ENEMIES OF THE STATE

"I'm scared, and I'm sure that many feel the same way. How could we let this radical movement build without our noticing?"

Keivn J. Chown Detroit, Michigan

Your report on organized militias in the U.S. [COVER, May 8] was both interesting and alarming. To think that people have become so paranoid that they believe the United Nations is trying to take over the U.S.! Those in the militias who blame the Federal Government, immigrants and the U.N. for their problems need to come to grips with reality.

Christopher Maurer Germantown, Maryland AOL: ChrisM7657

This country's militias and other extremist right-wing groups are more of a threat to democracy than Russia or China ever was. Listening to members of these organizations reminds me of Germany at the start of Hitler's rise to power. People who belong to such extremist groups would have been jailed if they were in any country but the U.S.

Joel Esterman Havertown, Pennsylvania AOL: NOSNOWJOEL

Hate groups have always been as American as hominy grits. Rather than seek a new enemy without, Americans should confront the old enemy within.

William Bedford Toronto

Armed militias are the mirror reflection of the paramilitarization of federal law enforcement. The frightening images of tanks, helicopters and armored carriers assaulting the compound in Waco, Texas, encouraged many fearful, disturbed people to stockpile arms, play guerrilla-patriot and wait for the Apocalypse. The Oklahoma City bombing is Act II of the Waco tragedy. Act III will follow the "politics of escalation" because militias are the new Viet Cong to be rooted out of their enclaves. The government has not yet admitted to itself that it is already infected with a militaristic virus that has spread to many of its concerned citizens.

Jerry A. Worley San Jose, California AOL: JerryW6506

Perhaps the militias' paranoia comes not so much from Waco as from the wave of crime in this country. We are all tired of feeling unsafe on our streets. Our country is rapidly deteriorating, and it may soon be too late to do anyting about it. In a way, one cannot blame the militias for their beliefs.

Kevin Maltby Hayward, California AOL: KMaltby

I hear paramilitary-group leaders trying to tidy up their images and portray themselves as patriots, when in reality they are nothing but the Klu Klux Klan in camouflage instead of sheets. While they can believe and hate anything or anyone, they should not be allowed to stockpile military-type weapons or call for the overthrow of the government. I have no desire to live in a police state than monitors my every move, but I feel infinitely more terror at the thought of the kind of country these people seem to want.

Jane C. Smith St. Paul, Minnesota

By today's definition, would the "patriots" who participated in the Boston Tea Party be considered terrorists?

Joseph Engels Gravois Mills, Missouri

Paramilitary groups that vilify the U.S. government should recognize their good fortune in being ruled by a government that so generously tolerates them. In most other countries members would be shot to death or imprisoned or the groups would be forcibly disbanded.

Cliff Johnson Studio City, California

I too do not have much faith in our government. But common sense tells me one very important thing -- it is our government, and unlike almost any system anywhere else, it gives us the right and the means to change it peacefully. Killing one another is not the answer. If these right-wing militia types want to live in a country in which their style is completely acceptable, they should purchas a one-way ticket to Iran.

Bruce Landry Hollis, New Hampshire

It is a mistake to dismiss the concerns of the militias as paranoid. The mainstream media are so viscerally liberal that they do not understand the low esteem in which they are held by the people. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Supreme Court, activist federal judges and TIME all have a share in creating an environment in which the productive citizens of this country feel they have been forgotten by the government that is supposed to serve them.

Raymond M. Thomas Cleburne, Texas

Wouldn't you love to know how many members of the Michigan Militia are Rush Dittoheads?

Shirley F. Kulp Highland Park, Illinois

As an Israeli, I know that the citizens of Oklahoma City are going through. I've been there: in Tel Aviv, when the bus exploded; in Beit Lid, just outside my hometown, where families and friends were torn apart by terrorist attacks. I also know how the lives of Americans will now be different. America used to be the place where I could go for respite from such tensions. No longer.

Nurete Brenner Netanya, Israel

MANDELA AT THE HELM

As a four-year veteran (1958-62) of the bad old days of apartheid when I was with the U.S. embassy in South Africa, I continue to be amazed at the comparative civility of that country's metamorphosis [SOUTH AFRICA, May 8] from the skunk among nations to the butterfly of hope for oppressed peoples everywhere. If Nelson Mandela can steer his nation safely past the tribal bloodbaths that drench the African continent, he will have fathered the eighth wonder of the world.

Edmund A. Bojarski Rusk, Texas

TOE-TAPPING BANDS?

In your item "Band-Aid, Pentagon-Style" [CHRONICLES, May 8], you state that it will "cost even more to entertain the troops with precise renditions of The Stars and Stripes Forever!" This incorrectly implies that the service bands merely provide "entertainment" for toe-tapping service personnel or other casual listeners. Military bands include some of the finest professional musicians in the world. As a music educator, I look to these exemplary performing ensembles as a model both aesthetic and professional for my students. The days are long past when the bands played only John Philip Sousa marches as troops passed by. Today's service bands enrich and eduate thousands upon thousands of listeners in every conceivable venue with a diverse repertoire. The arts are critical to the lives of all of us. Your thoughtless article does little to shed an informed light on the subject.

Daniel Adams Wooster, Ohio AOL: DAdams8

A PREMIER JOURNALIST IS GONE

I was saddened to read of the pass- ing of one of the world's premier magazine journalists, Otto Friedrich [TO OUR READERS, May 8]. As a historical writer, I was enormously impressed by his highly readable and brilliantly analytical articles on the outbreak and consequences of World War II. I recommend that all thoughtful citizens read his insightful contribution to Time's 50th-anniversary issue on World War II [Aug. 28, 1989] at least twice.

William Hare Mashpee, Massachusetts

THE NOVEL AS PHOENIX

Was Pico Iyer's Cuba and the Night [BOOKS, May 8] the novel he was writing when he lost all his notes during the California fires? I remember readaing his commentary [July, 1990] and feeling very sorry for him. I hope this is his novel that truly "arose from the ashes."

May jo MacSwain Park Ridge, Illinois

The notes TIME contributor Iyer lost when his home in Santa Barbara was consumed by fire in 1990 were for a planned nonfiction volume on Cuba, which would have been his fourth book. Thus bereft, Iyer turned to his imaginatioin and recast the work as a first novel. In that sense, he says, "it really is the book that rose from the ashes."