New York's Night of Terror

To the Editors:

It does not excuse one single act of looting or burning during New York's blackout [July 25] to insist that something more is required than calling the perpetrators animals or demanding longer jail sentences. By now we must know that there are problems we have deferred too long and will defer again, work that is too hard to do, sacrifices we find beyond our capacities, corrective action that must be sustained too long for a people too impatient to stay the course.

Meanwhile, those who customarily clean up afterward will do so. The reports will be duly written and filed. Those who were already in a bad way will be worse off." Those who had little sympathy for them will probably have less. We have not yet found the lightning that will fuse enough of us into a force that can use the ordinary political, economic, social and moral instruments at our disposal to make changes of the scale, depth and duration required before the lights go out again.

M. Carl Holman, President

The National Urban Coalition

Washington, D.C.

All this analyzing why people looted New York during the blackout is a cover-up for pure and simple greed. After the flood, the mayor of Johnstown, Pa., had the right idea by ordering looters shot.

Lee Henderson Arlington, Va.

Those of us who have been poor know what nonsense it is to believe that having little makes one a thief. Creating reasonable motives for unreasonable people only serves to goad them on.

Ray Giddens Greenville, S.C.

In the aftermath of what those animals did during the blackout, I am advising my Congressman that if he ever again votes any federal funds for New York City, I will be ringing doorbells for his opponent come the next election.

Joe Jakab Toledo

The looting in New York City is a tragic indication of what the welfare program is doing to this country. People who work and earn a living know the worth of private property; they would not shamelessly destroy the livelihood of others.

Ben Finkelstein Baltimore

As a young black woman, I find it embarrassing to know that there are some blacks who still insist on keeping the rest of us down. Our ancestors would cry. S. Shuler East Orange, N.J.

The looting is undoubtedly a symptom of some serious problems in our society. First, this kind of behavior reveals a failure of the family, the church and the schools to instill basic moral standards among a sizable part of the population. I feel that the schools bear a special responsibility in the inner city.

At the same time, however, all observers seem to agree that the looting occurred in a Mardi Gras, carnival atmosphere. Thus the looters were simply enjoying themselves, rather than reaping vengeance against society.

Given the present state of our knowledge, it borders on the immoral for responsible observers to express anything resembling a sympathetic and tolerant attitude toward the kind of violent outbreak that occurred during the blackout. Along with Dante, I am inclined to believe that people who sympathize with the wrong aspects of a problem, even with the best intentions, have earned extraordinary punishment in a specialized corner of hell.

Herman Kahn, Director

Hudson Institute

Croton-on-Hudson, N. Y.

The problem is poverty, all right--but it's spiritual, not material.

Karen E. Howe Fairfax, Va.

On Cutting Off Hands

In your story "Islam/Crime or Punishment" [July 25], you quoted the Koranic verse that deals with the cutting off of hands of thieves. When the Koran talks of punishment of crimes, generally the maximum penalty is mentioned and it is left to the judge to impose lesser punishment on the offender and even to exercise forgiveness, if that would help to reform him.

S. Muhammad Tufail Woking, England

Islamic law tends to opt for leniency rather than severity if there is doubt. This is why four witnesses are needed to prove adultery, for instance. Islamic law also holds that the state should provide for the individual's basic needs before punishing him. In a year of famine, the second khalifa of the prophet Mohammed suspended the law of amputating hands when some people stole food to eat.

Shamseldin Abdin

Islamic Teaching Center

Indianapolis

The Sign of the Wolf

It had been a particularly bad day --searing pain, enervating fatigue and deep loneliness--with a supportive family desperately trying to help. Finally, in the middle of the night, I gave up all thought of sleep and began to read TIME, and there it was--an article on SLE [July 25]. I didn't read the article that night --I didn't have to--because now I know that the day is coming closer when people will no longer ask me, "You have lupus what?" Thank you. It seems such a small word to say for so much help.

Barbara Watson Moorhead, Minn.

Judging the Judges

The Supreme Court, you say, is to be "harshly" judged because it has no "overriding judicial philosophy" [July 11] but decides cases "as they come," and because it fails to guide the nation with a "sweeping moral vision."

I can think of no higher praise of a court than that it decides each case on its own merits and not according to some pre-existing judicial--or political--philosophy. And under what rational theory of democracy can it be said that the "moral vision" to guide the nation should come not from elected executives and legislators but from nine judges enjoying life tenure? Whitman Knapp, District Judge United States District Court New York City

Oswald Outrage

The photograph of Actor John Pleshette playing the role of Lee Harvey Oswald in an ABC-TV film on the assassination of President Kennedy [July 11] shows him holding in his hand a copy of the Belgrade daily Politico for May 21, 1977, with the headline WALTER MONDALE IN BELGRADE. My paper feels outraged at being inadvertently or deliberately linked to the assassination of a man held in high respect in our country.

Jurij Gustincic U.S. Correspondent, Politica New York City

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.