Man of the Year

To the Editors:

We are totally disgusted with TIME'S choice for Man of the Year [Jan. 7]. Certainly, the Ayatullah Khomeini has done much in the past year to change the course of history, but why should TIME give additional publicity to this fanatic? It's time that the media started concentrating on those members of society who struggle to bring about positive changes.

Kathryn and Michael Degman Yonkers, N. Y.

TIME has always defined the Man of the Year as the person who most affected the news "for better or for worse." It did so when it named Adolf Hitler in 1938, and it did so when it selected Ayatullah Khomeini last week. In all our coverage of the hostage crisis, and in the Man of the Year cover story itself, TIME made amply clear how it regarded Khomeini. But the Man of the Year has never been restricted to a person TIME wished to praise. Khomeini obviously dominated the news more than anyone else--"for worse." The magazine's definition of Man of the Year has not changed.

Naming Khomeini Man of the Year encourages retention of the hostages and other acts of international terrorism.

(Mrs.) Augusta T. Mullins New Orleans

Your decision to make Khomeini the Man of the Year is an insult to the people of the U.S. and to the hostages.

Edward and Elizabeth Ames Palm Desert, Calif.

The title of Man of the Year for that diabolical Iranian Rasputin is insane.

Nancy Husos Newburgh, N. Y.

We are appalled at your insensitivity and lack of judgment in the choice of Ayatullah Khomeini as Man of the Year.

Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth J. Earth Eggertsville, N. Y.

The Ayatullah Khomeini is your Man of the Year? This amounts to treason while our men are still captive.

Katharine Wulfeck Palm Beach Shores, Fla.

Naming Khomeini as Man of the Year is a slap in the face to every American citizen, the families of the hostages and the hostages themselves.

Dianne Gawne Amarillo, Texas

It was with utter disbelief and complete dismay that we heard the announcement that your magazine had named Ayatullah Khomeini Man of the Year. Your reasoning that he did most to shape the world "for better or worse" is not only appalling but disgusting.

James and Debra Peebles Glendale, Mo.

Cool America

"The Cooling of America" [Dec. 24] chilled me so much that I put on an undershirt and a sweater and resolved to dig out my flannel pajamas and get a blanket for the bed. If you send any more issues like that to Hawaii, I may have to close the windows.

John F. Mulholland Honolulu

If the American public would realize that warmer in summer and cooler in winter is healthier and more natural, maybe we all would be able to make ends meet.

Mary B. Stevenson Ardsley-on-Hudson, N. Y.

Some of us mossbacks are bored with the burbling about our solar future. We aren't going to get there without electricity for mining, processing and manufacturing the material for solar equipment. And we aren't going to have enough electricity without nuclear power. And we aren't going to have nuclear power if we persist in unrealistic expectations from conservation and solar power.

R. Murray Campbell Cohasset, Mass.

What ever happened to the old New England practice of bundling? Now there was a custom for you: fuel saving, compact and fun.

Armand E. Singer Morgantown, W. Va.

Bundling as defined by Webster's: an unmarried couple's occupying the same bed without undressing, esp. during courtship.

Gas Tax Fiddling

Senators, stop fiddling (and politicking) while Rome is running out of oil [Dec. 17]! For Jove's sake, act promptly and responsibly on our energy problem.

Edward F. Vonderahe Gloversville, N. Y.

Tax gasoline at 50-c- per gal. and use all the $50 billion for the production of synthetic fuels. The subsidy could well double the domestic supply of liquid fuels in ten years. With that, and with more fuel-efficient cars, we would say goodbye forever to OPEC! Please, let's not piddle away the tax on relief of Social Security taxes or any other pet scheme of Congress's. This tax must be used only to buy energy independence.

Don R. Meier Morristown, Tenn.

A 50-c--per-gal. tax on gasoline? Hogwash. What we need is a $1-per-gal. tax, applied at the retail level only, with the resulting revenues directed exclusively toward development of mass transit and new energy sources.

Marshall Smith Denton, Texas

Analyzing Los Alamos

Certainly no city in this nation could be, or is, as morally shallow as your article portrays Los Alamos [Dec. 10]. As Governor of the great state of New Mexico, I am proud of the citizens we have, including the people who are employed at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratories. Los Alamos scientists have been instrumental in the development of medical, nuclear, solar, laser and computer applications that have played a key role in our nation's technical achievements. The author's analysis of Los Alamos ignores the positive aspects of many fine individuals who make up this outstanding community.

Bruce King, Governor Santa Fe, N. Mex.

You have shown us in only one dimension. It is my contention that for every "bomb designed" you will find a potential solution to an energy problem; for every "crackpot" you will find a good friend; for every "racial slur" you will find a rewarding cultural exchange; for every high school "loadie" you will find a National Merit Scholar; for every teen-age beer bust you will find a complete absence of major crime; and for every "psychologically abused child" you will find many who are hugged like Teddy bears.

Gordon Spingler Los Alamos, N. Mex.

I was a teacher at Los Alamos High School for two years, and I have never read a more accurate description of a city.

Lawrence A. Starr Traverse City, Mich.

Panic at a Rock Concert

The worst memory of my life is of the day I attended a general-admission rock concert at a stadium that held 75,000 people but admitted 150,000. As the afternoon wore on, the crowd inside became uncontrollable. Walking back from the rest rooms, I tried in vain to return to my friends. I found myself unable to touch the ground, and swaying with the people pushed up next to me. Suddenly, I could not get any air. As hard as I tried, I could not get one breath in me. I became panic-stricken. People helped me, but I would not re-enter the stands, and I will never again attend a general-admission concert. When the eleven people died at the Who concert [Dec. 17], I remembered how awful my own experience was, and all I could do was cry.

Teresa Kondrup Freehold, N.J.

Intellectual Skills

In "Getting Testy" [Nov. 26], Ralph Nader and others opposed to testing were cited as critical of intelligence testing, the overuse of test scores and Educational Testing Service: three birds with one stone.

These birds do not flock together. E.T.S. does not "define intelligence," nor is it a "regulator of the human mind," as Nader contends. Indeed, E.T.S. does not develop or give intelligence tests such as those illustrated in the article. Tests of scholastic aptitude, which E.T.S. does develop, measure mathematical and verbal abilities developed through years of schooling and life experience. They are used simply because they present a fair sample of the intellectual skills students need in college. E.T.S. agrees that the scores should not be used to the exclusion of other information. That does not mean they should not be used at all. .

William W. Turnbull President, Educational Testing Service Princeton, N.J.

Arms and the Man

If you look very closely at the photograph of the captured mosque invader [Dec. 17] you will see that his arms are not tied behind his back--they have been cutoff!

Eloise Fox Kensington, Calif.

Other pictures of the same prisoner clearly show his arms tied behind his back.

Genuine Spines

You gave glowing reviews of several Abrams art books, for which we are most grateful [Dec. 10]. Your reviewer makes one unfortunate comment when he refers to Vasari's Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects in the boxed edition as having "spines of imitation leather" and suggests that "real cloth would have been classier." The fact is that the spines of these books are indeed genuine leather.

Newton K. Pincus Senior Vice President Harry N. Abrams Inc. New York City

He Who Tries

Hugh Sidey's article "A New Kind of Crisismonger" [Dec. 10] doesn't square with key reporters on the scene, such as Eric Rouleau of Le Monde who said, "Republican Congressman George Hansen has succeeded in painting a different picture of the U.S.--so widely reviled--without ever making a concession on the fundamental elements of the conflict between his country and the Islamic Republic."

Upon my return, the State Department "pros" came to ask the "amateur," "How in the world did you get in?," I believe those who care enough to try--really try--succeed.

George Hansen Representative, 2nd District, Idaho Washington, D.C. Rep. Hansen wrote this letter before setting off again to Tehran.

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