Sex '80s-Style

To the Editors:

As a cautious middle-aged man, I have been patiently biding my time until the sexual revolution became so prevalent that I could join without embarrassment to myself or my family [SEXES, April 9]. Shucks, now it is over. My predicament illustrates how "he who hesitates is lost."

Felix A. Gaudin

New Orleans

Freud warned that sexual reforms like those we have witnessed might make matters worse. In 1912 he foretold: "In times in which there were no difficulties standing in the way of sexual satisfaction, such as perhaps during the decline of ancient civilizations, love became worthless and life empty, and strong reaction-formations were required to restore the indispensable emotional value of love."

Lawrence Shornack

Greensboro, N.C.

In Eden, the site of the original revolution, Adam and Eve found it was the same old tale when they turned over a new leaf. Boring.

Ed Anthony

Naples, Fla.

Christianity has been teaching about sex, commitment and intimacy for centuries. I am glad an exhausted society has finally come to agree with the church.

(The Rev.) Donald F. DeGroat

Hackensack, N.J.

I am a 24-year-old male virgin and proud of it. The catchword for the '80s may be intimacy, but I wonder what ever happened to good old-fashioned love and sacrifice. We should concentrate on loving one another without attaching carnality to every relationship.

Eric E. Erdmanis

Havertown, Pa.

So the baby boomers have rediscovered the traditional values of fidelity, obligation and marriage. In the meantime, those of us who grew up in the '50s are left to deal with the broken marriages and lives that resulted when the commitment of a long-term marriage did not measure up to the promises of the Me generation.

Ruth Litke

St. Cloud, Minn.

I am dismayed to learn that the revolution is over. Having missed it, I would be most grateful if you would announce a new one in the near future.

Bruce R. Vogel

San Mateo, Calif.

Sex causes more disappointment than glorious realization. Sex and religion are burdens to mankind because of their inability to fulfill their enticing promises.

Howard W. Klippert

East Aurora, N. Y.

A revolution need not be ongoing to have effected change. What we considered yesterday to be outrageous behavior is no longer criticized or even noticed. Indeed, we have embraced the revolution as everyday life.

Steven J. Mongin

Green Bay, Wis.

I can tell you when the sexual revolution began: Oct. 29, 1960, at 4:20 p.m.--20 minutes after I got married!

Jim Greene

Whitestone, N. Y.

Capital Problem

Anyone who loves both Israel and America should consider the consequences of moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem at this time [NATION, April 9]. This symbolic act would only serve to provoke P.L.O. terrorism against Americans who live, work or travel in Muslim countries.

Bernard L. Neville

Hattiesburg, Miss.

As an American Jew, I am offended by the patronizing behavior of both Gary Hart and Walter Mondale concerning the location of the U.S. embassy in Israel. Each is trying to prove that he is a better friend to Israel. Hart and Mondale have the mistaken notion that Jews are interested only in this one issue.

Martin Schlank

Aberdeen, N.J.

It is common knowledge that the U.S. supports Israel. So why should this country engage in a largely symbolic move that will re-emphasize a well-known fact and, in the process, antagonize Israel's Arab neighbors? It is time for the U.S. to become more sensitive to the reactions of the Arab world and to realize that Israel does not exist in a vacuum.

Kathleen Dolan

Lynbrook, N. Y.

Salvadorans at the Polls

In the past four years, the Salvadoran government has slaughtered close to 40,000 of its citizens. Last month that same government held an election [WORLD, April 9] in which the citizens were required to vote, under threat of fine, arrest or death. TIME said this spectacle "seemed to be a moment of democratic triumph, but only a moment." I thought it was a farce.

Timothy M. Hughes

Boston

Salvadorans joined "long, serpentine polling lines" not to show their defiance of the leftist Liberation Front but because they were afraid of official repression. In El Salvador it is illegal not to participate in the election. The Defense Minister declared that not voting was an act of treason, and in El Salvador you get shot for treason. Under such conditions, anyone would be eager to vote.

Alan A. Gonzalez

Raleigh, N.C.

Nicaraguan Mata Hari

Nora Astorga, Nicaragua's nominee for Ambassador to the U.S. [WORLD, April 2], may indeed be a dreadful dragon lady. On the other hand, having made the decision that war was necessary to eliminate a greater evil in her country, Astorga may have demonstrated considerable moral and patriotic responsibility by luring General Reinaldo Perez-Vega to her room and then killing him.

Mary Lee Johns

Austin

I am the widow of General Reinaldo Perez-Vega. My husband's throat was not slashed as you say. He was tortured for hours until he died, an act in which Astorga was an active participant. She is a murderess. Her nomination as the ambassador from Nicaragua is evidence of the type of leaders that form the Communist Sandinista government.

Maria L. Perez-Vega

I am puzzled that you should question whether the U.S. Government will accept "a onetime terrorist" as ambassador from Nicaragua. The Reagan Administration employs terrorists who regularly cross from Honduras to Nicaragua to try their hand at terrorism. Why should we object to having a former practitioner of the art as Nicaragua's ambassador?

Philip Russell

Austin

Cholesterol Controversy

Your statement that cholesterol is "proved deadly" [MEDICINE, March 26] appears to be largely based on the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute study. This was not a dietary study. It tested only the effect of a cholesterol-lowering drug on a small group of people with genetically elevated cholesterol levels, not the effect of alteration of the diet on the healthy majority of the population. Dr. Ahrens of Rockefeller University states, "Since this was basically a drug study, we can conclude nothing about diet."

The article is misleading in its implication that everybody should follow strict dietary regimens necessary for those with abnormally high blood-cholesterol levels. Your headline, "Hold the Eggs and Butter," carries unjustified nutritional implications. You even seem to question the healthfulness of a major group of highly nutritious foodstuffs, including meat, eggs, dairy products and seafoods. These traditional foods are highly valuable in the diet because they are rich in a large number of essential nutrients: vitamins, minerals and protein of high nutritional value. The reader of your article is likely to conclude that these foods should be severely restricted in the diet of all people. Such implications are counter to a sound, balanced application of nutritional knowledge.

Henry J. Heintz II, Chairman

H.J. Heinz Co.

Pittsburgh

Death Wish

Perhaps Colorado Governor Richard Lamm did not phrase his statement very tactfully when he said, "Elderly people who are terminally ill have a duty to die" [MEDICINE, April 9]. For his critics, however, I have this question: Do the terminally ill of any age benefit from having the agony of death prolonged indefinitely by the use of artificial means?

Elizabeth Lipsey

Huntsville, Ala.

Progress in scientific advances has allowed physicians to preserve life no matter what the quality of that life will be. Even when a patient and family want to avoid "medical heroics," an attorney is often waiting in the wings to make sure they do otherwise.

David Lubin, M.D.

Tampa

Governor Lamm is being unjustly branded for downgrading the elderly. Instead, he should be applauded for trying to bring some dignity to human life.

Kona R. Sudhakar, M.D.

Upland, Calif.

The trouble with confusing the right to die with the duty to die, as Governor Lamm has done, is that government officials might conclude that they have a responsibility to see that the individual's duty is discharged. The voters of Colorado should exercise their right to replace a politician who exhibits such insensitivity.

Lewis Kapner

West Palm Beach, Fla.

When North Carolina Senator Jesse Helms told a right-to-life rally that legalization of abortion would lead to doing away with the handicapped, the elderly and the ill, he was ridiculed. In the light of Governor Lamm's recent remarks, I wonder if we should continue to reject the warnings of Senator Helms and the right-to-life movement.

David A. Krouse

Wallingford, Pa.

Modern medicine does not keep "frail and withered leaves on the tree"; it keeps people alive. The treacherous euphemism "death with dignity" should not blind us to the distinction between the right to die, which should be everyone's regardless of age, and the duty to die, which should be required of no one.

Diana F. Ackerman

Providence

Colts' Bolt

The Baltimore Colts are gone [SPORT, April 9]. We now have the Indianapolis Sneakers.

Jim Dungan

State College, Pa.