Reagan's Race

To the Editors:

There's no doubt that the voters will go to the polls in November and elect the candidate with the most common sense: Ronald Reagan [March 10].

Michael Parsons

Akron

Any one of the Republicans who have been trying to get the hardest job in the country would be a better President than Carter or Kennedy. However, the best chance for the U.S. lies in Ronald Reagan. A Reagan-Baker ticket would put us in good hands.

June Lovitt

Pasadena, Calif.

Reagan may be the man for the '80s, but did your cover artist have to make him look 80?

Arnold Thurm

Stamford, Conn.

I hope Mr. Reagan is not serious when he says, "We don't care if they like us or not. We intend to be respected throughout the world." History is only too full of disasters that have befallen nations, leaders and mankind in general, when such ideas have been carried to their extreme.

Anupam K. Garg

Ithaca, N. Y.

How to Battle Inflation

Please inform that senior Administration official who says he does not know what causes inflation or what to do about it [March 10] that the federal deficit is the basic cause, and the cure is balancing the budget.

Willis A. Mitchell

Bay Village, Ohio

Suggestions already being made to balance the budget are designed to make the poor and the elderly the sacrificial lambs. The proper order of reductions should be as follows: all forms of subsidies, hidden and otherwise, for the benefit of business should be ended. All farm subsidies should be eliminated. Once these cuts have been made, it is time to step in and cut all forms of welfare, housing subsidies, etc. Programs should be reformed so that no one will find it easier to stay on welfare than hustle for a job. All forms of tax shelters that do not bear directly on legitimate investment in productive enterprise should be the next items to be eliminated.

Then, if we can get the fat out of the bureaucracy, stop the spending for luxurious offices, private dining rooms, etc., we will have a budget in surplus and the bubble of inflation will burst.

Murray Katz

Miami

A freeze on prices and wages was necessary yesterday, not tomorrow. Along with a wage and price freeze should be a mandatory 20% rollback of prices and a 15% rollback of wages to those existing on Jan. 1,1980.

John H. Walsh

Temple, Texas

Breeding Nobel Laureates

Three cheers for Robert Graham and his Nobel sperm bank [March 10]! Whatever its initial difficulties, Graham's concept is one we dare no longer neglect.

Perhaps the feature of our times that will most amuse our descendants is our ability to bring awesome mind power to tasks like creating a better pocket camera, while still breeding our children hit or miss; and worse, believing it immoral to try for anything better.

Tom Flynn

Milwaukee

Despite being the mother of two gifted children, I find Robert Graham's attempts to improve on human genetics arrogant and frightening. First of all, intelligence and wisdom do not always go hand in hand. Second, there are already thousands of gifted children in this country--5% of schoolchildren, as a matter of fact. Of these, 18% drop out of school. If Mr. Graham really wants to help the gifted, why doesn't he help the gifted children who are being ignored or harmed by our educational system?

Janet Sheldon

Baton Rouge, La.

The Nobelman preens,

Contributing genes

To demonstrate his fertility.

His child may be smart

In language and art,

But sure won't inherit humility!

Catherine B. Chase

St. Simon's Island, Ga.

I could tolerate a sperm bank for Nobel prizewinners. Even Olympic athletes or Oscar winners might be a viable idea. But if the 96th Congress ever gets the idea of setting one up for itself, that's grounds for impeachment.

Randy Johnson

San Jose, Calif.

Patriotism in Perspective

Thank you for your Essay "The Return of Patriotism" [March 10], which puts a sporting event into perspective. I was shocked and ashamed at the display of superficial patriotism taking precedence over all of our intellectual and moral achievements.

Robert F. Rosenberg

South Lyon, Mich.

Ironically, one of this country's virtues is that there is no official curriculum on "What to Cherish and Preserve."

Bruce Munson

Monona, Wis.

Jimmy Carter has exploited our patriotism for political gain while discrediting our image. Yet Americans are now equating love of country with love of Jimmy Carter. And when the love affair is over, will we feel cheap and used?

Kathi Hanna

Pelham, N. Y.

What a killjoy! Just when we discover a smidgen of pride in our country through the efforts of the Olympic hockey team, we find we are in grave danger of becoming chauvinistic pigs who may hate all foreigners and strangers.

Frank Davis

Redondo Beach, Calif.

When patriotism becomes a standard of moral right, then it is a moral wrong.

Bill Jarrell

Greensboro, N.C.

Riddle Resolved

The answer to the riddle in Kit Williams' book Masquerade [March 3] works out this way:

Fifty is my first

(Roman numeral for 50, L),

Nothing is my second

(Nothing equals letter O),

Five just makes my third

(Roman numeral for 5, V),

My fourth a vowel is reckoned

(I reckon it's the vowel E).

Now to find my name,

Fit my parts together

(LOVE),

I die if I get cold

(Love dies when cold),

But never fear cold weather.

Bert E. Landau

Hawarden, Iowa

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