The Junkie's World

Sir: As a former drug addict, 1 would like to commend you for your excellent article about junkies [March 16]. At long last, someone is telling it like it is about a junkie's world. Although I was addicted to speed (Methedrine), and not heroin, most of my friends were junkies, and the man who turned me on was a junkie himself. I tried heroin a couple of times and never cared for it, but I saw what it did to my friends. They never completely recovered, and six of them are dead.

My parents, like the parents in your article, are upper middle class, and like the young people in your story, I started young. I had my first "hit" of speed at the age of 15. I spent two years in the hell of addiction, and I quit. Even now I still wish for speed--I can imagine how hard it is for those children.

You gave me insight into the problems of heroin users and confirmed my desire to help all I can. If there were more people in the world like Dr. Densen-Gerber to stamp out this horrible nightmare, and if all of us would work together, perhaps the world would be a better place.

PATTY WALSH

Alexandria, Va.

Sir: "Spare the rod and spoil the child" is truer today than ever before. We've been so afraid of psychological damage to our children from discipline enforcement that we've ended up with a sick young society. Back to the paddle, people. Junior's better off with a blistered butt than needle marks in his arm.

HARRY PRESTON

Hollywood

Sir: If the horrifying statistics on teenage drug addiction--"50% of our youth is hooked," and "the average life expectancy of the addict is five years"--are true, haven't they created a self-destructive problem?

The hooked lemmings will drown themselves in spite of all our frantic efforts to save them, thus canceling some of the population explosion, while the other 50%, "squares" too smart to kill themselves on dope, will survive to run the country for us.

The thought is some consolation.

(MRS.) EDITH MOORE JARRETT

Fillmore, Calif.

Sir: No one seemed concerned when Claude Brown wrote about addiction in Manchild in the Promised Land because most thought the drug problem was confined to the ghetto. Now they are uptight because it has spilled over into the better residential areas and the suburbs. Problems appear to be much more serious when they fail to recognize neighborhood boundaries and socioeconomic classes.

WILLIAM A. MOVE

Walla Walla, Wash.

Sir: If the U.S. Government would stop spreading obvious lies about the dangers of marijuana, maybe more children would listen to it about the real dangers of heroin.

W. ROLLAND

Washington. D.C.

Speaking of Rhetoric

Sir: Why is "street rhetoric" subject to indictment while "political rhetoric" isn't [March 16]? David Milliard's rhetoric threatened one human life. Moynihan's imperils the lives of millions.

JEREMY SLATE

Los Angeles

Incident in Lamar

Sir: Your article about Lamar, S.C. [March 16], just reiterates a feeling that I have had frequently in the last few years--that the U.S. made a huge mistake when it didn't let the South secede!

(MRS.) JILL JOHNSON

Canton, Ohio

Sir: I think I finally know what the phrase "white trash" really means. I thought that such disgusting displays of stupidity had finally stopped in this supposedly civilized age, but I guess not. I only wonder, incredulously, how these people can be so self-satisfied with their conduct.

GAIL LYNN LARSON

Lombard, Ill.

Sir: Not long ago, I was involved in a heated argument as to whether or not such a creature as man has the right to survive. After reading "Rebellion at Lamar," I am almost ready to concede that he does not. The actions of the adults who attacked helpless children were incredibly vicious, but that their neighbors, in the calmer moments afterward, applauded the attack as "what is right" is shocking beyond words. As Thomas Jefferson said in reference to a related problem: "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just."

BARBARA MARTIN

Oberlin, Ohio

Sir: America, the land of paradoxes: people are expressing disgust at the My Lai massacre of innocent women and children. But at the same time, a mob of this country's citizens attacked innocent schoolchildren with deadly intent. Where is the greater atrocity committed--in Viet Nam or here at home?

DIANE KOZLOWSKI

Syracuse

Sir: I am twelve years old and "white" (what an ugly term). Sometimes grown-ups of every color do the most ridiculous things. One of them is getting so upset because their children are going to school with someone of another color. That's not really so wrong. The wrong part is when the parents get so upset that they try to kill small children who have as much right to learn as their children do. Blacks, whites, yellows and reds were meant to live together, or else God wouldn't have put us on this earth. Nobody should be treated like a dog or be insulted by people calling him a pig. We are all made out of the same stuff, aren't we?

LAURIE SMITH

Bunnik, The Netherlands

Marital or Martial

Sir: Re your American note about the U.S. Air Force discontinuing its bagpipe band [March 16]: America is supposedly the "melting pot" of nations; so it hardly seems fair to rule out the regalia of one of the most colorful countries of the world. After all, aren't most Americans of Anglo-Saxon and Celtic descent? Is Mrs. Ryan such a thoroughbred American that she can deny this?

If it is her husband's decision, what right does she have to trespass? Or do his marital affairs affect his martial affairs?

A Proud Scotsman

JAMES G. MARSHALL

San Diego

Sir: Though some may not agree, I find the skirling of the pipes less terrifying than the whistling of bombs. Air Force Chief of Staff Ryan should pay the pipers.

WILLIAM P. STEWART

Wilmette, Ill.

"N" Error

Sir: As a retired USIA Foreign Service officer who knew Ambassador and Mrs. James Conant well in Bonn, I question the reference [March 16] to that charming and effective lady as his erstwhile "financee." Does that term reflect your reviewer's appraisal of her worth as an individual . . . or to the Ambassador? Or did your pencil slip?

JOHN M. ANSPACHER

Dickerson, Md.

> Unfortunately, the persistent but unromantic letter somehow Nserted itself in the story.

Matter of Policy

Sir: You pose the question, Is there a Jewish foreign policy [March 16]? Darn right there is; and this policy is based on morality and social justice not limited to Israel alone!

More to the point, is there a Christian foreign policy?

(MRS.) MIRIAM M. CASDIN

Worcester, Mass.

Sir: The American Jews seem to you to be overvehement in their support of Israel. I ask you, would the Israeli dilemma otherwise even cross your mind? The Jews cannot forget that silence was the doom of 6,000,000 of their people. Would that humanity had spoken then; we would not have to fear today.

E. BARSON

Hamden, Conn.

Sir: TIME courageously and properly examines the growing dilemma American Jews face because of the intense political pressures exerted in American public affairs by a cohesive Zionist apparatus that, in reality, represents only a small fraction of the Jews who are U.S. citizens.

The anthropological fact is that Jews are racially and ethnically heterogeneous. There is no foundation for the claim that there is a Jewish "race." The claim of Zionist doctrine to purity of descent is baseless and imaginary. Scientific investigation has clearly and repeatedly disclosed the variability and lack of morphological unity of the Jewish people.

A Jew is a voluntary adherent of the religion of Judaism, in the same way that a Christian is an adherent of Christianity. There is no empirical basis for regarding Jews as a single ethnic group.

GEORGE BAGRASH

Research Director

American Council for Judaism

Manhattan

Sir: Your article on Jewish influence on U.S. foreign policy took courage at a time when criticism of a minority brings the inevitable cry of "bigot." I wonder what our Middle Eastern foreign policy would be like if there were a sizable Arab minority in this country.

MICHAEL BLISS

Ojai. Calif.

Breathalyzer

Sir: We'd like to clear the air on your recent reference to the breath freshener Binaca, which you cited in your recent story [Dec. 19] on inflation as having risen sharply in price since its introduction five years ago. Binaca was originally introduced in America by a Swiss company 19 years ago. When our U.S. firm started marketing Binaca in 1967, it was selling in most outlets at between 59-c- and 98-c-. Now, three years later, we are selling Binaca for only 79-c-.

WILLIAM J. MCGOOKIN

Executive Director, Marketing

Madison Laboratories

Summit, N.J.

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