History Will Judge

Sir: You mention [Sept. 28] that the Palestinians "would like to turn the clock back to the days before the Balfour Declaration." This is fine, and may be accurate as far as some Palestinians are concerned. But then why not draw the obvious parallel and say that the creation of the state of Israel was in itself a turning back of the clock by 2,000 years?

In addition to this, your piece also stated: "Jordan is an artificial creation to begin with." Right. But how about Israel, or does it owe its creation to some transcendental and metaphysical origin?

Israel cannot, as the saying goes, have its cake and eat it too: either national boundaries are sacred and immutable and transcend the human dominion--in which case neither Israel nor its allies had the right to expel the rightful owners of Palestine from their land--or states are subject to human design and historical events, and thus Israel and its friends cannot logically condemn on inconsistent moral grounds the actions and the goals of the Palestinian people. History will judge.

MONCEF R.M. MEDDEB

Harvard College

Cambridge, Mass.

Sir: Not one inch of land in Palestine was acquired by other than legal means. Israel itself was legally established. Wars forced by Arabs or anybody else leave refugees in their wake. Later events proved that there was more than enough land space to accommodate both Jews who came as immigrants and resident Arabs. There still is.

RABBI SIDNEY H. BROOKS

Omaha

Believe It or Not

Sir: Your Essay, "A New American Credo" [Sept. 28], contained many familiar jewels. However, one of my favorites is still: That you really can't afford more than two children nowadays--it costs so much to raise and educate them.

MARCIA MAHAN

San Diego

Sir: That you can always get a first-rate meal at a restaurant patronized by truck drivers.

That a lot of wife swapping goes on at parties in suburbia.

That people who drink martinis at lunch never do any work at the office for the remainder of the day.

That the only way for a neophyte actress to get a big part is to sleep with the producer.

That the most popular professor on any campus got that way because he never flunks any students.

That cab drivers have the wisdom and insight of Plato and Socrates combined.

That old maids are sexually repressed.

That men with beards are intellectuals.

That any man who smokes a pipe is appealing to women.

That no matter how many people are in a given restaurant, the head waiter will always take you to the worst table.

BURLING LOWREY

Washington, D.C.

Sir: That people who wear hard hats are exceptionally patriotic.

That Raquel Welch is really a man.

That the terms Republican and Democrat have lost their meanings; Conservative and Liberal have replaced them.

That cigarette smoking is a disease, like cancer.

That Joe Namath is the thinking man's hero.

(MRS.) EILEEN D. OBSER

Cresskill, N.J.

Sir: Since the woman's role in our society has been shaped by shibboleths, platitudes and cliches, the "New American Credo" is not complete without a few statements about the woman:

That a woman's place is in the home.

That if you educate a woman, you educate a family (or educate a woman and she will only get married and have children anyway).

That a woman is not fulfilled until she has children.

That a good girl makes a good wife.

That the children of a working mother are spoiled, neglected or at least neurotic.

That a career and marriage do not mix.

That Women's Liberation is fine if women will be subject to the draft (or support the family, or pick up the tab on dates).

JOHANNA CUNNINGHAM

Clifton, N.J.

Question of Price

Sir: If Vice Chancellor Healy believes that merit is no longer necessary for admission [Sept. 28], I wonder if he realizes the price that industries, and the country as a whole, will eventually pay for his handouts--the price for his generosity with second chances.

What will Chancellor Bowker propose when these easy riders muff their second chance and start demanding a third and fourth chance, and finally claim their "right" to a diploma as payment of society's debt to them?

(MRS.) PEGGY DIBISCEGLIE

Kansas City, Mo.

Sir: For a society that upholds with almost sacred tenacity the concept of individuality, we surely do our part in pushing people into identical molds. And it seems educators are becoming the worst offenders. Hasn't this education-crazed world learned yet that the college sheepskin is not the key to instant success, and that not everyone, though entitled to the right by natural law, is suited for algebraic equations, sociological theories and abstract philosophies?

Liberate and open our colleges, yes. But not at the expense of classrooms being jammed, professors frustrated, students lost in the shuffle, and devaluated diplomas.

BECKY S. PORTERFIELD

Tulane University

New Orleans

Who Fouled Whom

Sir: In your account of the second America's Cup race [Oct. 5], you say that the committee's decision to give Intrepid right of way was based on the claim that she had overlapped Gretel II. Whether or not Gretel II was overlapped is in my opinion completely redundant. What really counts is that she was not entitled to room at any time, but if the room was there, she had a perfect right to go through. The other extremely vital point is that under Rule 42.1E, after the gun was fired, the leeward boat (Gretel) has to bear off to a close-hauled course and can no longer luff. In the first photo that you showed, the gun has already gone and Gretel is clearly luffing. In the second photo she is luffing even farther. Even prior to the first photo, she should have borne off to a close-hauled course and, had she done so, there would have been ample room for Intrepid to pass between her and the committee boat. The photos, when one does not know the timing in relation to the starting gun, tend to confirm that Intrepid was forcing a passage where, in reality, Gretel was illegally closing a gap by luffing when she had absolutely no right to do so.

ROBERT N. BAVIER JR.

Manhattan

It's Money, Honey

Sir: Too many teachers on the job market [Sept. 28]? Don't be misled. The truth is that for the first time in history, this country has enough qualified teachers to do an effective job of educating children, but not enough funds. Just imagine what education could really be if each classroom were reduced to 20 children instead of 35 or more.

(MRS.) MADELYN D. SHEETS

First-Grade Teacher

Fountain Valley School District

Long Beach, Calif.

Echoes of Mark

Sir: So after Agnew calls the opposition needlessly nasty needling names [Sept. 28], comes the disclaimer: "These are not evil men . . . not disloyal . . . or unpatriotic." Echoes of Mark Antony: "For Brutus is an honorable man: So are they all, all honorable men."

(MRS.) GLADYS FOREMAN

Los Angeles

Sir: It is extremely amusing to me to listen to those who try to discredit Vice President Agnew. They are fighting a losing battle. You see, he wields an indestructible weapon--the truth.

PATRICIA L. VITKUS Munster, Ind.

Sir: We have heard more than enough from the stammering statesman for the status quo. He has formed his own Triple-A club--for atrocious and absurd alliteration.

Mr. Agnew, withhold your wit and will. Desist from your dissonant diatribe and rejoin the ranks of the silent majority.

MICHAEL JOSEPH DOLAN

San Jose, Calif.

In Her Fashion

Sir: When I entered the convent, I never expected to be fashionable again. However, I now find I'm in the avant-garde of the Longuette look [Sept. 14] in my religious habit.

C'est la vie.

SISTER MARIE ELLEN

St. Germaine's Home

Peekskill, N.Y.

Supreme Slick

Sir: For the few who believe that God is dead, don't expect that the "Sick Chick Grace Slick" is about to bring the Supreme to life in December [Sept. 14].

MRS. MELVIN MALASKE Stanchfield, Minn.

Sir: You quote Grace Slick as saying that she is a little worried about her pregnancy, "what with all the weird drugs we've been taking," and that the happy parents-to-be have already picked a name for the child--"God." May I suggest for a middle name--"Speed."

(MRS.) BERYL CLAAR

Golden, Colo.

Blunder of the Century?

Sir: Hooray for Lindbergh [Sept. 14]! Sure we hated Hitler. Why didn't we hate Stalin also? He was equally mean, murderous and monstrous.

The failure of President Roosevelt to recognize this truth will become known as the blunder of the century. And we will not recover from this blunder during this century.

JOHN R. KILGORE

San Antonio

Playing Hobbes

Sir: You have S.J. Perelman saying "I think Swift said that life is not only nasty and brutish, but short" [Sept. 28]. Perelman should be advised that the quotation is from Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan (1651): the life of man is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short."

JULES BIEGELSEN

Saint Louis

How the Baby Grows

Sir: The whole thing is a big laugh. For years I have been reading stories announcing the new breed of "compacts" [Sept. 21].

Each time the Detroit makers take a stab at the compact field, the first thing they announce is how much bigger, wider, more powerful their product is than the foreign competition. Each year they add a few inches and a few horses. Within four or five years, their baby has grown into a typical Detroit monster, and they have to back up and start over again.

MENNO DUERKSEN

Memphis

Tears and Laughter

Sir: I thought I was the only one who appreciated George Plimpton's literary genius [Sept. 21]. I have read his books and have shed tears of laughter and felt pangs of frustration along with him. Paper Lion gave birth to my interest in football. All I need now is for the Dallas Cowboys to use the full extent of their talents so that I may experience the joys of football, rather than the anguish.

(MRS.) CAROL A. PASCHALL

Dallas

Sir: Regarding your fine Essay on George Plimpton: George trained and finally performed his extraordinary trapeze act as part of a television special that I produced for ABC-TV entitled PLIMPTON! The Man on the Flying Trapeze, which will air next spring. George's circus exploits were done under the aegis of the Cole Brothers-Clyde Beatty Circus, not Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey as your article stated.

DAVID L. WOLPER

Beverly Hills

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