Failed Rescue

To the Editors:

Finally an effort to free the hostages [May 5]! The fact that it ended in failure is secondary; what is important is that the Iranians know that we have the will and determination to free our people.

Peter J. Plourd II

Prince George, Va.

The raid seems so childishly conceived that one must assume it was not intended to succeed. Was it Carter's Watergate, an attempt to selfdestruct?

Robert Brundin

Torrance, Calif.

It's so easy to blame President Carter. But if the rescue had succeeded, all of us would be cheering in the streets and taking credit for American strength.

Barbara B. Willis

Middletown, Ohio

The myth of King Midas is that everything he touched turned to gold. The reality of President Carter is that everything he touches turns to ruin. America needs a President who was born under a lucky star.

Richard J. Orloski

Allentown, Pa.

Next time, send in the U.S. Olympic hockey team.

Sally Foley Bethany, Conn.

Apologetic Mother

I'm furious! Who does Mrs. Timm [May 5] think she is, apologizing to the Iranians for the President? He needs a pat on the back for his efforts in trying to bring her son and other loved ones home.

Deborah Pelkey

Mount Clemens, Mich.

We should all be proud of Mrs. Timm. Who would judge or even think of punishing her? Are our egos so great that we cannot admit past mistakes? Have we never made any mistakes? Are we not still making them?

Dorothy M. Bayles

Chapel Hill, N.C.

Worried Allies

Yes, we Europeans are scared to join the U.S. [April 28] because we are asked to follow a U.S. President who dines with a rich Shah and kicks an ill ex-Shah around, who kisses the Soviet party boss on both cheeks, knowing that millions of Europeans are held in slavery by that man, and who now wants us to "punish" the U.S.S.R. because it's election time.

Henri le Bon

Geneva

When I was growing up in postwar Berlin, my first books were provided by the American mobile library. During the Berlin blockade we were kept from starving by American food flown in with the airlift. Because of American protection we live in freedom today and not under a totalitarian system. Whatever our politicians may say and do, I am your friend.

Erhard Mohlau

Sindelfingen, West Germany

The Anderson Alternative

Let us eliminate the Carter incompetency by eliminating the Carter incumbency. Thank God there is still a choice --John Anderson [May 5].

Steven Lindsley

New Orleans

Anderson appears to many as a white knight on a crusade, but to those of us in the mainstream of political life, he is Don Quixote, leading his befuddled followers down a hopeless, inane road.

John D. Hanks, Chairman

Lane County Republican Party

Eugene, Ore.

America needs John Anderson.

America thinks it wants Ronald Reagan.

America will get Jimmy Carter.

Joseph M. Kronsnoble

Brookfield, Wis.

City of Heart

Hartford, Conn., should be called Heartford [May 5]. Its program of allowing delinquent taxpayers to work part-time for the city to pay their taxes shows that it is indeed a city of heart. Every city should consider such a program.

Phillip M. Barber

Cleveland, Tenn.

Palace Problems

As a veteran of many hours of chandelier scrubbing and brass polishing at Shea's Buffalo Theater, I was delighted to see your article on restoration of movie palaces [May 5]. But you forgot to mention one major problem: our patrons, particularly those at rock concerts, carry off nearly everything not nailed down, and spill drinks or grind cigarette butts into a million dollars' worth of restoration materials and destroy thousands of hours of volunteer labor. If only we had classy audiences to match these classy buildings.

Susan J. Wilke

Rochester

Cuban Exodus

The Cubans are coming with a strength of purpose that most Americans cannot comprehend [May 5]. While we pursue our smug, complacent lives, they are shoving off into black nights and stormy seas just for a chance.

Teresa McCartney

Wellsburg, W. Va.

If all Cubans were granted the opportunity to abandon Castro's domain, only Fidel and his crew would be left on the island.

Luis Onix Pupo

Zaragoza, Spain

Mormon Gods and Goddesses

Lest your recent article on the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [April 21] give rise to charges of doctrinal sexism on the part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I think it appropriate to correct your statement that only male members of the church may in the eternities become like God. The Mormon church clearly teaches that worthy men and women united in celestial marriage may in the eternities become gods and goddesses.

David N. Heap

Arlington, Va.

In current Mormon theology, women as well as men can indeed become gods in the hereafter. But the Reorganized Church rejects that belief and contends that Mormons assign even these women a lesser eternal status because their husband-gods preside over them.

Southern Woman

Yankees shuah due luve tuh read abaut thuh goin's-on down heah! So much so, in fact, that their reviewers become befuddled and unable to distinguish between an exploitative, muddy, sexual true confession and a work of literary value. You can compare Rosemary Daniell, author of Fatal Flowers [May 5], to Erica Jong if you want, but please, not to Eudora Welty!

Joanne Markell

Memphis

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