Letters

THE NEW STAR WARS

I bought your Star Wars issue for my 11-year-old son [CINEMA, April 26] and greatly enjoyed listening to him announce over breakfast the latest news and trivia about Episode I--The Phantom Menace. As a parent, I am happy to take him to see this film--not just for the dazzling special effects or the exciting story but because the Star Wars saga celebrates free will and contains lessons about persistence, faith and the necessity of hope. These stories appeal to children; they never condescend but include their young audience in the fantasy and fun. My son proclaimed, as he finished your magazine and headed to school, "May the Force be with you!" BARBARA LEE WILLIAMS Oakland, Calif.

Surely one of the signs of the apocalypse must be this stupefying Star Wars hysteria. This is a puny epic for people with no life. It is filled with crummy acting and dialogue and not a minute of intelligence or beauty. Our new "religion" is a horrendous mishmash of recycled comic strips, dreary Saturday-morning serials and half-baked mysticism and mythology. DAN O'NEILL Los Angeles

Thank you for the wonderful story and pictures of The Phantom Menace. As a young mother, I eagerly waited along with my small son for the first Star Wars to come to our local theater. And then we had to take family and friends, going back to refight the battles. We saw it seven times. With the latest film, I will return to that special time with another little blue-eyed boy (my grandson this time) and fight new battles. THERESA CONNER Columbia Falls, Mont.

I am sad that George Lucas, with his talent, sees only a world where boys grow up to be soldiers and girls to be princesses. His is a society where men save the galaxy and women have a different costume for every event. Understandable, perhaps, in 1977, when the first Star Wars film was released, but in 1999? Come on, George! You want children to "think outside the box," yet you perpetuate centuries-old sex roles. RICHARD PATTAY Greensboro, N.C.

Re Bill Moyers' interview with Lucas: the paradox of Lucas' monistic beliefs is that they cannot explain the mythical themes that make Star Wars so powerful. Lucas has written a story of redemption, one that defines evil as a deviant, consuming corruption of the good. To make sense, Star Wars needs a personal God. But Lucas washes God out with his flimsy Force. The result? Guidance without a guide, power without a purpose, goodness without a ground. Since the contradiction of a theistic myth in pantheistic clothing appears lost on Lucas, it also will surely be lost on most of his audience. MARK WARNOCK Tinley Park, Ill.

Your feature on Star Wars highlights the preoccupation of many adults and youngsters with fantasy as they spend their time watching electrons move across a computer screen. We need to find ways to utilize the energy of today's teens so they spend far less time in front of their computers and TV sets. Teens need to get out of their bedroom and do some concrete work, beneficial to both them and their families--preferably some physical occupation not requiring computers or cell phones. ROSS AND NANCY KAPALA Randolph, N.J.

CREDIT FOR EARTH DAY

I am honored to have been profiled by TIME in your special report on Earth Day [HEROES FOR THE PLANET, April 26]. Some readers, however, might be left with the impression that Earth Day was my idea. Former Senator Gaylord Nelson first proposed the event; he was the board's chairman, and he persuaded me to serve as national coordinator. Senator Nelson is thus the true "father" of Earth Day. I was, perhaps, its midwife. DENIS HAYES, CHAIR Earth Day Network Seattle

WORLD WAR II PARALLELS

To equate the atrocities that strongman Slobodan Milosevic and his Serbian forces are committing with the horrors of World War II is bizarre [LETTERS, April 26]. The Holocaust was far more atrocious in that a whole population was not only murdered but also degraded through propaganda and concentration camps. What is happening to the Albanians is certainly a catastrophe, but the genocide is on a small scale compared to the Holocaust. DAVID W. PETTY Oregon, Wis.

If you turned on your TV today and saw the sardine-packed trains of Kosovo's refugees and you did not know the time frame, you could easily assume these were pictures of the horrific removal of Jews to the death camps during World War II. Ethnic cleansing is a euphemism for genocide or methodical murder. Don't be fooled: the motive in Kosovo is religious hatred. The ethnic Albanians are Muslims, and the murdering Serbs are Christians. How can religious people throughout the world remain silent, knowing such an outrage is being committed? Muslims, Jews and Christians, stand up and be counted. EDWARD MORRISROE Lake Forest, Calif.

WAR IS HELL, EVEN FOR THE B-2

Your article on the debut of the B-2 [KOSOVO CRISIS, April 26] struck me as closed-minded cheerleading from people living in a fantasy world. The B-2 bomber was called a dream machine that takes off "over soybean fields" and lands back near our "heartland homes." Such writing trivializes war, making it seem like just a job, and a pleasant one at that. Remember, war is hell. JOHN SLEVIN Bell Gardens, Calif.

NATURE ON THE GAY SIDE

Cognitive scientist Bruce Bagemihl's book reports on homosexual couplings among animals [BEHAVIOR, April 26], but for anyone to use the example of male giraffes rubbing each other as justification for homosexuality in humans is ludicrous. There are species of crocodiles in which adults frequently eat the young. Should we then declare this type of animal behavior acceptable grounds for human infanticide? DAVID JENKINS Clifton, N.J.

We can only hope that since "Mother Nature seems to be keeping an open mind" on the gay side of nature, the rest of society will follow. DRAKE DELMAR Los Angeles