To the Editors:

Isn't it refreshing to hear our President taking a moral stand on behalf of the innocent incarcerated in prisons, concentration camps and asylums in the U.S.S.R. [Feb. 21]--and stating his views out loud instead of in a cowardly whisper as suggested by some soft-minded politicians? Moral courage is mightier than all the atomic arsenals.

Dmytro Stroicz Detroit

It's very easy for President Carter to denounce human rights violations in the Soviet Union and the Communist bloc. However, the time will come when the President will have to focus his wrath on violations by U.S. allies, specifically the Philippines and South Korea. Will the threat of losing U.S. bases in these countries deter President Carter's crusade? I hope not.

Robert Ligansky Binghamton, N. Y.

I suggest the U.S. Government stop helping the Kremlin regime in its repressive actions by selling wheat to the U.S.S.R. Without food in the markets, more Soviet citizens might decide the iron claw of Communism isn't so nice and decide to do something about it.

Let's give them every opportunity to do so.

Christina A. Norden

Woodbury, N. Y.

The Russians have an expression, "To send the bells a-pealing without consulting the church calendar." The article "Spirit of Helsinki, Where Are You?" [Jan. 24] is a fitting illustration of that phrase because it mourns the "spirit of Helsinki" and alleges that the East European countries are infringing the provisions of the agreement. I entertain grave doubts concerning the knowledge of the article's authors of that act and their right to judge who fulfills it and who does not.

Vladimir Misyuchenko, Journalist Moscow

After picking up some bruises, jail time and a criminal record during the late '60s war protests, I cite Matthew 7:3: "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?" At least the Russians aren't told they have the right of protest.

David H. Collier Goleta, Calif.

I have a very personal reason for congratulating those heroes of freedom, the dissidents who have the courage to fight for freedom inside the monster and to suffer cruel persecution. When Communism took over my country, I chickened out and fled to a safe haven in this land of the free.

Ramon Arias

Decatur, Ala.

Roots Revisited

Can you believe it? We took the Feb. 14 issue of TIME dealing with Roots across the Gambia River into Juffure. The village griot, or storyteller, has died, but the family picture was enjoyed by all: Binta Kinte, Karafa Kinte, Fatou Kinte, Kebba Madi Kinte, Demba Kinte, Yusupha Kinte, Yaya Kinte.

Dorothy Naman

University of California, Santa Cruz

Maternal Child Health Project

Banjul, Gambia

How to Save Gas

Your Board of Economists [Feb. 21] is a pack of econometricians, or money manipulators. They have no program to create or conserve.

Conservation is spelled r-a-t-i-o-n-i-n-g (be it ever so politically unpopular), which will end the present discriminatory price policy. The owner of a $12,000 Cadillac couldn't care less if gasoline cost $5 per gal. But what about that poor chump who must drive to work, even if he's in a car pool? That $1-per-gal. price could cost him meals.

Morton I. Weinberg

Lockport, N. Y.

I hate the idea of a 50-c- tax on gas and decontrolled natural gas. However, I am realistic enough to know that these drastic measures are necessary. How do you make Americans conserve energy? You punch them in the pocketbook.

Scott Newton

Hays, Kans.

We need food, we need our cars to get to work, and we need fuel to keep us warm and healthy. Don't give us this "We must all sacrifice" malarkey. At least place the blame where it belongs--on the doorstep of the greedy, mismanaging energy producers. Let them sacrifice a little.

Grace Love

Natrona Heights, Pa.

The opening sentence in your article on natural gas refers to suspicion that producers are withholding gas "to force prices up," thus illustrating the widespread naive belief that lower prices are normal and that producers are avariciously pushing for artificially high prices. This is ridiculous. The actual market price of gas, readily seen in the intrastate market, has been rising rapidly because of the scarcity of gas, which Congress will not allow the voting public in nonproducing states to recognize.

J. Glenn Turner Jr.

Dallas

Free Speech or Obscenity?

When Larry Flynt [Feb. 21] speaks from his 27-room house as the defender of the First Amendment, he sounds less like a man protecting freedom of the press than a man defending his right to make a buck--or two.

Perhaps we should apply to obscenity the age-old standards of prostitution. If you'd say it as your own opinion--for nothing--that's free speech; but if you do it for money, that's obscenity.

(Mrs.) Ethel Gillette

Gillette, Wyo.

I personally feel that Hustler magazine is crass and exploitative. Still, it is a shame that in order to keep people from buying such a magazine, you have to jail the publisher. Quite a reflection on the American public, I'd say.

Cindy Wagner

Columbus

To imply that putting pornography dealers such as Larry Flynt out of business somehow endangers the right of free speech is like saying that the banning of human sacrifices is an infringement of religious freedom.

Mary Fulton

Detroit

Your article on the Hustler publisher practically made the prosecutor the criminal, rather than Larry Flynt. Don't the citizens have a right to set standards? Is it right to let dope peddlers off because they may lose their jobs? Are thieves to be excused because their freedom of movement is inhibited? Are we to live in anarchy because no one can make a judgment on another?

(The Rev.) John E. Eliason

Burlington, N.C.

Good Cop, Bad Cop

Ah, my innocents! You say, "Despite the fact that they have been hand-picked by their predecessors, Mexican Presidents rarely follow the style of the men they succeed" [Feb. 21].

This is because the P.R.I., Mexico's ruling party, follows the "good cop, bad cop" rule of governance. First we have a President of the left, who tongue-lashes the middle class and oligarchy for their laziness and excessive consumption. Then we have a President of the right, who tongue-lashes the workers and peasants for their laziness and excessive consumption.

The same basic economic policies continue to be followed, however, with minor adjustments. And, of course, the same industrialists and landlords continue to rule Mexico.

Dorothy Arango

San Francisco

Your statement that President Lopez Portillo seems eminently right for restoring compassion and hope to Mexico, followed immediately by your reference to his direct descent from Spaniards, is another example of your unconscious racism. The implication is that one of Indian or mestizo descent cannot restore compassion and hope to Mexico.

Manuel P. Guerrero Gilberto Lopez y Rivas

Minneapolis

Strong Medicine

Stanley Schachter, 54, says that in his youth, cigarettes were so strong the first one made kids so sick they stayed off cigarettes for good [Feb. 21]. Therefore, I say make them strong again.

Gardner C. Duncan

Eagle Lake, Texas

This revelation of nicotine addiction can be a blessing to nonsmokers as well as smokers. If tobacco companies manufactured nicotine in pill form, perhaps smokers could be coaxed to get their nicotine fixes from pills instead of cigarettes. Imagine how clear and clean their airspace (and lungs) would then become.

George H. Swan

Middletown, N.J.

Foul Smell

Your description of kimchi (Feb. 14]--"such a powerful stench"--reminded me of the cans of sauerkraut distributed by the Americans during the Korean War.

Despite our hunger, we threw them away as spoiled, since it was beyond our imagination that Americans could eat such foul-smelling food.

Now sauerkraut and spareribs is one of my favorites. Anyone for kimchi? It will clear your sinus.

(Mrs.) Sun Joo Lippoid

Buffalo

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