To the Editors:

Indeed, Paul McCartney is back [May 31]. Eat your hearts out, John, George and Ringo.

Kathy Biegel

Albany, Ore.

Paul McCartney is aloft on wings of platinum and gold these days. And yet I do have a request of Mr. McC. and others in rock's pantheon: How about gracing "Smaller Town U.S.A.," where longtime supporters reside?

Mike Otis

Fulton, N. Y.

First it was Springsteen, now it's McCartney. Your magazine has about as much musical taste as a smelly old warthog. McCartney may be a commercial success, but he is a mediocre, washed-up musician.

Reedy Jay

Berkeley, Calif.

The rock generation may have lost a group but they have gained a legend: McCartney.

Gene Sapakoff

Denver

Now after listening to Wings' Speed of Sound album I'm convinced ... Paul McCartney is dead!

Tom Serabian

Potsdam, N. Y.

A Cutting Question

This is in response to the article entitled "No Clearcut Decision for Timber" [May 17].

I would suggest that the article did not convey an accurate or a current picture of the developments regarding forestry management legislation. The Senate Agriculture and Forestry Committee and the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs held joint hearings and heard from over 100 witnesses. The same two committees recently completed four days of extensive markup sessions at which time additional changes and refinements were made on my bill, S. 3091, to reflect some of the concerns and suggestions raised by members and hearing witnesses.

The article seems to indicate that there are two main groups [the timber industry's "clear cutters" v. the environmentalists] contending with each other over forestry management legislation. In fact, there are many interested parties and, fortunately, most of the solid conservation groups and forestry school deans are behind S. 3091.

The goal before us is a most difficult one. It is to chart a flexible but clear path in the management and operation of the 187 million acres of the National Forests and in the interest of not just timber but all resources. I believe that the bill does this.

Hubert H. Humphrey

Senator from Minnesota

Washington

Hays and Ray

I wonder just how wide and deep is this public trough that the taxpayers support and how many more congressional clowns must have their private capers revealed [June 7] before that august body meets its responsibility?

Cecil L. Woodgate

Satellite Beach, Fla.

Using my tax dollar for a Congressman's own benefit is a sin (greed) against me. His sin of the flesh is not a sin against me, therefore more tolerable.

Leona Mihalka

Aurora, III.

I hope Congressman Hays can judge the motives of the Russians better than he figured the aspirations of Ms. Ray. My confidence in Congress has not been bolstered.

Lawrence M. Jacobson

Olympia, Wash.

Congressman Wayne Hays apparently never heard of the warning: "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."

George Johnson

Wausau, Wis.

Message in a Medium?

If Brando [May 241 can only sit around on an island and bitch about the world, I don't respect him. With his talents, money and supposed intellectual vision, he could create a message (not a spectacle) in the movie medium similar to that of Chaplin. So far--zero.

John Heifer

Valladolid, Spain

Quicker with Diamonds

I was greatly distressed to read "Diamonds are Forever" [May 17], dealing with California's latest effort to enhance our environment--the Santa Monica Freeway Diamond Lanes. On March 15 we reserved the inside fast lanes of a 12.6-mile segment of the third busiest freeway in the world for the exclusive use of buses and car pools for a test period of one year. In nine weeks car pools have increased 100% (from 10,200 to 20,400 a week); and bus ridership has increased 140% (8,300 to 19,000). Overall, the freeway is moving 96% of the people moved prior to the project in 15% fewer vehicles. Early projections indicate a savings of 2 million to 2% million gallons of fuel annually. For bus riders and car poolers, travel times are now half what they were before the project. A flop? I think not.

Adriana Gianturco

Director of Transportation

Sacramento

The Outer Island

The one underlying catechism of President d'Estaing's reflections on the U.S. [May 24] seems to be that for whatever our nation has accomplished, bungled or compromised in the past 200 years, we are still just an island off the coast of Europe.

Carol Wicks

Auburn, Ala.

America, Good and Bad

Foreign observers are not the only ones who find the U.S. wanting ["Critical Reviews from Abroad," May 31]. Americans who know their history realize that their country is and always has been a laggard in social progress.

Ours was one of the last countries to abolish slavery, one of the last to adopt a social-welfare system (still shamefully inadequate), and one of the last to address itself to the question of socio-economic inequality. All the Bicentennial rhetoric and campaign jingoism can't cover up the fact that we're not Numero Uno.

Victor Grant Backus

Brooklyn

It is interesting that the 550 business, political and educational leaders from 86 foreign countries see little value in our system of government.

I wonder what would happen if we had no immigration laws and opened the doors wide. Do you think anyone would come?

Edward G. Davies

Miami

I've done my share of U.S. bashing, but never again. Thanks for the movies that turned childhood into magic. Thanks for the big, brash, zesty scene (never seen, only felt). But above all, thanks for never really growing up. America is the Peter Pan of all the continents. Optimism, vitality, "get-up-and-go" are still with you (watch Jimmy Carter & Co.). May you never ever change.

Joan Burgermeister

Surrey, England

Not Enough

Your conclusion [May 31] that "the American consumer almost always ends up paying the bills" (of jury awards) is right out of a recent casualty insurance company advertisement. Jury verdicts should not be arbitrarily limited any more than corporation executive salaries or professional golfers' winnings should be. In a free society such things are properly determined by the merits of the case. Before you judge, why not serve on a jury in a serious case? You'll be surprised how little $ 1 million is to a quadriplegic.

Peter Chase Neumann

Reno

Kudos to the Wyoming jury who awarded $1.3 million to Margaret Housen for contracting gonorrhea. They have opened a veritable Pandora's box of litigation. Using their scale, contracting syphilis could bring a lucky person $750,000. Thanks to their precedent, purchasing no-fault sex insurance will become mandatory at puberty. Pity the uninsured who must resort to medical treatment rather than cashing in at the courthouse!

Nick Ritcher, M.D.

Seal Beach, Calif.

Among the Outraged

Hooray for Stefan Kanfer's report on violence in sports [May 31]. It is a pathetic commentary that the immature, destructive behavior of our contemporary "superheroes" is three strikes below the maturity level of the children who worship and glorify them.

Count me among the "outraged" that such foul play has been magnified and reinforced by sports promoters and the media.

Katherine Ferber

Moraga, Calif.

How Golden the Mean?

In your story in the May 31 issue you said: "Carter's ... answers have appeal to partisans on both sides of issues." Probably true, but is it so bad?

In this country I find we have a maddening tendency to back our candidates into corners, then demand that they produce instant remedies from either a "liberal" or "conservative" bag of tricks.

It isn't always that simple. Jimmy Carter seems, refreshingly, to be a man of the Golden Mean--willing and able to perceive that Aristotle just might have been onto something.

Jennifer Hamilton Calvert

McLean, Va.

Ripping the Veil

I felt that your article, "Running Against Washington" [May 24], reflected the attitude of the American public toward their leaders in a most exacting and empathetic way.

It was refreshing to hear that someone interpreted the attitude of the public to be one of self-sufficiency instead of one of apathy. Part of the reason Washington is "afraid of their own people" is because we have ripped the veil from the power-filled positions and we're questioning not only the positions themselves, but what type of person it is that becomes possessed to take such an office (as President).

Jo Ellen Burke

St. Paul

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