Birthquake

Sir:

The Jan. 11 cover of TIME, noting "That Population Explosion," should prove most effective in calling attention to one of this world's greatest problems. The only thing lacking was the artist's omission of the figure of a man--the cause of it all. I cannot believe artificial birth control is the answer.

JAMES G. H. MITCHELL Portsmouth, Va.

Sir:

Your statement that "population experts still have no real idea what makes people decide to have more or fewer babies" may be explained by considering the very nature of the marital act. Unless the couple are responsible citizens, both socially and morally, not much thought of babies, pro or con, enters" the picture.

It would be interesting to see the picture were every couple required to take an oral fertility pill in order to bear children.

NANCY V. GILES Wyomissing, Pa.

Sir:

Why pass over the migration solution so quickly ? Granting that 600 years hence we will be down to one square meter apiece, if we look 600 years the other way, we were still more than 100 years from finding the whole Western Hemisphere--when esteemed leaders still were sure the world was flat.

I invite our present-day religious and scientific doom-merchants to look to the sky on a clear night. God made all those other worlds out there, too. Will it take more courage to venture out there in 1992 than it did for Columbus' crew to sail off the edge of the sea?

JOHN R. POWELL Valdosta, Ga.

Sir:

It is a point of historical interest that concern over what we now call the "population explosion" did not begin with Malthus. Tertullian, writing about the year 200 A.D., referred to "the teeming population of the earth" and to "complaints that nature no longer suffices to supply our needs." Tertullian's view that "pestilence, famine, war and earthquakes must be regarded as a remedy for this condition, a pruning, as it were, of the too fruitful human race" was a commonplace in the ancient world, but will hardly commend itself, morally or scientifically, to population experts today.

WILLIAM LESAINT, S. J. West Baden Springs, Ind.

Sir:

May I suggest a new word for this earth-shaking convulsion: birthquake.

ALLEN KLEIN Mount Vernon, N.Y.

No Dice

Sir:

I am fascinated by the picture of President Eisenhower and the Shah of Iran in the Dec. 28 issue of TIME. Can it be that the Shah and our Ike are shooting craps?

DOROTHY BRYANT New York City

P: No. They are inspecting a portrait of Ike, a gift from the Shah.--ED.

Man of the Year

Sir:

Congratulations on your Jan. 4 recognition of President Eisenhower as the Man of the Year. Justice has been done to a great man.

ISABEL PARRA Santurce, P.R.

Sir:

The world will long wait before finding another man so dedicated to peace and the well-being of his fellow man.

BARBARA VAN WINKLE Reisterstown, Md.

Sir:

Good grief! Golfer of the Year, yes. Man of the Year? No, no a thousand times no !

D. KELLEY San Antonio

Sir:

TIME found the perfect compromise. Between the man who did the most good or the most evil in the world, TIME picked the man who did absolutely nothing.

KAREN E. FIELD Detroit

Sir:

Man of the Year--a gross understatement! More properly--Man of the Century.

CHARLES B. HIGGINS Delray Beach, Fla.

P: In TIME'S sweepstakes inviting readers to guess whom the editors would choose as Man of the Year, Eisenhower ran first with 25%, Castro second with 18%, and Khrushchev third with 9% of the votes. Readers who nominated their own candidate voted: Eisenhower, first; Dr. Thomas Dooley of Laos, second; Castro, third.--ED.

Those Swastikas

Sir:

Although I lost my father in the concentration camp of Auschwitz when I was eleven years old, and have no desire to see a new police state established anywhere, I refuse to participate in the current wave of mass hysteria over the swastika issue, by many Americans considered a sign of another anti-Semitic feeling in Germany.

The recent events in Germany may or may not reflect any serious anti-Jewish sentiments of the whole German nation, but whatever the case may prove to be, the Germans are perfectly capable of treating the matter properly. Many of the people demanding severe measures against German "crackpots" tend too often to let American delinquents go free, owing to their youth, in spite of violations of more serious consequence than a brush and paint.

JOHN ZALAS Chicago

Garbage Man?

Sir:

Scientific speculation [such as Astronomer Gold's theory that life on earth may have been planted by microbes from refuse of visiting space travelers a billion years ago--Jan. 4] is always intriguing, but so often its primary result is the annihilation of God.

By what or whom was the original energy itself created? Above all, how can the intricate mathematical organization of the universe, shown so graphically by the mathematical substructure of each of the sciences, be explained, unless there be a great mathematical mind behind it all? That mind is God the Creator.

ROBERT M. DELANCY New Castle, Pa.

Sir:

Astronomer Gold will have to be careful. People still have not forgiven Darwin for proving that man descended from the lower animals. But men from garbage! In that case, we better watch our step exploring other planets. No telling what we'll start.

ROGER VERNON Paris

Young Life

Sir:

As chairman of the National Board of Young Life Campaign, I wish to comment on your Jan. 4 report of the action against Young Life taken by five New Canaan ministers. Eight charges were made in what was described as a "stern denunciation." Having been closely associated with Young Life for more than 19 years, I can sincerely testify that most of the charges are without foundation and that the implication of all of them is unjustified. We urge the New Canaan ministers to take time to look into Young Life, delve into its activities and to check carefully on the results in the lives of thousands of teen-agers who have been reclaimed for active participation in the church of their choice.

C. DAVIS WEYERHAEUSER Tacoma, Wash.

Sir:

New Canaanites seem to be having some of the same trouble that old Canaanites had almost 2,000 years ago. They were called "scribes and pharisees," and they crucified one who sought to take the boredom out of traditional religion and put "life" into it.

As the pastor of a suburban church whose young people attend Young Life Club each week and Young Life Camps in Colorado each summer, I can speak from personal experience and say that they are doing an excellent work among teenagers. As a minister who acts as an adviser in the Juvenile Court of Baltimore County, and with 300 teen-agers in our Sunday school, I am most grateful for Young Life.

(THE REV.) W. R. TAYLOR Babcock Memorial Presbyterian Church Baltimore

Sir:

In our community this movement has taken a foothold that makes us all wonder where it is going and what next. Ask parents what Young Life is and they don't know. Ask them why they let the kids go, and they don't know. Ask the kids what they do and why they go. They say, "I don't know." Everyone seems to take the attitude, "Don't worry. These kids are in good hands."

With the teaching that has gone on in our area, once these youths get into Young Life, they leave the church. They've been told the church has nothing for them. In the church we ask them to learn to lead, to share in the work, to share in the cost, to become responsible. In Young Life they have none of these. The leader does it all.

To me the greatest danger is youth being led by untrained people, where they don't know. No one asks. They accept everything that is told them. When youth asks no questions, when leaders answer no questions, when parents don't know, look out.

(THE REV.) EDWIN JOHNSON St. Anthony Park Congregational Church St. Paul, Minn.

De Gusfibus . . .

Sir:

Please allow me to send these several words of thanks for the nice write-up anent "Auxilium Latinum" in the Jan. 4 issue of TIME. I thought the italicized Latin caption beneath the picture of myself was clever.

A. E. WARSLEY Editor Auxilium Latinum Elizabeth, N.J.

O Tempore:

Joci debiles dicis? Jocos carpere vel noli nostros, vel tuos proprios ede recteque redde*

FRANK L. PETERS JR. Springfield, Mo.

Sir:

Editor Warsley intends translating Elvis Presley's Hound Dog into Latin. We translated it into the Greek of Plato when we were in high school. In Greek "You ain't nothing but a hound dog" came out: ou mev ouk el oudev allo n kuwv thyrevtlkos.

PETER CASEY Montreal, Que.

* At the risk of destroying Reader Peters' humor, TIME translates his letter: "You say you want to jest? Either do not use the joke in our language, or do not translate it literally into your own and destroy it."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.