LETTERS

FAREWELL, DIANA

"The princess was like a beautiful shooting star whose glow, brief though it was, warmed the hearts of young and old, rich and poor alike." EDGARDO J.T. TIRONA Manila

Diana's death has left people around the globe with a sense of personal bereavement [PRINCESS DIANA, 1961-1997, Sept. 15]. It is amazing that a person from the British royal family touched lives in countries from Australia to Zimbabwe. And it is amazing the way they came together and showed they were united in their grief. Can we not achieve the same unity on the issues for which Diana fought? KAVITA BAWA New Delhi

It was tragic that Diana died just as she was emerging from her past troubles and, with new maturity, getting ready for a different life. We first glimpsed her as a lovely fairy-tale bride. We then saw her turn into a frantic and disturbed young wife, fighting for the affections of her husband, who, incredibly, preferred another woman. We watched as she emerged bruised yet with fresh strength and purpose. She learned as she grew: the naive, clueless girl was evolving into a confident woman. She forged a unique role for herself, using her luminous presence to focus attention on important causes. But perhaps it is better this way. Not for her the creeping ravages of old age, the humiliation of fading beauty and dimming mind. Nothing can touch her now. She will remain forever young and always a princess. K.C. HO Bangkok

In the crowds of mourners and mountains of flowers at Kensington Palace, I saw a nation devastated, not just by Diana's death but by the terrible destructiveness of death. I saw a nation without any religious framework within which to make sense of this loss. STEPHEN TURNER Cambridge, England

Her death was a tragedy, but to create a saint of Diana is wholly unwarranted and will confirm the declining state of our society's values. We look up to celebrities and entertainers rather than to teachers, nurses and others who work hard for the public good every day in unglamorous settings. One example of our skewed values: the diamond ring Dodi Fayed gave Princess Diana cost $205,400; the Nobel Peace Prize awarded Mother Teresa was worth $190,000. HOWARD M. LIEBMAN Brussels

The loss of Diana is immeasurable, but we will remember her uniqueness as a human being and the effervescent and elegant personality that gave her such universal appeal. She was not only Britain's but the entire world's princess. ALAN NYSTROM Allison Park, Pa.

I am one of the millions who sat sobbing in front of a television set watching the funeral. I wondered, What would Diana think of all this? I believe she would have been appalled. She was such an involved and compassionate woman. How much more fitting to her memory if all those people who took the time to "participate" in the funeral would now set aside the same number of hours to do volunteer work. ELIZABETH MURPHY Norwich, Conn.

I commend you for the thoughts contributed by A.N. Wilson, Jan Morris, Joyce Carol Oates, Martin Amis and Roger Rosenblatt. Unlike much that was published in newspapers and magazines immediately following Diana's death, these articles are devoid of the sweet, innocent, victim, ousted-Diana stories. Instead the writers delved into other angles of Diana, offering more practical, equally honest reflections of her. They discussed facets of her life that were just as much a part of her person as her ubiquitous beauty and charm. PEGGY CHIN Plano, Texas

Most of your articles on Diana were very kind, but one was unforgivable. Jan Morris wrote that the fantastic display of public grief was "so vulgar in many ways, so unconvincing in others." What a cruel, crude observation. The world wept that September day because our heroine was gone. The English people were magnificent in their grief. NONA and MAG HARBISON Burbank, Calif.

Princess Diana's funeral should have been private for the sake of her children, and so the public's morbid curiosity would not be satisfied. The most watched TV program in history? That says it all. Nothing was more brutal than the parading of two grief-stricken youngsters in front of the masses. This whole thing was sickening with all the twists and turns of media manipulation. Diana should have bowed out of the limelight long ago for the sake of her children. LAURA JI Burford, England

A BROTHER'S REMARKABLE TRIBUTE

Earl Spencer's eulogy at the funeral of his sister Diana will surely find a firm place in the annals of English oratory in the tradition of Disraeli, Gladstone and Churchill. Spencer's oblique reference to the anachronistic behavior of the royal family in the training of heirs to the throne, coupled with the expression of deep personal and national loss of the people's princess, will be remembered for many years to come. DENIS MACDOWELL Morgantown, W.Va. What a wasted opportunity. Earl Spencer could have used his tribute to Diana to bring divided parties together in a spirit of reconciliation and forgiveness. Instead, unable to rise above his own pain, he chose the easier path of confrontation. He, like the royal family, is a product of privilege yet remains ineffectual. One shouldn't criticize unless one actively contributes. JENNIFER MOORE Jakarta

GIVE AND TAKE BY THE MEDIA

We all have a desire to scrutinize other people's lives, even as our own are in need of repair and enrichment. We have a ghoulish urge to glean information about the misfortunes of others, even as we malign the sources that provide it. But I hope we take this opportunity to look inward and make our lives more fulfilling. I hope the media, which gained a lot from Diana, will find a way of giving something back, either through channeling the proceeds of increased circulation and improved ratings to some of her charities or by simply leaving the family alone. If just one potential reader turns his back on a sensationalist tabloid, or just one publication respects the right to privacy, some good will have come of this tragedy. KASHMIRA BHARDA IRANI Hong Kong

In the cold light of the day following Princess Diana's funeral, I realized we are all victims and pawns of the international mass media. ROCHELLE LAMBIRI Alimos, Greece

A MONARCHY IN TROUBLE?

The turnout of more than a million mourners in London, particularly those of the younger generation, for a glimpse of Diana's cortege was the expression of Britons' disapproval of the monarchy, against which Diana had staged a rebellion. The public's views must have shocked the inmates of Buckingham Palace. The lowering of the flag to half-staff under pressure of public opinion was the beginning of the end of an era. AGHA KAFEEL BARIK Karachi

It is supremely ironic that the royals, who spend a lifetime learning and practicing propriety and protocol, had to be prodded by a nation--no, a world--of "commoners" to do the right thing! CATHRINE CRAWFORD St. George, Utah

A DELICATE BALANCE

Your report on Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's mission to the Middle East [WORLD, Sept. 15] missed the central point. Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has no choice but to re-embrace Hamas, the group responsible for the Ben Yehuda bombing, and other firebrands, because his life is at stake. The Palestinian populace has rejected him and his inept internal policies. Arafat was once a hero to the average Palestinian, but no longer. Lacking ballots, the frustrated populace may resort to bullets. Arafat knows this, and his reaction has been to sacrifice everything the Palestinian movement has achieved to save his own skin. Unless Albright and her experts act on these facts, no peace will come to the Middle East. HARRY A. SAMIR Plymouth, Mass. When will Benjamin Netanyahu realize that peace is not charity to the Palestinians but a necessity for Israel? MANSOOR MAZAFFAR Orland Park, Ill.

MIRACLE WORKER MOTHER TERESA

Let it not be said that Mother Teresa died of heart failure [RELIGION, Sept. 15]. It is far more accurate to say she had at long last given all her heart away. MICHAEL CLARK Littleton, Colo.

Mother Teresa was probably the most outstanding woman of the past few centuries. She will be missed and mourned worldwide by millions. Her love and activism for the least among us were nothing short of saintly. May we all follow her example of how to be great. DAVID COMPAS Indian Hills, Calif.

Compassion takes up only a tiny space in most people's lives, but that was what Mother Teresa lived and breathed every moment of her life. She could give, endlessly, without the expectation of receiving anything but gratitude from her congregation of the poor, sick, dying and abandoned. In Calcutta she was free to live and carry out her life's mission in a state that has for many years been governed by a communist majority. Her successor, Sister Nirmala, was free to give up her Hindu religion and embrace Mother Teresa's philosophy in the Roman Catholic tradition. And politicians of many a hue were wary about interfering with her goodness. Weep not, for much good has come from this frail and wonderful woman. LEKHA SUBAIYA New Orleans

She may have been a kind person, but Mother Teresa was no visionary. She spent a lifetime comforting the dying castoffs of humanity's inability to come to terms with the need to stabilize population growth. Sadly, she often castigated those who promoted family planning. Overpopulation is literally greed personified, and if it is not confronted, all living things will suffer dire consequences. Every day thousands of children die as a result of unsustainable population growth. This is no time to create saints of people who cannot understand this harsh reality. BILL ISBISTER, Director Too Many People...Too Little Earth! Aloha, Ore.

Although she lacked the $65 million estate of Princess Diana, Mother Teresa left a much more valuable legacy: her decades of service to the world's poor. STEVE and KARA JOHNSON Eagan, Minn.

Here was a remarkable woman who, in her life with the poor, lived by a completely different set of rules. Your article said Mother Teresa's order accepted donations from "some unsavory individuals" such as Haiti's Jean-Claude Duvalier. I believe Mother Teresa accepted them because of the genuine good that would result from helping the poor. Human judgments must bow to divine judgment, and Mother Teresa more than anyone else understood the need to adopt that view. Whatever faults she might have had pale in comparison to the very true criticism Mother Teresa leveled at us in our supposed enlightened and evolved modern civilization. CARLOS DE VERA New York City

I was disappointed that Mother Teresa was not on your cover. Her beauty, character and spirit leave glamour and the royals in the shadows. CAROLYN MANN Mechanicsburg, Pa.

SWIGGING IT DOWN ON CAMPUS

Although I am one of those underage drinkers [NATION, Sept. 8], my college career means more to me than drinking. The drinking culture begins not in college but often in high school, and frequently that is when the peer pressure begins. When an individual resists this pressure in high school, then, one hopes, he will continue to resist it in college, making his own responsible choice. It is important not to characterize all colleges and universities as party schools. There are plenty of institutions of higher education where drinking is not the top priority. ANN MARIE RICHARDSON Richfield, Ohio

I take exception to your article on college binge drinking. While the "drinking culture" on campuses is a serious problem, it is indeed a "cultural" problem. As a counselor at a small public college in upstate New York, I see plenty of evidence of the seriousness of the problem, and we work hard on many levels to combat it. Colleges cannot, however, battle a cultural problem on their own. Students engaging in this type of self-destructive behavior often come with a lot of baggage. It is time we stopped expecting our educational institutions to fix everything that is broken in our society. Everyone bears responsibility. LORI OSTERHOUDT Oneonta, N.Y. I agree that raising the age at which it is legal to drink may have inadvertently increased the attraction of alcohol. As a college student of legal drinking age, I can say from experience that the appeal of drinking was much greater before age 21 than after. When the drinking age was raised, it wasn't a deterrent to drinking; it was a challenge to drink and not get caught. What colleges need to do is lessen the attraction and decrease the risk factors. This will not eliminate college drinking, but it may reduce the chances of a repeat of the terrible binge drinking that took place at the University of Louisiana. JASON D. GREEN Eau Claire, Wis.

APPRECIATION OF SOLTI

Sir Georg Solti [MILESTONES, Sept. 15] was a giant of the music world, one of the greatest conducting talents of all time and a man who devoted his life to studying and developing a deep understanding of the masterpieces and their creators. He presented these works to us, the public, in his own inimitable fashion so we could experience some of the emotions and the supernatural insight of genius. But who remains willing to sit, without the help of a single visual effect, and actually listen for more than five minutes to music that could transport him to uncharted intellectual and emotional worlds? The art of listening, of individual reasoning, of simple concentration is almost dead. Does classical music have any relevance in our society, or have we entered a new Dark Age where philistines are rampant? People must learn how to listen all over again. JANINA FIALKOWSKA Weston, Conn.

ANCIENT BLACK CIVILIZATION

I read "The Nile's Other Kingdom," about recent archaeological finds of ancient Nubia in northern Sudan, with a schoolboy's interest [ARCHAEOLOGY, Sept. 15]. For the past 20 years, I have read anything I could find on ancient Nile Valley civilizations. The statement that "Nubia, not Egypt, may have been the first true African civilization" says it all. The suggestion that Nubia's black civilization may predate Egypt's civilization by some 3,000 years must be taken seriously by Egyptologists.

The ancient Egyptians looked to the land to the south, or Nubia, for many of their needs, including protection. The Egyptians implied that their first Pharaohs came from the land to the south, bringing an abundance of Nubian knowledge to Egypt with their rule. Now that archaeologists and Egyptologists are turning away from the racial prejudice practiced in earlier years against Africans, perhaps more specialists in the field will agree that the ancient Nubian civilization formed the basis of the first Egyptian dynasties. LEE M. ROBINSON, President African Historical Research Society St. Louis, Mo.

GRIN AND DON'T WEAR IT

Your item on new styles for this fall [ARTS & MEDIA, Sept. 8] included Vogue editor Lauren duPont's remarks on shoes with stiletto heels. Her comment that "they're sleek and sexy; we will have to bear the pain" was ridiculous. Just who are the unfortunate "we" to whom she refers? I certainly have no intention of rushing out to buy shoes that would cause me both physical and financial damage. Let DuPont and her reflexologists take note: there is at least one potential customer out here who will be sticking with her comfortable flats, no matter what's in vogue. CATHERINE CROW Cambridge, Mass.