Pride in Carew

To the Editors:

Proud! That's how I feel being a Minnesotan. Rod Carew [July 18] is one of the reasons.

Louise Ingebritson St. Paul

Your article on Rod Carew kept asserting that he had never received the recognition he deserved. For eleven years we fans have been putting him in the All-Stars games' starting lineups. Millions recognize him as the finest hitter since Clemente; it's the baseball writers who have neglected him.

Jon Solomon Chapel Hill, N. C.

Rod Carew isn't a star; he's a living legend.

Andy Sims Waukesha, Wis.

Rod Carew is one of the greatest baseball players ever, and it is perfectly all right to give him the glory he deserves; the problem arises when unfair comparisons start.

It is unfair to compare Carew, whose forte is hitting for average, to players who excel and surpass Carew in other aspects of the game, like Reggie Jackson and Joe Morgan.

Henry LeGuyader Yonkers, N. Y.

I'll trade 15 Reggie Jackson baseball cards for one Rod Carew. I'll even throw in the bubble gum and the candy bars.

Hal Miller Abilene, Texas

The correct translation of chai on Rod Carew's chain is "life" and not, as you stated, "health." The word is made up of the Hebrew letters chet and yud, which together form the word chai-- life. But then again, if one has health, one has life.

Cantor Chaskele Ritter Brooklyn

California Dream

It worked! We've fooled the rest of the country. During the '60s, when untold millions migrated to California in search of the Golden State dream [July 18], we longtime California residents began to realize that our beautiful state was being devastated by out-of-state foreigners. So we started an unspoken and subliminal campaign to discourage people from relocating here. Thank you, Mr. DeVoss, for informing the rest of the world that California truly is a miserable place to live.

Michael Ryan Baxter San Diego

I think Mr. DeVoss, like so many foreigners, was expecting some idealistic Utopian state. If "the essence of California does not travel well," why am I looking out my window at a line of out-of-state camper?

Michael Woolf Fresno, Calif.

California has been systematically devoured since 1945. Having fouled our air and water, despoiled our hills and farmlands and perverted our liberal culture, the locust pilgrims now cry fraud.

Mr. DeVoss notwithstanding, everyone in California agrees on nothing--except, perhaps, that homebred flakes are preferable to the imported variety.

Barry Willy Vacaville, Calif.

Rating Airports

Your writers forgot to rate the friendliness of the people who work at the airports in the guide [July 18]. Cheerful employees can always brighten a weary or troubled traveler. I've been in only six of the airports mentioned, but I would rate them as follows: Denver's Stapleton: very helpful and friendly. Kennedy and LaGuardia: surprisingly friendly and helpful. Charles de Gaulle and O'Hare: civil. National: grouchy.

Linda C. Henderson Cedar Bluff, Va.

If you are looking for the four-star airport, fly to Tampa. Our airport is superb, functional and beautiful. Ask anyone who has been here.

Betty Dillman Tampa, Fla.

Having experienced extreme delays, discourteous treatment by airline personnel and miles of frustration looking for loading gates in Chicago's O'Hare, and having wandered through underground passages with no directional signs in Los Angeles, I am at a loss to understand why these two high-priced slums rate two stars while Hartsfield International in Atlanta, head and shoulders above either, gets only one. I guess you Yankees automatically put down anything from the South.

David L. Fir or Athens, Ga.

After a recent flight from Barbados to Miami, I was herded into U.S. Customs in a fashion similar to that used by cattlemen in a feed lot. I looked down at my luggage and smiled at the MIA tag: I was indeed missing in action. Thanks to the efficiency of Miami's airport, I had just missed my connecting flight to Washington's National.

Jeannie Gebert Hem don. Va.

Kent State's Sacred Spot

And why not commemorate the site of the killings at Kent State (July 18]? To those of us who were active during the tumultuous '60s, it is a sacred spot. This incident represents more than Ohio's National Guard containing the hostilities of a group of angry demonstrators. It is symbolic. At this site. America opened fire on her children for pointing out her fallacious actions in Viet Nam. years before she was forced to admit them herself. It is an ugly memory, but it cannot be forgotten.

Melissa L. Meyer Cincinnati

A gym on Kent State's massacre site! Next we'll be using Arlington Cemetery for carnivals and Pearl Harbor's Arizona memorial for beauty pageants.

Dan Driscoll Anchorage

It is sad to again see space devoted to those few dissidents whose prime claim to fame rests on the glorification of a few slow learners (those who didn't know that you don't throw rocks at people with guns) of almost a decade ago. But most pathetic is the continued lack of intestinal fortitude demonstrated by the Kent State policymakers in acquiescing to such blackmail without following the obvious route of expulsion and prosecution for trespass.

Albert K. Tank Melbourne Beach, Fla.

The P.L.O. View

Your story "The Well-Heeled Guerrillas" [July 18] arouses indignation. The P.L.O. politically unified a demographically diverse people and is recognized internationally as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinians. No wonder then that it already assumes many of the obligations of a state in formation, trying to respond to the economic and social needs of the Palestinians as well as struggling to satisfy their political aspirations. Even if the figure of an annual budget of $90 million is correct, what is $90 million nowadays? It is a modest sum compared with state budgets, and do not forget that the Palestinian population exceeds 3.5 million. Should we expect an inquiry in the near future on U.S. financial support to the Israeli government, army and economy? Daoud Barakat, Permanent Observer of the Palestine Liberation Organization to the U.N., Geneva

Hideous Fence

Congratulations on your long-awaited mention of the "hideous fence" constantly being improved by the "Democratic" People's Republic of East Germany [July 18] in an attempt to keep its citizenry imprisoned.

Unfortunately, the American people are largely oblivious to what is going on over there. I guess as long as the guard towers don't appear on the Canadian and Mexican borders, we'll keep talking about detente.

Vito A. dementi Baton Rouge, La.

Twenty-Eight, and Counting

In your article "Twenty-Eight, and Counting ..." [July 18], you state that "the blend of sex and male-to-male rivalry can be explosive." What about the explosive violence of the thousands of married men who beat their wives and what about the 1 million children a year who are physically abused by their parents? Homosexuals have no patent on violence.

Jane S. Lewis New York City

I thought homosexuals were supposed to be limp-wristed effeminates. Now I read that we're aggressive, murder-inclined males subject to a "blend of sex and male-to-male rivalry" that can prove "explosive."

I wish heterosexuals would get their stereotypes straight so I can know whether I am supposed to carry a rattail comb or a switchblade.

L. Craig Schoonmaker New York City

Productive Life

Since when did Jill Kinmont [July 18] become an "invalid"? This word connotes weakness and sickness.

Jill Kinmont is described most accurately as a member of the active handicapped, those of us who contribute our best, in spite of our impaired mobility.

Beverly Marks Bowie, Md.

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