To the Editors:

How can you say there are "no strong issues gripping the public" [Oct. 4]?

With Watergate still fresh in our minds, with so many people out of work, with the number of people under the poverty level at an alltime high, with inflation still at an unacceptable rate, with taxes gobbling up our whole paycheck --how can you say that?

Anne F. DiCioccio Croton-on-Hudson, N. Y.

The issues for each candidate do not seem to be solutions to unemployment, energy, etc., but whether he is an elephant or an ass.

Carolyn Walker Sacramento, Calif.

Doesn't anyone see that we have two mediocre candidates brought on by an American mediocrity?

We, the "Silent Majority," are frightened about our livelihood and our future; we are afraid to protest--to rock the boat. So we look to Jimmy who promises to give all of us what we're seeking, although we know he can't produce, or to Big Daddy Jerry who may have enough influence with big business to keep us working.

Mary Ann Larssen North Miami, Fla. Barber's Gauge

Dr. James David Barber's theories of assessing character and thereby predicting presidential performance [Oct. 4] leave out some major factors (political philosophy for one), but we ignore his ideas at our risk.

Using his model, it seems clear that Ford is "passive-positive." The big question is whether Carter is "active-posilive" (which he claims to be) or "active-negative" (which he sometimes shows signs of being). If the former, then he might just be one of the best Presidents ever; if the latter, then we are probably a lot safer with Ford.

Daniel B. Baker Arlington, Va.

Dr. Mead's

How interesting that Anthropologist Mead would urge Carter to stress "style over substance" [Oct. 4]. If Dr. Mead were to view some old newsreels showing Hitler addressing one of his Nruenberg rallies, she would see this concept carried to perfection.

George Sonnenschein San Diego

When one is left without substance, the only alternative is style.

Jon La Fa Ice Marquette, Mich.

As an American living outside the U.S. I have this to say about my country's preoccupation with a presidential "personality" contest instead of issues: phooey. Has a man's "aura" ever run the country?

Dana Possum Konnerud, Norway

The Three-Dimensional Man

I thought "Jimmy's Mixed Signals" [Oct. 4] excellently focused on the things that intrigue me the most about Jimmy Carter. He is facile and clever, awkward and honest. He is at once an amazingly capable politician and a man who says the most revealing unpolitician-like things about lust.

What is Jimmy Carter? The answer has become increasingly obvious: he's a human being. I'm a conservative by nature, but I'm so tired of incompetent zombies and forked-tongued manipulators inhabiting my White House, I'm going to go out and vote Carter for President. It would be nice to have a three-dimensional man in charge for a change.

Paul Bunning Spokane, Wash.

The aspirant from Georgia, for all that he says, remains an enigma. Such was bound to happen perhaps, especially in a culture that has reduced the human soul to the simplicities of a McDonald's hamburger.

James M. Decker Holt, Mich.

Blood or the Shuttle

There's no reason why Vorster [Oct. 4] should be pug-nosing in the affairs of Rhodesia, as if to say he is not facing the same problems as Smith.

I believe victory for Rhodesian blacks as well as for those of South Africa will only be achieved at the expense of "blood and iron," and not through the never fruitful shuttle diplomacy of America.

Louis Njumbe Paris

TIME'S prize for the Most Asinine Act of the year should go to Henry Kissinger for his conference with Vorster on the fate of Rhodesia. At the same time, Vorster's police were shooting down blacks in the Union of South Africa.

Pearl Robertson Lexington, Ky.

What the hell is the matter with you Americans? Here is a man who has got Arabs talking with the Jews, capitalists with the two Communist powers, and now bitter blacks with uncompromising whites in South Africa. The man is amazing. Yet all you people want to do is sack him. However, when he becomes available, how about Kissinger for Secretary-General of the United Nations? It would add respect to that tarnished body.

John A. Kralt De Lier, The Netherlands

Schorr's Word

The disposition of the case against Daniel Schorr [Oct. 11], as so often happens, ignored all the troublesome questions raised by his actions.

The issue was and is whether newsmen like Schorr can unilaterally declassify documents; whether their judgment will supersede that of the House of Representatives (to name just one entity); and whether "confidentiality of sources" will replace "national security" as the last refuge of scoundrels.

David H. Andrusko Minneapolis

Thank you, Daniel Schorr; you are an honorable man--a rapidly vanishing breed. A man's word is all he really owns; how dare they ask a man to break his word?

Jo-Ann C. Dixon Glen Ridge, N.J.

Typical Swede

I cannot agree with the Social Democratic politician [Oct. 4] who regards "clever, honest" Falldin as typically Swedish. The typical 20th century Swede is Olof Palme: arrogant, neurotic and vociferously anti-American.

H.J. Adams Westboro, Mass.

Whose Episcopal Church?

There was a time when the Episcopal Church [Oct. 4] commanded attention whenever it spoke out on matters. But now--with weak-willed bishops, priestesses and a collapse of apostolic discipline--what can one expect?

We have joined the great number of members who have left this shaky church and joined a stable, no-foolishness church--the Catholic Church.

John Alcorn & Family San Francisco

Whoever wrote the report about the Episcopal Church's General Convention in Minneapolis received an impression very different from that of the majority of us who were part of that convention's process. The article's claim, for example, that "the Protestant side took firm control of the church" is really ludicrous. Many bishops and deputies who voted to allow dioceses to ordain women as priests are to be counted in the "Catholic" camp, and would simply regard themselves as allies with the 1,150 Roman Catholic priests who wrote to us, urging us to take the step we took.

Shame on TIME for such a slanted and sour article.

(Bishop) John M. Krumm Cincinnati

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