To The Editors During the past year I have not read a single article on present-day sex mores in America that does not leave 01 some vital question germane to the subject under discussion.

This is glaringly evident in the article "Kids, Sex and Doctors" [Nov 25 What is left out is responsibility. If Leah Newman, 16, is living away from home and supporting herself, then her statement holds good. But if she lives at home, supported by her parents, then she has a responsibility to them and they have a responsibility to her--a responsibility larger than just supplying food, clothing and lodging. There must be some moral guidance and some rules of conduct. She is asking for license, not freedom.

If there is to be any moral integrity in America, we must recognize that every "right" has a corresponding responsibility, and when we demand our rights without accepting our responsibilities, our moral sensibiities are lopsided.

Warren P. Waldo North Ferrisburg, Vt.

May I ask Leah Newman, the doctors civil liberties groups, and all who advocate medical services for teen-agers where "sex is concerned, without involving the parents," if they will keep the parents uninvolved when it comes to billing for these services and paying for contraceptives? Will they care for these kids in their homes while the kid is getting over VD, the abortion and/or related trauma?

Shirley Becker Woodside, N. Y.

You say "the odds are that the immature mother and the unwanted infant will emerge from the experience with serious psychological scars." A letter in my files from a young father strongly suggests that the out-of-wed-lock father probably ought to be included in this conclusion.

(The Rev.) Robert P. Longenecker Annville, Pa.

Since when is an open marriage merely "an agreement to allow outside affairs"? All this time I thought it involved a few minor things like mutual trust honesty and the ability to be a whole enough person to love someone without choking him off from his own potential. Defining open marriage with that stupid, glib little phrase is like defining the ocean as a can of tuna fish.

Robin E. Piehl Prescott, Ariz.

I take strong exception to your position that such diverse sexual life-styles as swinging (mate swapping), group sex and bisexuality can be grouped with open marriage as declining "odd" forms of experimentation. To compare the fad of swinging, which has affected at most 2% of married couples, with sexually and emotionally open, co-marital relationships is simply an overgeneralization. It is probable that singlehood with multiple sexual and love relationships, open marriage and traditional monogamy are already the major life-style choices.

Roger W. Libby Syracuse

Dr Libby is research director of the Institute for Family Research and Education.

Superstud

It warmed my heart to read that Secretariat, the male superstud, had sired a colt [Nov. 25] in Winona, Minn. Thanks for a conversational piece other than budgets, inflation and Watergate.

Penny Dubesky Winnipeg, Manitoba

Ma Bell Embattled

I can think of a greater punishment than an antitrust suit for A T & T [Dec. 2] as the result of its success in serving the public efficiently. It should be required to take over the U.S. Postal Service.

Joseph Behr Danbury, Conn.

The Varieties of Terror

Gerald Clarke's Essay "When Terrorists Become Respectable" [Nov. 25] misses the point. There are two main differences between terrorists and freedom fighters: their aim and their means.

The aim of freedom fighters is to build a country, while the P.L.O.'s is to destroy Israel. The means of freedom fighters are use of violence, primarily against military targets and occasionally against civil targets. The means of the

P.L.O. are to kill civilians, and their prime targets are athletes (Munich), tourists (Lod, Athens, Rome), women and children (school buses, Qiryat Shemona, Ma'alot, Bet She'an). Nobody, including the U.N., can change the basic fact that by its avowed goal and its tactics, the P.L.O. is a murderers' gang.

Julien Bauer Montreal

Do you not consider it an "atrocity" that 1.5 million Palestinians are living in refugee camps and that another 1.5 million are scattered round the world, homeless? In my opinion, Palestine has not died. It is living in the souls of her people (guerrillas and refugees, as well as men, women and children all over the world). The only thing Palestine has lost is its address.

Karim Sahyoun Wellesley Hills, Mass.

No Hell Broke Loose General George S. Brown is not the point. In September 1941, when the late Colonel Charles Lindbergh (who was not then or ever in the critically the strategic position of General Brown) sounded off against the Jews in much the same way, all hell broke loose. Lindbergh's reputation for noble-mindedness was indelibly stained, and he carried the mark with him until his death. In contrast, the American people reacted with bland indifference to General Brown's blatant expression of bigotry. Were it not for some sections of the American press, his speech would not even have caused a ripple.

America's pervasive insensitivity to bigotry, then, is the heart of the matter. A man who literally holds his finger on the trigger of the American military machine indulges in a Nazi concept and then sits quietly, saying nothing more for over a month, until embarrassed into an apology by an alerted press.

My conclusion: when an otherwise responsible and respectable American expresses himself in anti-Semitic terms and the American people react indifferently, the nation ought to pause for some self-examination.

Arnold Forster New York City

Mr. Forster is associate director and general counsel of the Anti-Defamation League of B 'nai B 'rith.

Sweet Blessing The high price of sugar is not a sour taste but a sweet blessing. Sugar is a health menace that rots the teeth, adds pounds around the middle, and puts strain on the heart. So maybe the high price of sugar will make a heartier America. Bruce Lecheler Elmwood,Wis.

Goose and Gander I am admittedly a novice in political matters, and an idealist. But I find it difficult to understand why it is not right for milk producers to use their money to buy influence with the President, but it is all right for labor unions to use their money to buy influence with Congressmen.

What's wrong for the goose is wrong for the gander.

(Mrs.) Patricia Ohlmann Seward, Neb.

I was pleased beyond these few words to see [U.M.W. President Arnold] Miller cut his salary from $50,000 to $35,000.

My view of union leadership has come up a notch.

(The Rev.) John A.

Gilmore, Oxford, Pa.

This country needs a President with guts enough to push for an excess-profits tax. Unions would not be as greedy if corporate profits were not soaring.

William R. Wright Cranford, N.J.

Classy Gift What ordinary gifts the Sakowitz department store in Houston has to offer those who have everything [Nov. 25].

For $50,000, I offer one week of living as a member of the family in a working-class home -- mine. Now that would be "class."

Marilyn Blitvich St. Cloud, Minn.

Dark Chapter If, as Secretary Callaway states, the Peers Report "concludes a dark chapter in the Army's history," it is a dark chapter that must be read and under stood by every American in uniform.

It may yet, in its ghastly and profoundly chastening way, prove a bright beacon.

The United States will go to war again, in five or 20 or 50 years. Very likely our next war will be of the type that Clausewitz called "wars of policy" --conflicts unlikely to yield quick, unambiguous victories. The war will not be popular, therefore; the draft will be reintroduced; and the officer factories will go on double overtime. It is possible another Calley will be commissioned and that another massacre will occur. What we can labor to assure is that such an episode will be exposed the Army itself swiftly, honestly, by remorselessly.

One shares Mr. Callaway's desire to put My Lai behind us. The point is, surely, that it must never be put behind us.

It should be burned in the memory of us all--the monstrosities of its villains, the terrible miscarriages of justice and finally, the heroism of Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson.

Josiah Bunting III New York City Bunting served as an officer in the U.S. Army in Viet Nam, is the author of a novel that drew from that experience and is now president of Briarcliff College.

Person of the Year

Christmas decorations are up in Beverly Hills, reminding me that in only a few weeks TIME will be announcing its decision on the most notable personage of 1974.

I would like to urge a serious reconsideration of the title to be awarded and suggest as possible nonsexist titles the following: Newsmaker of the Year, Personage of the Year, Notable of the Year or, most simply, Person of the Year.

Maureen McConaghy Los Angeles

It is doubtful whether another individual could have moved us away from the Watergate issue to the business of the day as effectively as President Gerald R. Ford.

Therefore I nominate him for TIME'S 1974 Man of the Year.

Price I. Watkins Twentynine Palms, Calif.

My vote goes to J.F. terHorst, Gerald Ford's express secretary, for having a conscience and the intestinal fortitude to be his own man.

Philomene J. Swenson Tarzana, Calif.

I am going to suggest the name of Democratic Congressman Peter W. Rodino Jr., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, for Man of the Year for 1974.

He showed integrity, fairness and patience as the wheels of justice proceeded inexorably along.

Henry B. Harris Winchester, Mass.

As Special Prosecutor, Leon Jaworski started a much-needed clean-up campaign in Government. I nominate him for Man of the Year.

Kerry Murry Cheyenne, Wyo.

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