Man of the Year?

To the Editors:

For Man of the Year I nominate Jimmy Carter. He has shown that the presidency of the U.S. is truly open to anyone.

Jim Morgan

Dover, Del.

For Persons of the Year I nominate the hundreds of courageous women (both Catholic and Protestant) of Northern Ireland.

Despite vicious threats and attempts on their lives, they have displayed during this year tremendous bravery in their valiant efforts to bring peace to their war-torn country.

Jeffrey M. Liss

New Hope, Minn.

For Man of the Year: Uncle Sam.

Who else? He has been it for the past 200 years.

Paul Kolesar

Hampton, Va.

For Man of the Year I nominate Betty Ford--a magnificent lady in every sense of the word.

(Mrs.) Gertrude G. Kline

Shaker Heights, Ohio

For Man of the Year I nominate Renee Richards. I feel this will satisfy all three sexes.

Brian Allen

Union, Me.

The year has been one in which Mother Nature has continually reminded man of his ultimate ignorance and impotence.

In light of the awesomeness of the universe, reflected in man's meager venture to Mars, the devastation of earthquakes, floods, volcanoes and drought and the complexity of immunology and disease control, it is only fitting that Mother Nature be named as TIME'S Woman of the Year, 1976.

Kirk W. Bode and David S. Berry

Champaign, Ill.

Carter's Victory

The election of Jimmy Carter proves the weakness of universal suffrage. It's obvious that only us folks who are paying the bills should vote. Anyone who pays no income taxes should be stricken from the rolls, and those of us who do pay taxes should have a weighted vote in proportion to the amount of money we give the Federal Government.

Lou Church

Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

If it is true that the votes of the socially disadvantaged, the poor and the uneducated placed this man in office, then it must follow that there are more of these people in the supposedly well-off U.S. than there are of the secure, rich and educated followers of Ford.

If half of what Carter promises comes true, this country is in for a renaissance that has long been overdue.

Joseph L. Buelna

Fort Clayton, C.Z.

I am not black, not poor, not ill-educated and not hurting. I voted for Jimmy Carter because I believed in him.

Catherine Scott

Fullerton, Calif.

Mr. Carter says he would attempt to establish "a position where our country is the leader of the world, based not on military might or economic pressure or political persuasion but on the fact that we are right and decent."

Carter seems to have forgotten Viet Nam and Watergate already. Were these right and decent? Wouldn't it be great if leaders of all nations would get together and decide which country should assume world leadership, based on its decency and righteous intents? I feel Mr. Carter's visions are getting too far ahead of reality.

Michael J. Kearney

Dix Hills, N. Y.

In view of the fact that Big Labor played a major role in wrecking the economy of England and New York City, I would feel a lot safer if Carter and Meany were not even on speaking terms.

Cordell P. Richardson

Longmont, Colo.

Loaded Guns

TIME, in its election coverage, claims that Massachusetts' handgun confiscation referendum was defeated by overwhelming propaganda by the National Rifle Association [Nov. 15].

Hogwash.

Overtaxed, overregulated, and fed up with the legislative extravagances of the most liberal state in the nation, Massachusetts voters refused to swallow one more social experiment.

We in Massachusetts know, through bitter experience, that government intrusion is more lethal than a loaded gun.

Peter H. Caroline

South Hamilton, Mass.

Everyone, so we've been told,

Wants to see handguns controlled.

The Bay State put it to the test,

And promptly laid that myth to rest.

John C. McPherson

Houston

I question your defining Smith & Wesson's products as Saturday Night Specials. They certainly are not cheap, either in price or quality.

Allen C. McCracken

Espy, Pa.

If Smith & Wessons are Saturday Night Specials, Bentleys are hot-rods.

Thomas J. Swenson

LaCrosse, Wis.

The Great Leveler

Fashion has at last become the great leveler among women. How clever of the designers to copy the rags of Calcutta for spring styles. Now all women world wide will look equally ugly and impoverished.

Hermione Nelson

Minneapolis

Little girls--see how they smile. See how they run. They are running away from the orphanage, where they were dressed in these rags.

We hope someone will buy them something--anything--even from Woolworth. It will look better on them than these discards from the Salvation Army.

Gertrude Khan

Walnut Creek, Calif.

Designers of the latest Paris fashions owe a debt to the Latin poet Virgil for their "new" ideas. The photographs worthily exemplify his description of Venus as a huntress: nuda genu, nodoque sinus collecta fluentis [bare knee, and flowing robes gathered in a knot].

How often have the thoughts of young students strayed from the syntax of that line, while lovely Venuses have gamboled through their minds.

Anthony V. Sviatko

Park Ridge, Ill.

Aging

I agree entirely with Alex Comfort's findings in The Joy of Aging [Nov. 8].

I retired from the service of the British government in 1949 as headmaster of Barking Abbey School in London, and came out to Africa to teach English. (Headmasters don't have much time for teaching.)

I had no difficulty getting a post and went on teaching in East and Central Africa till Feb. 18,1975, when I resigned of my own accord, having reached my 92nd year. I credit my vitality to this service, exercising mind and body. I played squash till I was 73 and swam till I was 87, but have now replaced violent exercise by taking two walks a day. Incidentally, both President Kaunda of Zambia and the Queen of England honored me for my service in Zambia. So I can recommend that the elderly carry on with their work as long as health and a demand for their services will allow them.

E.A. Loftus

Marandellas, Rhodesia

Capital Punishment

For years I opposed capital punishment, but I changed my opinion several years ago. Our criminal statutes say a man can defend himself from being killed, harmed, etc., by using reasonable means even if he has to kill first.

Now if a man points a gun at another, threatens the life or lives of others on a hijacked plane or walks into a bank to commit armed robbery, and some other individual prevents this act, it is considered justified. If it is justifiable before, why not after? This is not an eye for an eye. This is doing what any reasonable, prudent human being would do to protect his fellow human beings.

Harold Kahla

Jewett, Texas

In answer to Beverly J. Walsh's letter, I will gladly carry the weight of those executed who are later proved innocent. It will be infinitesimal compared with the weight carried by the victims of violent and senseless crimes.

Donald R. Rowan

Vacaville, Calif.

The reason the death penalty has virtually no deterrent effect on capital crime is simply that the general population, including the criminal elements within it, has been so completely isolated from the harsh realities of capital punishment for such a long time. If executions were televised live and in color, like press conferences, the fear of being put to death would be quickly reimplanted in the minds of all potential capital offenders. Capital punishment satisfies the moral obligation of those who take lives unlawfully to relinquish their own lives in return.

Richard Goodell Jones

Binghamton, N. Y.

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