The Moon and the Middle Brows

Sir:

Oh, thank you, TIME, for your faint praise

Of us humble squares and our quaint little ways.

We "pay our taxes, turn the wheels,"

And usually end up portrayed as heels.

Your praise, O TIME, comes none too soon.

Because we bourgeoisie have reached the moon.

Reviled by the right, scorned by the left,

We've been feeling more than a little bereft.

Could be that we're kin to the prophet of old--

Not without honor, save in his own country, we're told.

Should strong backbones and middle brows some day elapse

Could it be this great country might simply collapse?

Perhaps!

(MRS.) VIRGINIA HACKLEMAN Connersville, Ind.

Sir: I am sick and tired of hearing the often-used line "Now that we've conquered the moon, let's conquer poverty here on earth." In the short eleven years of its existence, the space program has become the biggest scapegoat in history. Why wasn't poverty conquered before the space program came into being? We have the necessary resources in the U.S. to ensure that everyone is eating regularly, without slowing or abandoning the space program. To stop now would make as much sense as Columbus discovering America and then returning to Europe forgetting his discovery completely. Let's give Apollo 11, without reservations of any kind, the credit it deserves for what it is: mankind's greatest achievement. (Sox.) STEVE REED U.S.A.F.

A.P.O. San Francisco

Sir: Before supersophisticated writers start carping about Mr. Nixon's state dinner in Los Angeles honoring the astronauts, may a humble and grateful citizen say, "Thank you, Mr. President." Thank you for your boyish pride, your genuine affection for three gallant men, and most of all thank you for sharing it with me. I had a wonderful time. Where else could you see the Ambassador of Sweden, Rudy Vallee and an astronaut sit down together?

RITA C. McMANN Monrovia, Calif.

Watery Wastes

Sir: In early June, 1968, I was on one of the five destroyers that made up the surface force during the search-and-rescue operation for the U.S.S. Scorpion. Our mission was to search for debris along a track from Norfolk to the Azores. As a result, I cannot help but wholeheartedly agree with Thor Heyerdahl's observations about polluting the oceans [Aug. 15].

I will say further that if the Scorpion did go down along this route, her flotsam and jetsam would undoubtedly have been lost amid the garbage that we sighted. JOHN K. HOBBS Lieutenant, U.S.N. F.P.O. New York

Sir: A simple solution to the water-pollution problem would be the levying of fines by state governments against municipalities and industries that pollute bodies of water. These fines would be, say, 100 or more per gallon per day of waste discharge. This would mean industries paying out tens of thousands of dollars per day and rising tax rates in cities that persist in fouling rivers and lakes.

It would serve the purpose of making pollution hurt and raise the necessary money for construction of adequate treatment facilities. Simply a "pay as you go" plan.

K. D. WETTERER San Diego

Sir: Your new Environment section is as welcome as a breath of fresh air used to be.

LISA LOCKEN Minneapolis

Kilroy Was There

Sir: As I read your speculative comment on the planet Mars, "A Fearful Omen in the Sky" [Aug. 8], I became increasingly suspicious of what we may find when we do reach that frontier.

Perhaps Mars, farther from the sun, cooled earlier than earth and formed life sooner. Its life evolved, perhaps created an advanced civilization. Then, lacking modern earthman's foresight in conservation matters, Martian life used up its fresh water, polluted the rest, filled the atmosphere with carbon dioxide--its own waste--and died like any overpopulated bacterial colony, leaving only traces of methane and ammonia--and perhaps canals?--to indicate that life had been there.

JEAN M. MOSELEY Santa Barbara, Calif.

Thoughts About Chappaquiddick

Sir: I am deeply grieved and appalled at the circumstances surrounding the death of Mary Jo Kopechne. Grieved because this young woman might have been struggling for interminable moments, perhaps minutes, possibly hours, trapped and alone. Appalled because the man responsible for her eventual death was first concerned with his threatened political future, aided and abetted by two other men who became his accomplices in the abandonment of a woman in desperate danger.

(MRS.) JEANNETTE A. SLACK Lookout Mountain, Tenn.

Sir: A pox on these letters and articles implying that Edward Kennedy lost his head, hence is not responsible enough for high-government position. As one who easily loses his head, I am an authority. Had I been in Kennedy's shoes and found I could not extricate my woman companion, I would have run to the nearest of the two houses, yelling like a maniac for the cops, fire department, Coast Guard--anything, anyone to retrieve the girl. Only later would my senses have returned and my thoughts turned to a political career probably by then irretrievably ruined.

But E. K. remained cool under fire. Isn't such crafty hardheadedness just what is needed on a national decision level?

ELA SALGUDJIAN Tempe, Ariz.

Sir: Never have I witnessed such unity of opinion among the informed and uninformed--people who have acted as prosecutor, judge, witness and jury. The verdict: guilty as charged, and a bit more so. Nearly all of these people say, "If he had been a poor man, etc." This little remark perhaps unconsciously reveals the real crime Kennedy is believed to be guilty of.

SHELTON FARRAR Shreveport, La.

Sir: For weeks, the mass media have been regaling us with accounts of what a terrible blow Kennedy suffered in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne.

But the ultimate in misplaced sympathy came with TIME'S article on how bravely Rose Kennedy is bearing up under her "latest travail." Will you please explain to me just what loss Rose Kennedy suffered in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne?

GLORIA WOHL Brooklyn

Sir: It is incredible that as astute as Kennedy is supposed to be, he doesn't realize that his silence is his loudest accuser and, with so many people in on the secret, either conscience or cupidity will force the complete story into the open.

DONALD C. SKONE-PALMER Van Nuys, Calif.

Something Else to Investigate

Sir: Finally an article on the medical profession telling it like it is. I can guarantee that Dr. Polansky [Aug. 15] and thousands of other M.D.s worked 78 hours a week long before Medicaid, many of those hours without any fee at all.

The American people might find it interesting that in 1968, approximately 10,000 interns worked 90-hour weeks for $80 a week. I wonder when the Senate Finance Committee will investigate that.

LAWRENCE M. PERTCHECK, M.D. Cleveland

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