Coming Together

To the Editors:

As an experienced convention-goer (Dec. 18], I penned these lines:

This is what you 'II likely find

As your daily fests unwind:

A time to eat, a time to meet;

But none to rest your aching feet.

This is what you'll likely hear

If you keep in tune by ear:

The talks the talkers have talked before.

The puns the punners pun--encore!

The gab the gabbers gabbed of yore.

The gripes the gripers gripe galore.

(The Rev.) Leslie Conrad Jr.

Richardson, Texas

Convention fever seems to be extremely contagious here in the U.S. Our only hope is that someone, somewhere, will come up with a cure for that dreaded disease.

Thomas O'Dell

Bantam, Conn.

So conventions don't pollute or put any burden on municipal services? The garbage people and sewer workers could submit evidence to the contrary. Enlightened promoters should concede that 26 million conventioneers leave other things than money in the host city.

C. W. Gaylord

Williamsville, N. Y.

Will Rogers saw it first. Said he in his daily column of May 2, 1930: "When Judgment Day comes, half of America will be on their way to some convention and the other half will be signing application blanks."

Bryan Sterling

New York City

Rocky's Clones

As an art student, I was greatly disheartened by Rockefeller's scheme to sell reproductions of his collection [Dec. 18]. I work hard on my original pieces. Yet how can I compete with timeless entities such as Rodin or Modigliani? These "clone"' collectors don't want art--they want status symbols. Why don't they buy a Mercedes instead? At least they can drive that.

Leslie Howat

Hatboro, Pa.

Why the fierce attack? Rockefeller made it clear he was offering copies and told at what price they were available. Nobody is deceived. If people think such copies are worth their price, they will buy them. If not, Rockefeller has made a good effort but a bad deal. So be it.

C.H. de Jong

Great Barrington, Mass.

Doctors' Dilemma

The best doctors will never need to advertise [Dec. 11], and for the worst ones, advertising will be an additional expense to pass on to their patients. Medical advertising will help the consumer about as much as car advertising protects the buyer of an automobile.

Maralys Wills

Santa Ana, Calif.

Physicians who develop new treatments and new techniques have voluntarily accepted a professional ethic that they publish these findings for the use of all physicians in the treatment of all patients. If the FTC puts physicians in the position of price competition by destroying their ethical ban on advertising, they should expect that a physician who develops an effective new treatment will keep it a secret and sell it to the highest bidder rather than publish it for the use of all. I do not believe that to be a wise exchange.

John R. Dykers Jr., M.D.

Siler City, N.C.

NATO Dej`a Vu

While reading your article on NATO [Dec. 11], I could not help thinking that I had heard it all before. The confident bluster, the statistics, the little soldier having his say, etc. Then it dawned on me. When I was very young, I heard just about the same claptrap about the awesome Maginot and Siegfried lines--and we all know just how useful they turned out to be as defenses against a determined and ideologically motivated enemy. Perhaps the only hope lies in men like General Haig, who is only "cautiously optimistic"--and no more.

Leon Poplawski

Fuenterrabia, Spain

Both NATO and the Warsaw Pact are bent on topping each other in men and materials. Hasn't it ever occurred to the member countries of these organizations that no one intends to attack anyone else and that the staggering amount of money squandered is a useless and criminal waste?

Elisio Malheiro Dias Correia Ribeiro

Lisbon

Stereotyping Scientology?

For accuracy's sake, it should be pointed out that in the article "The Quandary of the Cults" [Dec. 18], the photo captioned "Founder L. Ron Hubbard" of the Church of Scientology was not Mr. Hubbard at all. While the writer did have the sense to make a rational distinction between the Peoples Temple and other newer religions, he also stereotyped newer religions under a now meaningless banner of cults. Certainly the Romans too had quandaries with the cult of Christianity. One can only wonder how the media might have reported that story.

Rabbi Hyman Solomon

Los Angeles

Physician from Saigon

At least your American Scene article on the Arkansas doctor from Saigon [Dec. 18] has shown me that somehow, somewhere, somebody from my country has courage, a strong will and a chance to build up a new life here in America, where it is difficult to adapt to culture differences. It was a model, a hope for my people, and I am personally proud for the Thieu Bui family.

Nguyen thi Ngoc Anh

San Diego

It sounds to me, a black American who served in Viet Nam (1967-68), as if the Buis, who send their children to a private academy, do not want them to associate with black children. So many blacks died to allow the Buis the opportunity to live free, and they, like so many other aliens, legal and illegal, look at blacks as people less than desirable to associate with.

(M/SGT) W.H. Cole, U.S.A.

Freeport, N. Y.

Discovery of America

You ask, "Did the Vikings arrive first [Dec. 11]?" The ancestors of our present-day Indians and Eskimos came from Asia via Alaska, and the Norwegians, Danes and Irish appear to have found their way to our eastern coast about the year A.D. 1000. If they discovered America, nobody knew it. Now, with the land full of people and automobiles, those who are here by reason of Columbus' notable discovery are telling us that Columbus did not discover America.

Vincent Gilloley

Phoenix

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