Amin's Terrorism

To the Editors:

Uganda's Idi Amin [March 7] made a fool out of not only President Carter but the whole sane world, which allowed such a demented individual to play cat-and-mouse games. It's sad when such a beautiful country has a leader whose army strikes terror in the hearts of its citizens. His idea of leadership is terrorism in any color or continent.

Jacqueline Gustavson Washington, Ill.

Don't we have an international law to prevent or punish genocide? Are we going to wait until Amin kills all his people before we do something? This is a test for the African leaders, to see how loyal they are to the principles of human rights. If they let Amin slaughter his people, they slaughter their right to condemn Ian Smith of Rhodesia and John Vorster of South Africa.

Abdoul Sesay New York City

The silence is thunderous. Why no special session of the Security Council to vote sanctions against Uganda?

Why no committees in Sweden to declare Uganda guilty of crimes against humanity?

Jack Caldwell Marshall, Va.

Lucky for you that Amin will probably forgive you for mistaking him for "The Wild Man of Africa," when everyone knows that the wild men are Smith and Vorster.

Joyce Ellis Durham, N.C.

There are many black people in this country and throughout the developing world who see this man as a great leader. He refuses to submit to Western economic and political dominance. Your exercises in sensationalism are an insult to black and white readers alike.

Gregory Frazier Cincinnati

Tribal wars, political assassinations and megalomania are neither new nor confined to Africa. Whatever may or may not have been happening in Uganda, I was there at the time and may say that the people of Kampala and Entebbe displayed no disquiet.

They are gentle, welcoming and anything but xenophobic. One may go about freely, walk the streets at night in greater safety than in many other parts of the world. Food distribution is admittedly erratic, but there is no real shortage. Moreover, Kampala is probably the cleanest African city and might well serve in this respect as an example to cities of the Western world.

T. Alec-Yelin La Hulpe, Belgium

How painfully ironic that the hooded Ugandan facing execution by Amin's soldiers stands under a sign proclaiming

. . . FOR A LONGER AND BETTER LIFE!

Peggy I. Rauck Boones Mill, Va.

The Great Books (Contd.)

I must agree with Mortimer Adler when he said he was "sticking out his neck" by nominating the great books of the 20th century [March 7], for he excluded J.R.R. Tolkien's epic The Lord of the Rings. Precious few novelists can, like Tolkien, give us a whole world, its inhabitants, their language and lifestyles, and make it perfectly real.

Jeffrey C. Rice Mechanicsburg, Pa.

Adler is obviously lost in the aspens. Has he really never read or been impressed by any women writers of imaginative literature?

Ten minutes of reflection and I came up with: Virginia Woolf, Iris Murdoch, Rebecca West, Muriel Spark, Mary McCarthy, Edith Wharton, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Mary Renault, Lillian Hellman, Marianne Moore, Willa Gather ...

Patricia Edgerton Los Angeles

I was hurt that Adler did not include B.F. Skinner, who is a forerunner in the behavioral science field.

Christine Miller Huntsville, Ala.

I am disappointed not to see any of the masterpieces of Nikos Kazantzakis included in Adler's list.

Vasil Uzunoglu Ellicott City, Md.

The poetry of the Beatles, Dylan Thomas and Barry Manilow, plus the original plays of Rodgers and Hammerstein, Lerner and Loewe and Jerry Herman (just to name a few) certainly deserve the status of "The Great Books."

James H. Hines Columbia, Mo.

The great historical work on the Second World War by Sir Winston Churchill should not have been excluded.

William Cunningham Providence

W.E.B. Du Bois's The Souls of Black Folk.

Julian Mayfield Paderborn, West Germany

Adler missed The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

James C. Geibel Torrance, Calif.

Amy's Bad Manners

Reading at the dinner table is considered bad manners. Until Amy Carter [March 7] is old enough to behave and converse properly at a downstairs dinner. I suggest she stay upstairs with that greatly publicized nanny of hers.

(Mrs.) M.F. Ammons Houston

Amy is a well-behaved child, loved and disciplined by her parents, who would rather be bothered with her than leave her with a baby sitter.

Marian Anderson Boise, Idaho

Might I suggest that Amy Carter include some Emily Post or Amy Vanderbilt in her dinnertime reading.

Carolyn M. Doyle Los Alamitos, Calif.

Hidden Worms

In response to your Essay, "Science: No Longer a Sacred Cow" [March 7], I believe that like apples, "the promising fruits of science and technology often come with hidden worms." Do we stop eating apples?

Gary B. Ellis Evanston, Ill.

Scientific discoveries belong to the public as well as to science. What the public does with them is the responsibility of society as a whole. It is as absurd to blame scientists as it is to praise them for social phenomena. If we pursued that form of logic, we would find ourselves making Thomas Edison a national hero for describing the nature of electricity, and then trying him posthumously for the deaths of all people who were ever electrocuted.

Julie Vanderwier San Luis Obispo, Calif.

If I may quote Einstein, "Science will stagnate if it is made to serve practical goals." Researchers deal with the practical applications of scientific theories and thereby create technology, but they themselves are not scientists. They harvest the fruit of science using funds from government, industry and private sources, and this is, indeed, subject to public concern.

Science requires an intellect capable of flights of imagination. It requires neither money nor public support, and in this way science will continue to advance with the human spirit where research and technology cannot.

Roy S. Furst Tucson, Ariz.

I see yet another reflection of antiscience sentiment: the current movement toward the occult, parapsychology, astrology, faith healing and all the other crackpot beliefs.

Their sadly deluded followers seem to be seeking a supportable alternative to science, and their almost frantic reaching out to the pseudo sciences is a massive cry for help.

Walter Chizinsky Briarcliff Manor, N. Y.

Is science really a "pampered sacred cow"? How do you think it feels to work in a country that spends less on its national observatories than it does on jigsaw puzzles?

Lee Richard Charlottesville, Va.

Word of God

In answer to Chaplain Landman's letter about the "intellectual chutzpah" of proselytizing [March 7]: Yes, it does take a leap of faith to claim the Scriptures as the only source of God's truth; and to someone who doesn't accept Christianity the claim may indeed sound absurd. But in the final analysis that is the whole point of Christianity. The Scriptures aren't a philosophical methodology or an ethical system (although they include those things), but the Word of God.

As to "carrying Evangel(ical)ism outside the Christian community"--if we do that, we're only doing the job we've been given of spreading the Gospel "to every creature." Conversion and a relationship with Jesus carry with them an automatic burden to tell others. Evangelism not carried outside the community ceases to be evangelism at all.

(The Rev.) John B. Pahls Jr. Brewster, N. Y.

Smut Peddlers

As a juror on the Hustler trial [Feb. 21]. I feel it is important to point out that the rights of a community to decide what is obscene is the law laid down by the Supreme Court. This law applies not only to conservative Cincinnati but also to every community in our nation. No one in Cincinnati has forbidden Larry Flynt to publish Hustler or burned any of his magazines. But while Flynt has a right to publish Hustler magazine, every community also has the right to declare it obscene. This may seem like a paradox, but obscenity, if left unrestricted, will produce a free society of smut peddlers.

Jerome R. Hagenhoff Cincinnati

White House Cat

Thank you for the bit about Misty Malarky Ying Yang [Feb. 28]. After a long and virtually uninterrupted tenure of dogs, it is reassuring to know that there is now a Siamese cat in the White House to keep an eye on things. Irish Setters and Golden Retrievers are all very well in their way, but they are too much given to a naive acceptance of any human as a friend.

You can trust a Siamese to see through a diplomatic front and then retire--not, as you say, to safety, but to a quiet place for reflection and the preparation of a later report.

W.N. Francis Trondheim, Norway

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