Letters

ARMED AND DANGEROUS

"Instead of debating if we should change the laws to prosecute children for adult actions, maybe we should be prosecuting the parents." STEVE PASKAY Los Angeles

Rarely has it been so clearly shown that the perpetrators of an assault were also its victims [THE JONESBORO SHOOTINGS, April 6]. The attack on schoolmates by two Arkansas youngsters ended the lives of a teacher and six children (the four who were killed and the two who shot them). Whatever factors led Mitchell Johnson, 13, and Andrew Golden, 11, to fire on their fellow students should be sought out and eliminated. The death penalty is not the issue in this case. How do you deter an anomaly? JULIUS ZIMMERMAN Richmond Heights, Ohio

The photograph of cherubic Andrew Golden with a rifle is the most disturbing TIME cover I've ever seen. HENRY ARCHIBALD CORRIHER JR. Atlanta

As an educator, I take the death of teacher Shannon Wright personally. Last year a former colleague died of a heart attack while attempting to break up a fight at his school. A teacher in the same county was murdered a few years earlier by an emotionally disturbed student. The deaths of these teachers are tragic, senseless and unexplainable. And every time I give a student an F, I wonder if this student will be the demented one who will blow me away. TARA EISENHAUER EBERSOLE Baltimore, Md.

You used way too broad a brush to paint an image of people who hunt and own guns as murderous. My husband and children are hunters. We live in a rural Texas community where, like thousands of other places across the nation, owning firearms is not unusual. We've managed to rear generations of well-adjusted children who have taken their places as respected members of our communities, unlike the amoral animals who perpetrated the Arkansas tragedy. BETH LESCHPER Stephenville, Texas

We accept the physical and emotional brutalization of children as a matter of course. Children kill because their spirits have been killed. LYNN WEISS Bastrop, Texas

I am stunned that experts continue to blame television and the media for playground massacres that involve youths and guns. Is the National Rifle Association so powerful in the U.S. that people are scared to admit that archaic gun laws are causing young children to be killed? Or is the government too concerned about losing votes because of America's obsession with weapons? America must know that as long as guns are easily available, killings will continue. JONATHAN GREEN Auckland, New Zealand

The N.R.A. is not to blame for the aberration of Jonesboro. Gun ownership in America preceded the N.R.A. In the community where this tragedy happened, hunting has been a part of life for centuries. The N.R.A.'s courses on gun safety, insistence on the presence of adults whenever youngsters are handling firearms and political activities to preserve responsibly a historical right are worthwhile undertakings. JAMES J. JENTES, N.R.A. member Passaic, N.J.

I found the photo of young Golden as repellent as the videotapes of young JonBenet Ramsey strutting around and made up to look like a seductive adult. With both children, the outcome was tragic. When will we allow our children to be children? KATHLEEN D. ZAWACKI Yardley, Pa.

We may never know why these young boys shot their classmates, but to suggest that video games had a role is irresponsible. No studies have ever shown a direct connection between violent video games and violent behavior. Given the popularity of video games over the past 25 years, we would have seen the connection long ago if it existed. Our hearts go out to the victims, and we understand the desire to find a reason for a senseless act, but to blame it on video games is wrong. CHRIS CHARLA, Editor in Chief Next Generation Brisbane, Calif.

I asked my five-year-old son and his four-year-old sister what they would do if they saw a gun. In unison, they quoted the N.R.A.'s educational mascot, Eddie Eagle: "Stop. Don't touch. Leave the area. Tell an adult." The fact that Eddie Eagle's words were remembered by my youngsters disproves the ugly picture the media often paint of the N.R.A. Eddie can help many parents to speak with their youngsters about this disturbing subject. BARBARA ROCHE Watchung, N.J.

The sight of a toddler with a rifle, real or fake, in his little hands is a condemnation of America's basic respect and love of life and smacks of sensationalism. The little martyrs of Jonesboro would have made a more fitting cover. Unfortunately, seeing a toddler photographed bearing arms will convince many foreigners that the American way of life is depraved. DIANA REVYN St.-Martens-Latem, Belgium

The Jonesboro tragedy represents an urgent call for the people of the U.S. When two little boys are capable of committing such a horrendous act, it is a sign that the roots supporting the whole of American society are rotten. LUIS GARRIDO Mexico City

In your story, a seventh-grader in Jonesboro said, "Everybody at Westside [school] knows how to shoot a gun." I'm sorry, but someone who doesn't understand the difference between shooting a deer and shooting a human being over a rebuff does not know how to use a gun. Until the N.R.A. is ready to take on the responsibility of making sure every gun user thoroughly understands this major distinction, the gun lobbyists should shut up and let the U.S. have some decent gun laws. It is just too, too easy for irresponsible people to get hold of the means of making a tragically permanent change in the lives of too, too many people. STEVEN SCHAUFELE Taipei

As spring bloomed in our fair Saskatchewan community, I decided it was time for the school of which I am principal to have its first postwinter fire drill. I pulled the alarm, and the students quickly and quietly filed out. One student stopped me cold with a sincere question: "Did anyone go out to check to see if there was somebody with a gun out there before you pulled the alarm?" I will never conduct a fire drill again without remembering Jonesboro. JIM ROBSON Kincaid, Sask.

The young murderers were taught to drive a van and shoot a weapon accurately. Their parents and grandparents bear a huge responsibility for this unimaginable, evil killing. GERARD SHENKO Laon, France

It is hard to realize that some students thought the shooting was "all fake" or drama students acting out a play. How could such a sudden display of violence seem as fake as a Hollywood production? But because violence and bloodshed are constantly displayed on TV, they have been deprived of their meaning. I have a message for America: Turn off the TV and come down to earth. OLIVIER BRUAUX Rochdale, England

It is surprising that the U.S. government refuses to ban weapons. In India our forefathers would not allow a child even to pick up a toy knife or gun in a shop or play cops and robbers. The idea was that seeds of violence should never enter a child's mind. KRISHNA RAMAN Chennai, India

What kind of parent intentionally glorifies guns to a child at a tender age? What kind of parent allows a child to wear camouflage clothing and carry a knife? What kind of parent is seemingly proud of and has glam photos of a child with a weapon? This is simply sick. KRIS SHARMAN Burlington, Ont.

America, don't beat up on yourself over the killings in Jonesboro. In Canada we also have violence and murder committed by schoolchildren. The U.S. has almost 50 million school-age youngsters. The acts of two or three should not be used to condemn the entire country. MICHAEL SILVERBROOKE North Vancouver, B.C.

The gun lobby's familiar refrain that guns don't kill people, people kill people is transparent sophistry. In fact, people with guns regularly kill people. Without guns, it would have been impossible for two children to kill and injure so many people in Jonesboro. MAHMOOD ELAHI Ottawa

CATALOG FOR TORTURERS?

I was surprised and shocked to read "Weapons of Torture" [WORLD, April 6], which described the international sale of electric-shock devices that can be used to abuse prisoners. Your writer Douglas Waller complains about the availability of stun weapons to the ordinary public but then gives names, manufacturers, locations and descriptions of the weapons! Maybe you didn't intend this to be a torture-weapons catalog, but it can serve as one. Waller made life easy for crooks and regimes that are looking for places to obtain these weapons! JACQUELINE CANTILLO Bogota

MALI'S STRONG SOCIAL CAPITAL

in the segment of your article on Africa that focused on Mali [WORLD, March 30], you quoted me as saying the government here "understands human capital." To be precise, I was referring to Mali's strong social capital: "something" that makes some societies function or heal themselves better than others. Harvard professor Robert Putnam first developed the idea in the late 1980s, when comparing northern and southern Italy. Social capital is rather like the dark (missing) matter of the universe: we know it's there because we can see its consequences, but it is terribly hard to get hold of and examine under a microscope. The U.N. Development Program in Mali is researching this question with the government's encouragement. TORE ROSE, Resident Representative U.N. Development Program Bamako, Mali

AFRICA ON THE RISE

Thanks for your interesting article about President Clinton's trip to Africa and conditions there [WORLD, March 30]. In reading about the positive aspects of Clinton's visit, people should not forget that genocide took place in the heart of Africa, where about a million people lost their lives in a cruel civil war. I didn't see Clinton or the U.N. in Africa when that was happening. Now Big Industry smells a potential market in the "rising African countries," and here is Clinton to pave the way. But how can you talk of a renaissance in Africa when in Zimbabwe a sizable percentage of the people between 20 and 30 are HIV positive? VOLKER DOLITZSCH Steffisburg, Switzerland

I hope it won't take another presidential trip to create an impetus for a positive focus on other revived regions such as Africa. If your story inspired one African youth to run for elected office or encouraged one foreign investor to consider Africa seriously, then it did a great service to a continent almost forgotten in this postcolonial world. DYLAN BORG Melbourne

THE SLAVERY ISSUE

Clinton should not apologize for the existence of slavery [WORLD, April 6] because he cannot possibly be held responsible for that terrible page in history. What he should apologize for is that racism and inequality between blacks and whites still exist in America, something he is responsible for and his Administration has not been able to end. BERNARD ANDRIOLI The Hague

It is ironic that African Americans who come to Africa seeking their roots thank their lucky stars that their ancestors were traded as slaves. If their forebears had remained, those same African Americans would probably be residing in a shack or, worse, eking out a subsistence living. Better to ask the ancestors who engaged in the slave trade to apologize for their evil acts. KEVIN SMITH Northcliff, South Africa

COPING WITH A TOXIC SOUP

Obviously the way to deal with the problem of the giant pool of contaminated water in Butte, Mont. [AMERICAN SCENE, March 30], is for Congress to declare this "giant cup of poison" one of the Great Lakes. Notwithstanding geographic inability and congressional insanity, it's still a pretty big lake. And since the pool is the "biggest tourist draw in southwest Montana," there's some loot involved too. STANLEY T. DOBRY Warren, Mich.

I take exception to the statement that Butte's destiny will be decided by outside forces. That ignores the creativity and tenacity of the citizens of this unique community. Once a "one-industry, one-company town," Butte now has an economy that is balanced, a feat achieved by the residents. These same people have turned the largest environmental disaster of post-Industrial Revolution America into a model for local involvement in environmental cleanup. EVAN BARRETT, Executive Director Butte Local Development Corporation Butte, Mont.

TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE

Re your article "a repentance, sort Of," on the Vatican's statement on the Holocaust [RELIGION, March 30]: no one knows better than the present Pope that Pope Pius XII failed to act positively during that period. This is just one of many known papal failures through the ages. If the Vatican had gone public with this sort of "apologetic'' statement in the 1950s, there would have been worldwide condemnation of the church. To come out with this document 55 years after the event is smart. Not many living persons can rebut it. GIOVANNI B. PIAZZA Griffith, Australia

NOT A DULL LIFT-OFF

The overall effect of the TV mini-series From the Earth to the Moon was anything but boring, as your critic found it [TELEVISION, April 6]. Maybe some people think you need to dress up history to make it exciting, show some violence, pepper dialogue with swear words, add a little sex, see people actually dying, add a little or a lot of blood. But I am sick of being shocked to death and having my senses assaulted by violence and swear words. To producer-director Tom Hanks I say, thank you for giving us quality programming. Worthy? Yes. Well crafted? Absolutely. Dull? Not! JENNIFER HOLSEN Sioux Falls, S.D.

EMBRYOS IN STORAGE

Your story on the divorce case in which a couple is disputing who has custody of five frozen embryos [LAW, April 6] pointed to the urgent need for legislation to handle such cases. I have sponsored a bill in New York State requiring all couples participating in in-vitro fertilization programs to provide explicit written directives for the disposition of their frozen embryos prior to storage. Couples should be required to complete a standardized, legally binding form that would resolve any uncertainties and provide clear and complete information about the dispositional choices for their embryos. I urge all states to enact such legislation to avoid future disputes. ROY M. GOODMAN, State Senator Albany, N.Y.

CORRECTIONS

In our piece "Toward the Root of the Evil" [THE JONESBORO SHOOTINGS, April 6], we referred incorrectly to the Stamps, Ark., shooting by eighth-grader Joseph ("Colt") Todd, 14, saying he had killed two fellow students. Todd's schoolmates were wounded, not killed.

Our story "Romancing the Widow?" [Nation, March 30] inaccurately stated that on 60 Minutes Kathleen Willey accused Maryland real estate developer Nathan Landow of trying to get her to deny an alleged sexual advance by President Clinton. CBS correspondent Ed Bradley asked Willey about an FBI investigation into charges that Landow had pressured her to keep quiet. Willey said only that she and Landow had "extensively" discussed her encounter with Clinton. She declined to elaborate, citing ongoing investigations.

TIME regrets the errors.