From June to December

Sir: As a June graduate and June bride, I find myself eager to subscribe to the militancy of the Women's Liberation [Nov. 21] as a reaction to the ego deflation of the past five months. Breezing off campus armed with the wisdom of the world, I am forced not to change society, but to struggle with it in order to maintain the identity I worked 22 years to establish. With all life's past glories and associations reflected in my maiden name, I find it difficult to glow with pride when addressed by an unfamiliar term that was tacked on much like a cattle brand to accommodate a society that still regards women as possessions. Nor can I delight in the inconvenience and expense caused when driver's license, bank accounts, stocks and legal records must be rewritten to match a new legal label. Most cutting of all is the prevalent attitude that marriage has automatically disqualified me from any intelligent conversation and that baby making and dishwashing can be my only destiny. Surely there must be a less humbling method for the liberated female to find a new roommate.

JEAN BYTHELL KALEBA Pacific Beach, Wash.

Sir: Admittedly, some women use the men in their lives as an excuse not to do what they really are too lazy to do anyway --use their brains. It must be laziness and not stupidity (as most men evidently assume) that keeps them out of the job market. The fact that about 95% of the working-age men in this country have jobs shows that stupidity is no obstacle to employment.

JUDITH A. SEGAL Washington, D.C.

Sir: Your article brought back vividly my mother's gentle complaint: "I am a Southerner, a Catholic and a woman, all of whom are now treated like second-class citizens!" She never became more vocal than that--however, influencing all who knew her far more with her peerless manners, her personal faith and her subtle wisdom in her relationships with others. Perhaps this is Aunt Tabby-ism, but if self-esteem is the expressed goal of the feminists, they could find it in my mother's approach, as European women have known for generations.

When mother died, my father said the hub of one large family had gone. I do believe I'd rather be a small hub than a big wheel.

(MRS.) CARROLL SMITH OFFEN Atlanta

Sir: My gosh! If the new feminists want to take on the world's work, let them go ahead. Next thing you know, they'll insist we men sleep in the mornings while they trudge off to support us. Then we'd have to care for an automated house, fuss with our kids, play poker afternoons and, I suppose, sympathize with them evenings while they attacked us sexually.

Oh well, there'd be some compensations --we'd have our cigars lighted, doors opened, and if that wasn't enough, we could always collect alimony and live quietly with our children.

PAUL F. GRIM Pittsburgh

Sir: Oh, TIME, how clever of you to point out that "women do not . . . have a record of soaring achievement." How can they! Women have been suppressed and subjugated since the beginning of this mess; they have been institutionalized slaves--nursemaiding men and producing litters of children. That doesn't leave much room for "soaring achievement."

When women make an attempt, they are very quickly reminded that they are ignoring or neglecting their most important role, raising a family and being a good mother; and also that they are being unfeminine.

PEGGY JOHNSON Henderson, Nev.

Sir: I think most men would be more sympathetic to the movement if it came out categorically against all alimony. (Child support, yes. Alimony, no.) Unfortunately, the new feminists seem to want the privileges of women and the rights of men --and the responsibilities of neither.

JAMES ELWARD Manhattan

Sir: My first act as President will be to recommend that there be no discrimination on the basis of sex with regard to the Selective Service Act.

JIM KESSLER Oxford, Ohio

Sir: Who's making women into sex objects? Women themselves by their behavior, manners and dress, which are all nicely calculated to arouse the sexual interest of men and call attention to their sexuality rather than to their womanliness and inner qualities. Women themselves hold the key to the situation and can change it through emphasizing chastity, modesty and propriety (see dictionary for the meanings of these obsolete words).

(MRS.) ELISABETH SIDDIQUI Fort Collins, Colo.

Sir: The poor feminists, having discovered themselves to be incapable of performing as females, attack those products (cosmetics) and services (beauty parlors) that enhance femininity. They are so discontented with their female bodies that they burn bras, which only make life more comfortable. (Ever jog without one?)

THERESA A. LEON Glassboro, N.J.

All the Agnews Fit to Print

Sir: Americans are sick and tired of the activists' solution to every problem. Carry placards. Shout obscenities. Sing protest songs. March through the streets. That's constructive? It's a waste of energy and a deadly bore. Hurrah for Spiro Agnew!

SUZANNE D. FELTES Williamsville, N.Y.

Sir: Waiting for Agnew's speeches is like waiting for the old movie serials. The nation wonders: "Will the Washington Post be able to survive this new attack?" or, "Can network broadcasters stand against the verbal torture given by Agnew?"

All this can't be real, though. It's just too fantastic.

NEIL A. UPMEYER Perrin A.F.B., Texas

Sir: I can remember when I laughed at extremists who told us that this country was turning into a police state, and that if we were not aware of it now, we soon would be, though it might be too late. Now that the conspiracy trial has ar rived, the Agnew speech has fallen and Government reactions to the November Moratorium made public, I have become scared, real scared.

STEVE B. KALISH Chicago

Sir: TV commentators have a sacred right to criticize anyone they wish; but if someone criticizes TV commentators, that dirty someone is a traitor to the American way of life. Right, TIME?

FRANK BROWN Chicago

Sir: Inasmuch as no one will directly dispute the truth and honesty of the content of remarks and statements by Vice President Agnew, it is strange to me that so many feel called upon to nitpick his choice of words, sentence structure, etc.

He speaks his convictions. The people understand them. The majority agrees with him. If this is the claimed weakness of oversimplification on Agnew's part, then let me say that I love it. It's refreshing to hear something us pore ole voters savvy --without all the pontifical ambiguous oratory typical of today's politicians.

(MRS.) MARY THOMAS Big Spring, Texas

Sir: Nixon and Agnew are reading the pulse of America correctly. We want nightstick law enforcement, and don't you forget it.

H. D. WEIR Detroit

Sir: Vice President Agnew's apparent role as "Nixon's Nixon" doesn't exactly represent any innovation in political oratory. Twenty-three hundred years ago, Aristotle offered the following advice to the political speaker: "There are assertions which, if made about yourself, may excite dislike, appear tedious, or expose you to the risk of contradiction; and other things which you cannot say about your opponent without seeming abusive or ill-bred. Put such remarks, therefore, into the mouth of some third person."

(MRS.) CAROL W. SCHLICK Kent, Ohio

Sir: It is a strange phenomenon that the militant and destructive organizations such as S.D.S., the Communist Party in America, etc., and these TV network commentators all run to the same sanctuaries when their actions and intent have been questioned: the American freedoms of speech, press and assembly.

Following the self-righteous wailing of the network bigwigs as though their sanctuar were the same as apple pie, the American flag and the Fourth of July, one really wonders if the networks and the militants might not actually come from the same egg.

WILLIAM R. BURKHART Dallas

Sir: I don't know why the news media are down on Vice President Agnew. Any man who hates peace, kids, the Bill of Rights, the New York Times and Huntley and Brinkley can't be all bad.

K. WARD VINSON Levittown, Pa.

Sir: Intelligence is the demon of our age. Mine bores me horribly. I am always trying to find a remedy for it. I have experimented with absinthe but gained no result. I have read the collected works of Frances Crofts Cornford, which are said to sap the mental powers. They did not sap mine. Alcohol has proved useless, and green-tea cigarettes leave me positively brilliant! What am I to do? I so long for the lethargy, the sweet peace of stupidity. If only I were Mr. Agnew!

P. CHASE WILSON Warwick Neck, R.I.

Sparks Across the Gap

Sir: Six outstanding senior students from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, requested and initiated a discussion group with 20 members of the "great silent majority" on Nov. 15. They could have gone to Washington on a bus or stayed on campus for a date or a party, but they drove 60 miles on a cold and snowy night to talk to us. We listened to their feelings and frustrations, and they listened to ours. The lines of communication were open, and there wasn't even a gap. It was the most stimulating and worthwhile Saturday evening we have spent in many years.

DR. AND MRS. WILLIAM BROWNE Greenville, Ohio

Sir: Unhappily, draft-card burners and Viet Cong-flag wavers steal the lion's share of publicity. The first clown I run across yelling, 'Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh ... the N.L.F. is gonna win!" is gonna win a punch in the mouth. But why condemn the majority of compassionate, intelligent Americans crusading for peace just because of a few morons?

LAWRENCE M. JONES North Easton, Mass.

Sir: My nephew was killed in action in Viet Nam two years ago. During the November Moratorium, his name was printed on a placard and tossed into a coffin in front of the White House.

Jack would never have understood the use of his name against a cause he believed in. When his mother read about it, she had to be placed under sedation.

What kind of ideological ghoul disinters the dead and uses them for purposes they did not believe in while they lived?

MARK B. WARREN Fayetteville, N.C.

No Agreement

Sir: The article "Clergy and Abortions" [Nov. 28] contains several minor statistical errors and one misleading statement that should be corrected. You say that when the clergymen's counseling service "was being organized, a committee met quietly with state officials and agreed to the ground rules." The meeting took place, but ground rules were merely discussed. State officials did not agree to them.

DAVID SKEDGELL Correspondent TIME Magazine Detroit

> TIME regrets that due to a mechanical error late corrections did not appear in the story as printed.

People Power

Sir: Your article on M.I.T.'s Howard Johnson [Nov. 21] has an undemocratic flavor. No one man cools such a potentially explosive situation. By failing to report the actions of other persons in cooling the M.I.T. scene, the story makes Howard Johnson "the winner."

I don't like reporting that makes a Horatio Alger success story out of what must have been a satisfactory democratic experience in which many persons acted responsibly and in which the people won!

OTTO H. ANDERSON Costa Mesa, Calif.

Sir: In your report on the demonstration at Fordham University, where students occupied the administration building, I would like to clarify some of your subtly misinformative statements.

The lead pipe you mentioned: its use is in question as to whether a guard possessed it originally and whether it was struggled over. There were no "buckets of hot water" thrown by students, and the guards were bountifully armed with nightsticks and blackjacks--both weapons were used, shall we say, rather extensively. The demonstrators were not given the opportunity to leave peacefully after police were called but before their announced arrival. As they leaped out of windows to avoid imminent arrest, they were grabbed and ill-treated by the badly trained I.B.I, guards. The confrontation of the students outside the building with the guards--a result of the students' witnessing the brutality of the guards--led the demonstrators within the building to barricade it in self-defense, resulting in some of the property damage. Student-government leaders in the building, who were given access by the demonstrators, observed no damage up to that time.

CAROL LONGO The Bronx, N.Y.

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