Loff-ly Man

To the Editors:

Mstislav Rostropovich--what a man! Thanks for your loff-ly story [Oct. 24].

Claus A. Pierach, M.D.

Minneapolis

Rostropovich will be as big an asset to music in this nation as Pele was to the game of soccer. You have fulfilled many of the wishes of classical-music lovers. To the Russians who mistreated the artists who are in exile in our country: Repent! You have lost the best in music, literature and dance.

Santa Ono

Lutherville, Md.

You capture the exciting quality of Rostropovich's musical personality. But excitement and exuberance are not the only qualities needed by a conductor. He must know the repertoire and how to exact from the players the precision demanded by the scores. Rostropovich is the master of the grand gesture, but the ensemble results are not yet equal to his expansiveness on the podium.

Walter Rundell Jr.

Austin, Texas

Bravo for the story on Slava!

But you almost completely ignore Antal Dorati--the genius who made the National Symphony worthy of a Rostropovich; who worked similar miracles with the London, Stockholm, BBC and Minneapolis symphonies; who has--almost sin-glehanded--created a Haydn revival; and who has championed the works of countless contemporary composers.

Grover B. Proctor Jr.

Bloomington, Ind.

You list "even downtown Cleveland" among other major cities that great musical performers visit. On behalf of all other Clevelanders, and especially the Cleveland Orchestra, I would like to inform you that we continue to have a leading orchestra--if not the best--in the world.

Marilyn Lurie

Shaker Heights, Ohio

Who's Ripping Off Whom?

President Carter should examine the Government's unfair double-taxation policies before accusing the oil companies of a "ripoff" [Oct. 24]. The Government taxes the companies for producing energy, and the public for consuming gasoline at the pump. It is the Government that is ripping everyone off with its taxation of both the producer and consumer.

Herbert H. Hammer

New York City

I am sure the dollars earned in profits by the oil firms will do more to solve our energy problems than the dollars taken in taxes by the Government.

Alan Wurts Houston

Carter's stand does not upset me one bit. It's time for Congress to cease playing benefactor to the energy interests. Hasn't anyone noted that the greatest inflationary spirals originate with industries whose products have few, if any, realistic alternatives with which to compete?

Wayland L. Spilman

Fulton, N. Y.

Carter's "ripoff" press conference restored my faith that at least there was one person willing to take a stand for the millions of Americans these oil prices will concern most.

Linda H. Toney

Ellenboro, N.C.

I remember a time when gas was gas and coal was coal, and the word energy described Ray Bolger's dancing, what Hershey bars give quickly and a quality some admirable folks have more of than others.

Ah, technology!

Judy Boyer

Tucson, Ariz.

Equality v. Excellence

You closed your article about the Bakke case [Oct. 24] with the hope that racial problems can be resolved "through the creativity and good will of a society committed to equality for all its citizens."

I think you meant to say equal opportunity for all. Equal opportunity can be enhanced by the courts. Equality for all citizens is a job for the geneticists.

Bill Holt

Claymont, Del.

Most college admissions officers, thank goodness, don't use just grades and test scores in making their decisions. Factors such as character and unusual backgrounds are often considered because schools know a diverse student body creates a more stimulating environment. All choices are, by nature, discriminatory. In its effort to enroll minorities, the University of California discriminated in favor of heterogeneity, not homogeneity.

Alexander Wolff

Lucerne, Switzerland

If Allan Bakke receives a decision in his favor, it will eliminate the limited opportunities blacks now have in the most important route available to them of attaining a fully competitive existence in America: education.

Kevin B. Blackistone

Evanston, III.

To say that reverse discrimination is necessary to enforce the 14th Amendment is to imply that mediocrity can prevail over excellence. The U.S. was not built on the premise that excellence can be sacrificed to mediocrity.

Gerald Kappel

Merrick, N. Y.

To fellow members of minorities who would like to enter the University of California or any other school: study harder than Bakke.

Kenji Nakamura San Francisco

Burning Bias

Re "Burning Bridges Between Races" [Oct. 31]: if you liken the detention of a small number of South Africans for preventative reasons to "the country's most draconian wave of repression in almost two decades," how would you have described the massive detention of Japanese-Americans in 1942? Your bias is showing.

Carl Noffke

Information Counselor

Embassy of South Africa

Washington, D.C.

What's Fair?

So farmers want a "fair price" for their products [Oct. 24]. A fair price is exactly what consumers would voluntarily pay in a totally free market devoid of any Government supports. Not one penny more. If that price is low enough to drive some farmers out of business, that simply means there are too many inefficient farmers. I'm sick of paying for their inefficiency every time I go to the grocery store.

Terence Hines

Eugene, Ore.

My father owns a dairy farm in Pennsylvania and is well acquainted with the skyrocketing prices of equipment, labor, fertilizer, feed and so on. After reading your article, I wanted to call him and let him know how lucky he is. After all the sweat and blood and love he has poured into his land, he made some money last year: $1,300.

Janet H. Mansir

Richardson, Texas

For the Treaties

I am deeply concerned about the survival of the Panama Canal treaties [Oct. 24]. It is not a partisan issue. Indeed, both support and opposition cut right across the usual party lines.

A vote in the Senate is not now likely to come up until some time after the first of the year. What worries people familiar with Congress is that members of the Senate will get so firmly committed against the treaties, in response to pressures from constituents, that the game may be lost before it is ever played. This would spell a serious defeat for American foreign policy.

Barry Bingham Sr.

Board Chairman

Louisville Courier-Journal

Louisville

Mutiny in The Bronx

George Steinbrenner says Billy Martin is crazy. Martin thinks Reggie Jackson is "baseball dumb." Thurman Munson wants to play in Cleveland. Mike Torrez wants to play in Boston [Oct. 24].

The 1977 world champion Yankees provided more entertainment than Mutiny on the Bounty.

Mike Gooding Norfolk

Wait till next year!

Terry Rayburn Mitchell

Chico, Calif.

Not Eye to Eye

As a cataract surgeon with 26 years' experience in the field, I take issue with your article on lens implants [Oct. 17]. It misleads the public by minimizing the very formidable risks, which are not necessarily "less important than their present gain." While this may be accepted by many elderly patients, it is certainly not accepted by the majority of cataract surgeons. The alternatives, such as contact lenses and even spectacles, are nowhere as objectionable as described in the article. They are, in fact, very much safer, as well as proved over the years.

Alfred E. Mamelok, M.D.

New York City

Like all advances in medicine, lens implant surgery has its critics. Some who state that implants have not been time-tested are wrong. Doctors have been successfully implanting lenses for nearly 25 years. You refer to the possibility that an intraocular lens may become dislocated and cause visual loss. I have performed nearly 1,000 implants, both as a primary procedure at the time of cataract extraction and on occasion as a secondary procedure months or years following the original operation. Dislocation of implants is rare. While no surgery is free of possible complications, lens implants simply don't lead to vision loss.

Lyle Moses, M.D.

Cleveland

To Your Health

Re Indian Prime Minister Morarji Desai's practice of drinking his own urine each morning [Oct. 24]: I too began this custom while living in India and have faithfully maintained it for the past twelve years, gaining a sense of vigor that few of my contemporaries (I am 74) can match.

Fellow Indians who also partake of this "cistern of life" must certainly fare better than those who drink from the hopelessly polluted Ganges River.

Harish Jirmoun

New Bern, N.C.

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