Out of the Dirt

Sir / The only way for America to resolve the presidential problem is to impeach Mr. Nixon and allow the Senate to try him fairly. The way things stand now, we are getting nowhere; but if we impeach the President then he will be either justly acquitted or justly removed, and we could go back to politics instead of playing in the dirt.

BENNETT MILLER

Rochester, Minn.

Sir / In one respect, we Americans differ little from our 17th century Puritan forebears. We continue to believe in the efficacy of witch hunts of grandiose proportions for excising the evil from among us. They may provide a needed catharsis, may even have a mild deterrent effect; but when will we learn that evil is not a wart on the body politic, but a cancer endemic in the human soul?

ANN MALENSEK

Chicago

Sir / Through your fine reporting and analysis of the Watergate affair, you have shown that the only "fishing expedition" was Nixon's search for any means to hide the truth from the American people. It is ironic that the "witch hunt" is finally catching up with the "witch."

NANCY V. FISH

Lake Worth, Fla.

Sir / At some time in the future, the people of this country may be plagued with unbearable grief. They may cry out: "What in the world did we ever do to deserve this?" Then they will recall the spring of '74 and what they did to President Richard M. Nixon. The only suggestion I could possibly make to President Nixon is that he change his name to Kennedy. Then, at least, he could do no wrong.

BETH JOHNSON

San Luis Obispo. Calif.

Sir / I suppose some confusion was inevitable in the welter of editorial comment following the press's release of the Watergate transcripts, but I would like to set the record straight so far as the Los Angeles Times is concerned.

The Times did not, as you reported [May 20], urge Mr. Nixon's removal from office. Instead, its editorial called for impeachment by the House so the matter could then be resolved by trial in the Senate.

WILLIAM F. THOMAS

Editor

Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles

Food, Not Bombs

Sir / The article on starvation [May 13] made me ill in more ways than one. If we can send airplanes to drop bombs on foreign peoples, why can we not send planes to make food drops?

DOROTHY CARTER

Seattle

Sir / Having just returned to the U.S. after six years of living in Asia, in Asian terms and on Asian levels, I notice that we Americans are virtually all fat. It is ethically as well as aesthetically disgusting. We over-consume ourselves into an unhealthy obesity. Then we compound our selfish idiocy by pouring still more dollars into fancy-priced reducing salons, ranch vacations, exercise programs and machines. We waste twice, while the rest of the world dies because it cannot eat its fill once.

J. VAN CLEVE

Round Lake, Ill.

Sir / During the oil embargo we were constantly made aware of the oil-rich nations that have more money than they know what to do with in their own countries. The devastating photos of starving children in the hunger belt might give them an idea.

DARLENE SOPER

Marina Del Rey, Calif.

Sir / There is no weakness in the gaunt and half-closed eyes of a starving child, but a power so overwhelming that it will eventually consume the brother who runs and plays among the lush grasses of the world.

J.A. RITTENHOUSE

Danbury, Conn.

Sexual Slander

Sir / Why is it that in the TIME article on "The New Bisexuals" [May 13], Natalie Shainess characterizes homosexuality as distrust of the opposite sex and bisexuality as distrust of both sexes, without similarly slandering heterosexuality as distrust of one's own sex? If she's going to slander sexualities, why not slander them all? Sorry, but I don't distrust anybody simply on the basis of sexual grouping.

THOMAS MAYER

Boston

Sir / Your article ends on a negative note with Dr. Shainess, of orthodox-psychiatric-theory fame, telling us that only good old-fashioned heterosexuality is satisfying. She is giving us her own personal value judgment instead of medical facts. There will be a "sound understanding of the realities of sex" when society and the media can view sexual diversity as something positive and the physicians heal themselves.

JAMES H. PATTERSON

New Orleans

Sir / John Money ought to realize that "the capacity to fall in love with one person" is no more than a cultural construct. It means exclusiveness, possessiveness and dependence on the chosen other. This is not love. If we accept our sexuality as natural and the entire range of possible sexual options as normal, if we see physical lovemaking as one of many ways to express our human capacity to care for other people, it will not and should not matter whether we love just one person or several, of whatever sex. We won't need "fashionable" labels to justify our choices. We won't be afraid of pur friends' sexual overtures, or mind their refusing ours, if they are really our friends.

JACQUELINE LAPIDUS

Paris

Sir / For God's sake--and I mean that literally--let's put sex back in the bedroom, between two (and only two) people of opposite sexes.

MRS. EDWIN MENEGHINI

Norway. Mich.

A Clean Avenue

Sir / The military junta in Lisbon has paved a new and clean avenue for Portugal [May 13|. I hope that the strongman, General Spinola, will adhere to African freedom fighters' calls for total independence. The junta could bring peace with honor for Portugal in its aimless and unwinnable wars in Africa by recognizing the fundamental and legitimate rights of the African people of Angola, Mozambique and Guinea to independence and to decide their own destiny.

DAVID D. CHANG

Monrovia

Who's in a Name?

Sir / Re "The Name Game" [May 13]: five years ago, my husband-to-be refused to get married unless he also got a new name out of the union. After much arguing and discussion, we combined his maiden name with mine to make Snyder-Stonebraker. Lest our mothers be forgotten, we each dropped our middle names and inserted our mothers' family names. Alphabetical order, of course, for the four family names.

At first, I was embarrassed. I used to escape any questions by saying I was British. Now I am kind of proud of my five-foot-long name. After all, do we exist only for the convenience of computer cards?

CAROLYN HOLUB SANDS

SNYDER-STONEBRAKER

Boulder, Colo.

Sir / The people of Spain solved the name problem a long time ago. A child receives both his father's and mother's names. When the surname becomes too long, part is dropped off. I have gone through much confusion with my last name in school, but I'm glad people are beginning to adopt this custom because I'm proud of my name, and when I marry I'm keeping it.

NINA DIEZ-LUCKIE

Conygham, Pa.

Sir / Women's lib in modern Scandinavia has taken a step backward in this regard. As their family name, children formerly took the father's name and added "son" or "daughter" as a suffix. In addition, wives retained this name after marriage. Thus a couple named Karl Johnsen and Astrid Svensdottir might have children named Erik Karlsen and Kirsten Karlsdottir. Other than in Iceland, this practice has been abandoned in favor of the less confusing continuity of patrimonial surnames.

An added note: women's lib in the West has a long way to go to catch up with the Koreans. Wives in Korean society retain their maiden name after marriage. However, this practice has undergone a decline under the influence of the "advanced" West.

EDWARD A. OLSEN

SOON-HONG BAY OLSEN

Arlington, Va.

Burns v. the Flump

Sir / Hurrah for Arthur Burns [May 6]! He has the courage to apply the painful tourniquet of a restrictive monetary policy to our potentially fatal inflation wound. Alas, there are too many myopic politicians who would rather see the patient die than inflict some discomfort on our economy.

JOAN M. FORDE

Bala-Cynwyd, Pa.

Sir / Why do you insist on calling it a "slumpflation" when it is obviously a "flump"?

PHILIP M. FAUCETT

Bethesda, Md.

No Amateur Nukes, Please

Sir / I am incensed over the "Amateur A-Bomb?" article [May 13]. Is it really necessary to print for all to see explicit directions for the construction of a nuclear weapon? Honestly! Doesn't it become clear to us all that the suggestion of another way to terrorize society will do nothing but encourage psychotics and weirdos to try it out? Shame! Tell us the stories, yes, but please leave out the details and formulas.

NANCY DEES

Puyallup, Wash.

Beautiful Ego

Sir / In reading your article on TV's Geraldo Rivera [May 13], I found you neglected one important fact about the man. He cares for and reacts to other people as few people do. That's a hell of a beautiful way to satisfy an ego.

GLORIA ROLLAND

Cottage Grove, Minn.

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