The One Constant

Sir: Your article on suburbia [March 15] confirmed my suspicion that human nature is the one constant in a world of rapidly changing variables. The changes are not surprising; they are bound to happen. Perhaps some day soon we will all recognize our common ground and begin again. Utopia cannot exist in suburbia (zoning ordinances will not permit it), but somewhere between the city block and the country lane, a sense of unity can exist.

BROTHER JAMES R. KEANE, C.F.C. Lockport, Ill.

Sir: Maybe now that someone has finally found out that suburbia does not consist of only the wealthy few but also of low-and middle-income people, TV and movies will condescend to create us as we really are--not radical hardhats or ultraliberals, but nice conservatives.

VONDA HELLER Clarks Summit, Pa.

Sir: Did we really need another stereotyped, cliche-ridden article about the "depiavity" of the suburbs? Your article perpetuates the myth of suburbia with its materialism, wife swapping, country clubs and veiled racism as subjects. Suburbanites are just like everyone else, just people, so why make the word suburb a dirty one, like capitalism or success, which are just as offensive?

LEE LEVINE Pikesville, Md.

Sir: How will we prevent the urban crisis of today from being replaced by a suburban crisis of the future? New approaches to taxes, integration, housing, transportation and government can only be realized in new communities, but never in fragmented suburbs. The next America must be better, for we have little more land near our cities to waste.

JAMES E. SCHOENBERGER Boston

Sir: The classification of the city of Bell Gardens as "low income-stagnant" is partially correct. We are low income; we do have a large transient population. A large portion of our population is made up of nonskilled workers. We have a lot of room for improvement after the years of neglect that preceded our incorporation as a city in 1961.

But believe me, we are not stagnant. We know that we have the ability to face facts and move.

HENRY L. GOERLICK City Administrator Bell Gardens, Calif.

Sir: We agree completely with everything you said about Leawood, Kans. Living in Leawood for seven months, we have discovered acute apathy, prejudice and snobbery. People here worry about their country clubs and the football team, but not about the people themselves.

RETTA AND BEV HENDRIX Leawood, Kans.

Sir: Despite my laughter at El Monte's being classified as a low-income neighborhood and despite the anger expressed by my fellow El Monteans, it is all true. From our famed Nazi Headquarters Building to our joked-about El Monte Mall. I, however, have been segregated up here in North El Monte--the Beverly Hills of our town. In attempts to make us equal, our rural city council cut down our trees so that we may now look like the rest of the city--a proverbial graveyard straight put of the weekly monster pictures playing at our one local cinema.

SUSAN D. KAISER El Monte, Calif.

Sir: Is Judy Sullivan McGuggart lefthanded, or did you flip the cover photo? The stitches are backward. Trust you are not the same.

BETTY FURNESS Manhattan

> Needlepoint Artist McGuggart is not left-handed and TIME was not backward. Mrs. McGuggart works with her canvas on a frame and does one stitch at a time to make them flat and even. She can and does make stitches that run from either left to right or right to left.

Lasting a Lifetime

Sir: Why don't the sponsors of the renewable marriage bill [March 15] call it what it is--promotion for a three-year shack-up contract? If you are only going to have a three-year marriage, what are you going to do about children who last virtually a lifetime?

(MRS.) BETTY WALSH Little Rock, Ark.

Sir: Your article on renewable marriage reports a prime example of legal perversity. Our Government is more concerned about with whom we live than it is about violent crime, rampaging pollution, drug addiction or senseless warfare. It would do better to address itself to crime and leave our love lives alone.

DONALD A. WINDSOR

Norwich, N.Y.

Sir: Next month my husband and I will celebrate our third anniversary, and we questioned each other about whether we would "renew" if the choice were available to us. We decided we would, but realized that such a plan would make couples appreciate each other more if every three years they risked losing each other. PATRICIA SAMILJAN Bayside, N.Y.

Spunk and Sparky

Sir: Hooray for the spunk shown by the citizens of Texas who are for bringing back the electric chair [March 15]. With the murder rate soaring, every state should have an "Old Sparky" and use it. People wouldn't be so quick to take someone else's life if they knew that they would have to pay with their own.

JANE BARNARD Lincoln Park, Mich.

Sir: Bravo for the people who are for restoring the electric chair. If capital crimes exist, so must capital punishment! To allow crimes like the mass murder of three policemen go without proper punishment is not fair to the American public.

PHILIP MANDEL San Antonio

Sir: Your story indicates that Dallasites want to kill, kill, kill! Remember Dallas' temperament? Kennedy? Oswald? Texans love to kill; it is part of our heathen heritage. If not with six guns, then an electric chair will do.

DR. Louis E. BUCK Austin, Texas

Strictly Spiritual

Sir: Rabbi Siegel's brand of Judaism [March 15] is what I have seen, heard and been revolted by all my life. But Rabbi Schechter turned me on to what Judaism could be--"loose, unstructured, strictly a spiritual thing." Now that would be something new in the world--and maybe even something great!

( MRS. ) CAROL PINSKY Los Angeles

Sir: It seems clear to me that Rabbi Siegel's attitude toward Judaism and the material world reflects the attitude of his congregation. It is the rabbi who sets the tone of his congregation. As the confirmation students would choose "a good college" over Judaism, Rabbi Siegel would choose the 15-room house and pool rather than be true to himself.

(MRS.) ROSALIE H. GOLDSTEIN Trumbull, Conn.

Sir: Fifteen years ago, when Martin Siegel and I were students at Cornell, we talked of his plans to become a rabbi. When I asked him, "What kind of job is that for a Jewish guy?" he replied with the same honest uncertainty that obviously continues to haunt him today. Such candor should not, however, obscure the dedication and effectiveness for which Siegel is well known.

With Rabbi Siegel at the helm, the boat may be rocking, but you can be sure that it is headed for a brighter horizon.

SANFORD ROBERT SHAPIRO Rochester

Literary Men and Garbage

Sir: So Willie Morris, ex-editor of Harper's magazine [March 15], thinks it was between "the money men and the literary men," does he? Seems to me, an ex-subscriber, that it was between the money men and the garbage men.

AUDREY DIXON New Orleans

No Annexation

Sir: It seems to me that the Israelis are playing a dangerous game [March 15]. A war is still possible, and that would be not just a local danger but a threat to the peace of the world. I am not quite sure whether the Israelis are aware of the risk of their present policy. The Arabs really do want peace, but they are not going to accept any annexation. There is a possibility for peaceful coexistence in the Middle East. Is any area worth spoiling that chance?

ARNOLD PETERS Kiel, West Germany

Sir: If the United Nations forces Israel to surrender the land it acquired during the Six-Day War, a gross injustice will have taken place. Egypt lost that land in an all-out military war that it declared and therefore has no more a right to it than any other nation that loses territory in a war.

IRVING SHIFFMAN Livonia, Mich.

Outlaw

Sir: The Queen might consider outlawing religion in Northern Ireland, where religion has made its fanatics behave like outlaws [March 22].

ROYALD V. CALDWELL Portland, Ore.

Afraid for Us All

Sir: I hope you published "Mirror, Mirror" [March 15] solely to allow us commoners a rare insight into the hideous and selfish lives of the so-called "Beautiful People." Princess Pignatelli would better be called an expert in deception. When one is unable to focus on the plight of the world, then I fear for us all.

(MRS.) GLORIA!. BENNETT Darien, Conn.

Sir: I wonder why I kept thinking of Dorian Gray.

MRS. D. PETERS Hinsdale, Ill.

Sir: Princess Pignatelli's beauty book seems to be a complete guide to overhauling just about all body parts, except one. The sequel might be called Make Your A nnpit a Cliarmpit.

WELBY CARTER WOOD Manhattan

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