Letters

Celebrity Comet

To the Editors: We should pause during our excitement over the return of Halley's comet [SCIENCE, Dec. 16] to contemplate the observations the comet could make about us and our planet. Since the Wright brothers' flight in 1903, we have left the earth and visited the moon. We have sent probes to other planets and to the far reaches of our solar system. We have stopped being earthbound and have ventured out to greet the comet. In the next 75 years, will we still be waiting for Halley's comet to come to us, or will we be chasing it? John D. Tew Sterling, Va.

At age 92, 1 hope to see Halley's comet the second time around. In 1910 our high school math teacher in my hometown, Nuremberg, Germany, took us to the medieval imperial castle, which overlooks the old city, and here we watched with awe the celestial phenomenon, never to be forgotten. Alfred J. Hopf Madison, Wis.

The other night I saw the comet. It was spectacular. I also observed Jupiter and its moons, the nebula stars in Orion's saber, the Pleiades and the Andromeda nebula. I was entranced and mystified. Lee Anne Miles Martinsville, Va.

In your piece "Historic Cometary Tales," you are correct in saying that comets had a probable role in the origin of life by bringing with them the chemical precursors of life, in the form of amino acids and other molecules. However, this theory was suggested by me almost 25 years ago, and not as you say by the scientists Francis Crick and Leslie Orgel. Joan Oro, Professor Biochemical and Biophysical Sciences University of Houston Houston

TIME regrets the error.

I hope the world is still here the next time Halley's comet comes around. Kristine Haugen Downers Grove, Ill. Challenging Marcos

Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos [ WORLD, Dec. 16] does possess one extraordinary ability: to speak out of both sides of his mouth at the same time. At one moment he says his military forces would go it alone, "preferably" without U.S. military aid. In almost the same breath, he admits his decision to call elections was "in part" due to U.S. pressure. Ignacio Javier Hollywood

I have nothing against Cory Aquino's running for President of the Philippines. But how will she persuade voters to entrust the highest position of the land to a woman who has not held any public office? Being the widow of a brilliant man does not make her brilliant too. Avelino U. Falcon Madrid, the Philippines Demoted Rembrandt

Your article "The Man with the Golden Helmet" [ESSAY, Dec. 16] brings to mind the expression, What's in a name? Obviously a great deal, since the renowned and "priceless" work by Rembrandt has fallen to one-twentieth of its previous value. One should ask, "What is in art?" A name? Stephen G. Schulhoff Baltimore

The Man with the Golden Helmet hung in my father's living room throughout my youth. Now The Man rests on the wall in my study, watching me work and challenging me to find his strength in myself. It does not matter if he was created by Rembrandt or Joe Schmalz. The Man with the Golden Helmet is a part of my life and cannot be diminished. Bruce D. Anderson Bound Brook, N.J.

Unknown artists have always produced masterpieces. If we do not want to recognize the greatness of their works, that is our weakness. Harriet Moser Houston

Your Essay illuminates some of the tragedies resulting from disaccreditation: the tree of knowledge is often watered with the tears of disillusion. Edie Brown Eisenberg Woodmere, N. Y. Selling Secrets

I am a refugee who has nurtured an image of a highly patriotic U.S. As I read your article [NATION, Dec. 9] on how some Americans have sold top secrets to foreign agents "purely for the money," I was stunned. Chinh Nguyen San Francisco

There is not a country on earth that does not attempt to gather information it perceives to be in its self-interest from anywhere it can be found. Israel's behavior is the rule, not the exception. All the Israelis did wrong was get caught. Barry Haft New York City

The leniency with which the U.S. punishes those who spy upon us is appalling. Death is the only possible sentence for a convicted spy. William M. Showacre Annapolis Broken Compass

In your article on the building of the Gabon jungle railway [WORLD, Dec. 9], you say a round trip from the capital Libreville to the coast used to take 40 days. Libreville is on the coast. To what city are you referring? Kent Page Amsterdam

TIME misread its map and confused Libreville with Franceville. Unwelcome Mat

As a student in Philadelphia, I followed with interest and disgust the racial unrest triggered by a nonwhite family's moving to predominantly white areas of the city [NATION, Dec. 9]. I thought such incidents of racism became extinct with the civil rights legislation of the 1950s and 1960s. I also assumed that the "species" fostering such prejudice died out with the early Mesozoic era. Jay A. Baker Philadelphia

In reporting the recent outbreak of racism in Philadelphia, TIME might have placed the incident in a somewhat less biased context by recalling another ugly display of racism in West Philadelphia a year ago. The victims, Asian refugees, were not merely subjected to threats and harassment; they were brutally beaten, and many ultimately left the city. The difference was that that time the attackers were black. It should be clearly recognized that racism is equally reprehensible whether practiced by whites or blacks. The concept of affirmative action can in no way be twisted to permit blacks to have the edge over whites in this respect. Louis M. Buzek Tryon, N.C.

I hope there are millions of other Americans who feel as shocked and horrified as I do over the display of racism in Philadelphia. If there is hatred in that city, the residents should look to their own hearts for the source. Will the day never come when people finally overcome their primitive fears? Rita Regnier-Yvarra Santa Maria, Calif. Mothers Too Young

Your article on teen pregnancy [BEHAVIOR, Dec. 9] was fine as far as it went. But there is an untold story about the feminization of poverty. We should be questioning the boyfriends of these teen mothers about their sex habits and attitudes. Why are they impregnating females willy-nilly? Why do they sire children they have no intention of raising? Until these attitudes change, we should commit more government resources to aid for dependent children, day care and equity pay for women. Arlene P. Cayer Arlington Heights, Ill.

While traveling abroad, I found that the approaches to birth control vary from country to country. Family-planning classes at Fudan University in Shanghai are in the department of economics because the need to feed and shelter families has become an acute financial problem for the Chinese. Turkey assigns its birth control clinics to the Department of Labor, believing that a lower birth rate will mean fewer unemployed in future generations. The Egyptian government includes family planning in its Department of Family Health. Jules F. Rosenbaum Houston

I do not see the fathers of these illegitimate children as neglected or treated like "outsiders receiving none of the solicitous attention that occasionally attends the mother and child." These teenage and older men are not the forgotten partners. In most cases the male abandons the female when she tells him that she is having his child. The double standard still exists in the area of teenage pregnancy. Sister Jean Kenny River Grove, Ill.

Every article on teenage pregnancy talks about the mother's not returning to school, receiving public assistance and not marrying the father. This is true, but what about the teen who decides to further her education, get a good job and get married too? I am one of these mothers who are trying to provide a better future for their children. Marie A. Bell Washington Quality of Life

I felt bitter after reading the article on artificial-heart recipients [MEDICINE, Dec. 9]. To subject a human to the confines of an artificial life-support system is an unethical and deplorable act of modern medicine. It is time man accepts the fact that as a life form, he is finite, and that the quality of life, not the quantity, is what should be valued. Jeffrey Reese Davis Chattanooga, Tenn.

As a nurse, I know that the human body is a well-integrated unit, each organ depending on other body parts for perfect functioning. If a vital organ such as the heart, lung or liver gives out, the support systems are weakened as well. Patients are unrealistic when they expect every operation to be a medical miracle. But doctors are equally unrealistic when they try to play God. Beatrice Warren Aptos, Calif. Women at the Top

I noted in your article on women executives in corporate America that only one FORTUNE 500 company is headed by a woman [ECONOMY & BUSINESS, Dec. 2]. I would like to point out that one of the largest "businesses" in Illinois, an enterprise that had $1.2 billion in sales in fiscal year 1985, is headed by a woman, Illinois State Lottery Superintendent Rebecca Paul. I expect the lottery under her leadership to produce profits of more than $500 million for education in the coming year. For Illinois that is certainly "Fortune 500." James R. Thompson, Governor State of Illinois Springfield Computer Convert

Hooray for William F. Buckley Jr. and his enthusiasm for the word processor [COMPUTERS, Dec. 9]. Who says you cannot teach an old conservative new tricks? The ease and lack of frustration that come from writing on a computer make the machine ideal. When I went back to school to finish an electronics degree, I purchased a word processor. Not only was I more creative, but writing became fun instead of drudgery. Thomas M. Nathe Salem, Ore.

To many, Buckley is a brilliant thinker, speaker and writer. To others, he is a pitiless, pedantic, pretentious piercer of bleeding hearts. To me he is all these and more. Now that I have learned of his enthusiasm for computers, I consider him a secret blood brother. Richard H. Gramann McLean, Va.