To the Editors:

Your article "The Curse of Violent Crime" [March 23] is a blueprint for hard decisions by officials and citizens.

Ordinary people have lost faith and patience in the criminal justice process.

Victims have moved from fear to hate.

Unreconstructed criminals have started to rehabilitate society in their image on release. As for setting up more task forces --humbug!

R. Joseph Novogrod, Director

Criminal Justice Department

Long Island University

New York City

The solution to violent crime is to sentence those convicted of murder to death. If the penalty is carried out within two weeks, it will create more space in penitentiaries and serve notice to all: You reap what you sow!

Philip N. Thompson Edgerton, Minn.

If we can reform our criminal justice system and get control of violent crime without becoming too severe, then let's do so. But if all our reforms prove futile, then we will have to resort to harsher measures. Otherwise the American people out of desperation will eventually have to sacrifice their rights and liberties for the safety and security of an authoritarian state.

Bruce F. Sterling New York City

The advice given to the populace is: Carry money to appease the attacker, don't cry out, don't fight back, submit to the rapist. Someone has to put up resistance somewhere. If the victims won't, who will?

Marjorie Dishron Fort Worth

We could save many of the 400 Americans murdered each week if we allowed police to spot-check people on the streets for illegal weapons. Experienced officers could then clear their beats of armed thugs in short order. Perhaps the Fourth Amendment will have to be changed to permit such searches.

Peter Ungar Scarsdale, N. Y.

The point we are missing is that the transition to the prison system does not represent either a fearful consequence or a drastic change for most of those involved in street crime. Life in jail is dominated by the law of the jungle. For the offender it is reminiscent of life on the streets. To these criminals, work--hard physical labor--is not glamorous or normal. This is what they need to be doing for the benefit of the communities they have victimized.

E. Winslow Chapman

Director of Police

Memphis

The ridiculous debate over whether weapons or people should be controlled might end if the registration of handguns and the licensing of handgun owners were combined with long jail sentences for criminals who misuse firearms. I do not share the fear of law-abiding gun owners that they will be stripped of their arms. We register cars and license drivers, and there isn't any shortage of vehicles on the street.

I am one moderate Republican who will join any conservative, liberal, Democrat, G.O.P.er, populist, libertarian or mugwump willing to stop the carnage.

Bill Green, Representative

18th District, New York

Washington, D.C.

My own experience with violent crime occurred just recently when I was robbed at gunpoint in front of my home. The outrage I feel and the trauma my family has suffered cannot be imagined.

For too long, people in positions of power have done nothing to stop the crime wave that has swept America. Our leaders must be judged--and I include myself--on their ability to make people safe in their homes and communities.

As a member of the House Subcommittee on Crime and as a victim of crime, I intend to raise my voice and put a stop to this nightmare.

Hamilton Fish Jr., Representative

25th District, New York

Washington, D.C.

Curing Allergies

As an allergist, I am always interested in new ways to diagnose and treat my patients. But clinical ecology [March 16] totally lacks scientific basis. Practitioners of this cult have not been particularly interested in providing well-controlled studies on which to base their rather exaggerated claims for cures. "Data" to support these practitioners receive no peer review. I suspect that many of their patients have no physical illnesses.

Clinical ecology is expensive, whereas ethical allergy treatment remains a bargain. Unfortunately, the traditional approach to allergies is ultimately maligned.

John M. Weiler, M.D.

University of Iowa

Iowa City

In 1979 our seven-year-old daughter showed a severe learning disability that was diagnosed as Tourette's Syndrome. She was treated with traditional medicine without success. We then went to a doctor of "ecological medicine" who subjected her to various foods and chemicals. Forty of them, including potatoes and milk, were affecting her. After clearing her system of the offending substances, our daughter went from learning below kindergarten level to being an average student in her own grade.

Jim and Terry Foxx Los Alamos, N. Mex.

Long Hair and Lathes

As a machinist with 30 years' experience, I winced with horror at the picture of a person learning to use a lathe accompanying your story "Putting the Poor to Work" [March 23]. This operator is inviting an instant scalping.

Ernest C. Oest New York City

American Renewal

Your special project on American Renewal [Feb. 23] was one of the finest pieces of writing I have seen, and I hope all America catches the spirit of what you were trying to say, particularly that renewal "encompasses ethics, moral, social and spiritual values."

David A. Baxendale

Lieutenant Colonel, The Salvation Army

New York City

Your article calling for the return of the draft is an enormous step backward in the striving for a humane world. No renewal, American or other, should be based-on blood. A man who specializes in killing other men--regardless of ideology--is an assassin. Forcing youths to do precisely this is a hideous crime.

Jorge Luis Borges Buenos Aires

Coffee and Cancer

On the subject of the links between coffee and cancer [March 23], there is the following story:

During the 18th century, two brothers who were identical twins were sentenced to die. The King of Sweden, however, changed their sentences to life imprisonment, decreeing that one brother should drink only tea, while the other has to imbibe only coffee. This happened during the time when both beverages were considered deleterious to one's health. As it turned out, the brother who consumed tea succumbed first at 83, making coffee the preferred beverage.

Further correlation is found in the longevity rates of Scandinavians, who are inveterate coffee drinkers, as compared with the English, who are habitual tea drinkers. The average Scandinavian outlives the average Englishman.

M. Keith Daitsch Seal Beach, Calif.

Death by Fire

After reading the two letters regarding hotel fire safety [March 16], I believe the general public may have some misunderstanding of the subject. A "simple gas mask" would not provide oxygen or protection against carbon monoxide. And a plastic hose would surely not be a shield against fire roaring down a hallway at 2000DEG F. What is needed is the adoption of tougher building-and fire-code standards. Until then we will continue to have more fires and more deaths.

David Altamirano, Inspector

Orange County Fire Department

San Juan, Calif.

Why Moses Turned Right

I was surprised to read that the biblical account of the Exodus does not answer the question of why Moses turned right upon reaching the Sinai [March 23] or why he led the Israelites on the 40-year odyssey. My Bible answers both.

The right turn wasn't Moses' doing. He and the children of Israel were following the Lord, who took the form of a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. The 40-year wandering was to punish Israel for its faithlessness. A dozen men were sent into Canaan on a 40-day reconnaissance mission. Ten of the twelve returned with reports of doom. Because their pessimism indicated faithlessness, God meted out a year of wandering for each day of spying.

(The Rev.) Dan Younger Palm Harbor, Fla.

Panda Goes Acourting

May I offer my un-koalafied praise for Chia-Chia's objective report of his recent trip from London [March 16]. His cool, responsible account was welcome counterpoint to the media-induced panda-monium surrounding the case. Certainly such detached testimony makes the entire situation much more bearable.

Calvin N. Smith Charleston, III.

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