To the Editors:

The massive migration into the Sunbelt [March 15] is a chilling phenomenon. You say, "Air conditioning has made the long, hot summers bearable." What happens when the power goes off --permanently?

Beth Scott

River Falls, Wis.

Yankee, go home (and stay there)--Florida is full.

Meg Dobbins

Tallahassee, Fla.

At last, someone who can write about the South without "liberal" bigotry dripping from every word!

Liz du Mont

Gulf Shores, Ala.

Miami today--with its muggings, choked freeways, dirty air, foul water. littered beaches and sky-high housing prices--looks a lot like the New York City I left four years ago. It is time we shed our farmer fantasies, stay put and start making our cities work. Running away doesn't solve problems.

Gregory S. Aiello

Miami

Sitting here at my table in my 200-year-old cottage, no freeway noise, my doors unlocked, a crackling fire to warm by. gazing at the White Mountains of northern New Hampshire, which fill my windows--a view broken only by an occasional farmhouse--I read your article about Americans on the move (by kerosene lamp) with much amusement. I am a quite content "refugee."

Denise Grunwell

Sugar Hill, N.H.

Oh yes. Small towns are super if you are a hard-working woman and hope to make as much as $80 a week as a clerk or secretary, if you want to see your children grow up to be uneducated fools, if you like cesspools, if you like to take your own garbage to the dump and if you like to go to the public library and find that all three books have been checked out.

Valerie Hovey

Clarksville, Tenn.

Could a man from the New York metropolitan area meet a woman in a Sunbelt state and find the good life in Minnesota? You bet!

Rich Pietkiewicz

Richfield, Minn.

I have seen what this migration has done to beautiful little towns and lovely forests, and it breaks my heart. These people must realize that they are destroying rural happiness by bringing their industries, crime, hate and other city "advantages" with them.

Grace P. Waldrop

Milton, Fla.

Hubert the Silent

Several years ago, the Seattle Times published a picture of Senator Hubert Humphrey with his mouth closed. I haven't seen it since and presumed it was a collector's item. Its value has been eroded by your March 1 and 15 issues.

You pictured him not only with his mouth closed in both cases, but actually tight-lipped in one. These poses are unsettling--unless they are an example of selective reporting, or the result of a temporary dental problem.

Jim Pfeffer

Federal Way, Wash.

Lustrous Scoop

I strongly resent your description of Senator Henry Jackson as "lackluster" I March 15] and noncharismatic. What do you want, an entertainer or a President? Good grief, why are Americans so hooked on show biz?

Daniela Zilkha

Austin, Texas

Britannia's Rule

Your story about the collision of vessels in the Iceland fisheries dispute [March 8] erroneously calls the Iceland coast guard patrol vessel a "gunboat," a term used only for warships of a nation's navy.

You gave a false impression of the forces involved, since Iceland has no warships and no navy. The use of real warships by Britain against the Icelandic coast guard vessels in an economic dispute smacks of the gunboat diplomacy of the turn of the century, which we all thought had died a natural death. It is even more reprehensible when used against a fellow member of NATO.

Hal Linker

Consul of Iceland

Los Angeles

God and Yale

Concerning your report on the decline of the "Big Five seminaries" [March 8], I must respond by saying that the report, which by its nature is dated, does not fully represent the present situation at Yale Divinity School. At Yale there is a sense of community which is particularly expressed in growing numbers who attend daily worship.

Further, applications for admissions are rising, we are experiencing a return to a "core curriculum," and a higher percentage of students plan to enter the pastoral ministry at the end of their seminary training.

M. Craig Fitzsimmons

Student Body President

Yale Divinity School

New Haven, Conn.

Your article concerning the "decline" of the major U.S. seminaries touches on a profound weakness--not of the divinity schools, but of the Protestant church itself. While the "religious studies" of theologians like Juergen Moltmann send a fresh breeze through Christian thought, the stale air of the church threatens to choke the reality out of the very faith it seeks to spread.

Steven H. McCabe

Fort Wayne, Ind.

Mother Love

For years I have run across published interviews with my son Gore Vidal which almost always seem to include derogatory remarks about me. Ordinarily I pay no attention, but this time [March 1] I must object.

Gore never lacked love, nor was he abandoned by me. The truth about our estrangement is as follows. Gore had an assignment in London and I saw him off. Then I kept getting calls, cables and letters from him asking me to come over, but my mother was ill and I didn't want to leave because we thought she might die at any time. Also, I didn't particularly fancy London in winter. Then my mother said, "Maybe Gore wants to change his way of living. Why don't you go?" So I told Gore I would sail on the S.S. United States.

I arranged to be in London, then in Berlin, where I caught a horrible cold and went back to London and had pneumonia. I then told Gore that I saw no reason for my being there, since his best friend was staying on. I had come over to London under duress, and as soon as I could I wanted to go back to the States. Gore was infuriated. From time to time I tried bridging the gap. Finally I gave up.

I think many times of John La-Touche saying: "I have never seen such a sense of competition as Gore has with you." Needless to say, a normal boy would have been more with his father. It is difficult for a mother to have to rear children alone.

Gore has a most charming and sweet side to him. Unfortunately, the other qualities that are there are quite public. I often wonder what he thinks he gains. I feel so sorry for him, for one day he will have regrets and sorrow.

Nina Gore Olds

Dallas

Virginia Bugged

Re the praying mantis' being voted by the Virginia legislature as the state insect [March 15]: I know that a candidate, when elected, tends to change in the public eye, but I didn't feel that a praying mantis would stoop so low. Your inaccurate drawing of the mantis displays a real change for the worse.

You have the poor fellow's front feet fused to the second pair of legs at the joint. In that condition he couldn't very well live up to his campaign promises of defending mankind.

Susan Green

Audubon, Pa.

A thought occurred while I was reading of the Arlington, Va., Long Branch Elementary School children and their crusade to designate the praying mantis as the state's official insect. How do you stop a mantis from praying in school?

Larry Keesler

Kernersville, N.C.

I have long advocated the selection of the humbug as the Texas state insect. Perhaps it should be saved for the national office.

James O. Stinson

Austin, Texas

Higher Education

An oenological clarification to Diana Rigg mesmerizing students at the New School [March 15]: Diana was not lecturing but being interviewed by me before my class, "Performers on Performing," when she talked about performing in the nude. At the time, we were well into a bottle of Chateau Picque Caillou 1967.I invite each guest to share a bottle of wine with me. The students approve.

Leonard Probst

NBC News

New York City

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