Abortions and Ecology

Sir: It is very encouraging to find out that the value placed on life does not end with the ecology program [March 29].

Ecologists have (and rightly so) placed a great value on the ducks' and the alligators' lives. It is beyond me, however, why they have not taken up the banner of the conservation of the human species and its dwindling civil rights. The churches should not have to carry a banner that the Government should be waving.

GEORGEANN KUGLER Richland, Wash.

Sir: Let the "religionists" follow their own consciences, but not try to dictate to or condemn others who think differently. Historically the church has committed far too many murders, and in the name of God, for it now to attempt to invoke the Sixth Commandment on behalf of embryos unborn and not yet really human.

J. ADDISON SMITH Seattle

Sir: Aren't those people who condemn abortion today the same ones who condemned contraceptives a few years ago? Don't they know that contraception is better than abortion, and abortion is better than infanticide? Infanticide is a horrible thing, and it is already practiced widely. Only nobody ever calls it infanticide--it usually goes by some other name, like neglect.

SUSAN MCCUTCHEON Lake Forest, Ill.

Sir: God bless those who are fighting liberalized abortion laws. I cannot see how a Christian can take any other position. We who baptize infants and bury the dead with rites of Christian worship cannot possibly stand by while innocent human life is forced from a mother's body, deposited on a surgical tray and burned with common debris in a hospital incinerator.

(THE REV.) DAVID W. SIMONS Barnesboro, Pa.

Sir: If a fetus is classed as human life, as claimed by antiabortionists, why is an aborted fetus not accorded the burial that a full-term dead baby receives? Likewise, why does a dead fetus, the result of a miscarriage, not receive burial as a human? The answer would seem to me to be that a fetus, aborted by accident or design, is not properly considered a human life until it is fully formed, for until then it cannot live as a human being.

FRIEDA SMITH Auckland, N.Z.

New SST Challenge

Sir: I am pleased to see sanity prevail in the U.S. Senate with the cancellation of funds for the SST [April 5]. Seattle will survive, and now maybe the rest of us will.

But let's get together now. Let's see Ottawa and Washington pass legislation banning SST overflights--whoever operates and builds the planes.

BRIAN VICKERS New Westminster, B.C.

Sir: Can't any of the backers of the SST and "free enterprise" come up with a consortium or something to raise the $135 million to keep the next stage of the project alive? If the thing is as good as its backers claim, they ought to put their money where their crying towels are.

LINDEN M. MALKI San Bernardino, Calif.

Sir: The Senate has scored its coup de grace against the SST. Now then, let's see if Senator Proxmire will have any second thoughts after he sees all of the Anglo-French and Soviet SSTs coming into and leaving J.F.K. Airport in New York City while our commercial airline industry withers on the vine. I think the anti-SST forces have made a very serious mistake.

FRANK F. RUSSO Pittsburgh

Sir: Your article, "William Proxmire, the Giant Killer," [March 29] is misleading. Senator Proxmire has not killed any giants. He has simply caused 42,000 more aerospace employees to lose their careers (not jobs). The SST money will now be spent on more "worthwhile" welfare projects. Please tell me again how welfare helps our balance of trade.

WILLIAM ALLEN THAYER Playa del Key, Calif.

Sir: Proxmire "the Giant Killer" is in line for kingship if the David and Goliath story has political significance for 1972.

The Spartan Senator from Wisconsin, who doesn't believe in defeat no matter what the odds, is the kind of culture hero the Democratic Party needs for its myth-making machine in 1972. He is living evidence that this country has not run out of real heroes.

DAVID GEORGE Seville, Spain

Calley as MOY?

Sir: My early nomination for TIME's Man of the Year is Lieut. William Calley, scapegoat of a war we don't know what to do with. What a laugh: convicted of premeditated murder [April 12]. All of us who called for those bomb-bay doors to be opened while serving in World War II knew we were going to kill civilians as well as military. And what about Hiroshima?

Nixon could pull off the political maneuver of the decade by letting this thing go on till election eve, then granting a full pardon.

BARNEY MILLS El Paso

Sir: America's collective conscience can now rest peacefully, knowing that we have justly incarcerated the man responsible for all the war crimes committed by the allies in Southeast Asia. With Lieut. Calley behind bars, our mission of good will in Southeast Asia will be able to proceed without the recurrence of any American-initiated atrocities.

PAUL HOLMES Clinton, N.Y.

Sir: I wonder what Lieut. Calley's fate would have been if he had refused to carry out the orders of his superiors.

HELEN B. RAMER Washington, D.C.

Sir: There have been Calleys in all wars, on both sides, who have vented their sick sadism upon prisoners of war, and who have found a multitude of gullible types who fall for their rationalizations.

Shed not a tear for this man but feel the lump in your throat for his family, his disgraced uniform, and most of all for his victims.

GEORGE R. SENN Schenectady, N.Y.

Stone in the Stomach

Sir: Who needs a $22,500 bathroom [March 29]? No wonder the protesting students, blacks and other underprivileged members of our lopsided society think the only solution to our ills is to tear everything down. I feel one of those "polished stones" at the pit of my stomach.

(MRS.) ALICE VANDENBERG Dolton, Ill.

Sir: I realize that in this great country of ours there will always be the haves and the havenots, and I certainly do not begrudge people who have come up from the bottom and made their money the hard way their fancy bathrooms. But on the other hand I cannot help wondering if these people have paid their fair share of taxes. Also I have a question: How do you clean a washbowl lined with gold leaf?

MRS. RICHARD HOBBS Galesburg, Ill.

>Wash it as you would good china. Do not use abrasives.

A Responsive Chord

Sir: Your article on compression fractures of the vertebrae, "Snowmobiler's Back" [March 15], struck a responsive chord. For several years now I have been studying the vertebrae of Canadian Eskimo skeletons recovered from archaeological sites, some of these dating back a thousand years. One of the things noted was an extremely high frequency of compression fractures, with 45% of the adults having at least one fractured vertebra. The cause became quickly apparent the first time I rode on an Eskimo sled. The sled, of course, has no springs, and the jarring is transmitted directly to the rider's back.

Today many Eskimos are abandoning their dog teams in favor of snowmobiles, but the compression-fracture problem, it seems, will still be with them. Particularly vulnerable will be the poor fellow who rides a sled towed behind the snowmobile, a common Eskimo practice.

CHARLES F. MERBS Tempe, Ariz.

It Was a Land Rover

Sir: In TIME [March 22] there is an excellent color photograph of a Land Rover. The caption to this photograph describes the vehicle as a Jeep. I am sure you will understand when I say that we are surprised that a magazine with your reputation for accuracy has described our product by the name of its principal U.S. competitor.

J.K.S. CARPENTER Sales Director The Rover Company Ltd. Solihull, England

Attractive Alternative

Sir: Your article on the VLCC tanker Europoort [March 29] cited a perfect example of the kind of foolhardy action that results in the fouling of our oceans and beaches by oil tankers. It is frightening to realize that in order to save four days' time, the captain of the tanker was willing to risk damage to his ship and the "pollution of beaches from Holland to Spain." Penalties should be leveled and be stiff enough to make the loss of time a very attractive alternative.

SAMUEL STOCKHAMER East Northport, N.Y.

Moonlighting Wrestler

Sir: The new TV season sounds incredible [March 29]. Cop turned priest? How about featuring a bulldozer operator turned brain surgeon, a Sumo wrestler who moonlights as a ballet dancer or a defensive lineman who embroiders baby clothes to pay for a hamburger franchise?

MRS. THOMAS CARPENTER Clarksburg, Md.

A Tidal Wave

Sir: I was sorry to read your public chastisement of our closing of Father's Day [March 29].

To produce in the theater today takes great courage. New playwrights and composers are shying away from the New York theater because of its precarious state on and off Broadway. Investors are reluctant to part with capital, and audiences, due to the limited entertainment dollar in today's economy, go for the sure hit or just don't go.

With the approval of the director and the author, we put together a production of which we were very proud. So proud, in fact, that Mr. Kipness and myself personally invested nearly one-third of the entire capitalization. Opening night, the four major television reviews were extremely negative. They were joined by Newsday and the Long Island Press, with their large Long Island following of theatergoers, and the Newark News, which reaches the New Jersey commuters.

Then came the fatal blow: the New York Times review. The morning review in the Times is like a tidal wave which can either let you ride high on the crest of success or drown you.

Yes, I would put up a fight for a run, and Mr. Kipness and I have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars putting up futile fights against negative notices. For a show needs a great deal of money to advertise, and these ads must contain favorable quotes. Audiences are not willing to risk their money to prove the critics wrong. If they did, they might discover, as I believe they would have discovered at Father's Day, some really remarkable theater.

LAWRENCE KASHA Manhattan

Sir: T.E. Kalem's piece on Father's Day made us aware that another production of this splendid play should be done immediately. We've presented Hailey's other full-length works with some success in Washington, D.C. Thanks to TIME, the capital will see Father's Day too.

DAVEY MARLIN JONES Artistic Director Washington Theatre Club Washington

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