoused in times past by such luminaries as Walter Lippmann and Richard Nixon.

The vegetation of a tropical rain forest --perhaps the most luxuriant vegetation in all the world--stands on soil that is almost worthless for growing food crops.

J. AUSTIN KERR

Chevy Chase, Md.

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