The Public Mood

To the Editors:

Is the U.S. voter "wary--worried --waiting" [Sept. 15]? You jest. With runaway inflation, forced busing and senseless murders, I'm ready to vote right now. Against every incumbent politician and judge I can get my X on.

James F. Holt Los Angeles

How about "terrified--troubled--trembling"?

Mary Margaret Dragoun Fairfield, Conn.

Your cover picture of worries is preposterous without a large segment labeled HOSTAGES.

Joyce King Lafayette, Calif.

One explanation for the "unexplained phenomenon" of President Carter's 10% lead among women in the polls is that Ronald Reagan abandoned ERA.

James Riley Arcata, Calif.

Polish Paradox

Strikes in Poland [Sept. 15] have exposed a paradox of modern history: no external force could shake the closed citadel of a Communist regime except the very workers who were regarded as the vanguard of the proletarian revolution.

H.C. Shukul Baroda, India

So, "a prominent Polish emigre" says that Marx "would not believe his eyes" if he saw workers revolting against their Communist government? Marx would have quit even looking at 20th century man's feeble attempts at Communism long ago--after so many Stalins, purges, Gulags, 17th of Junes, Prague springs, Cultural Revolutions, democratic Kampucheas and Berlin Walls. If the "Communists" of Eastern Europe bore even a resemblance to what Marx had intended, I doubt that I and thousands of other G.I.s would need to be in West Germany.

Robert Kirchubel First Lieutenant, U.S.A. APO New York

American labor will eventually struggle to get what Polish and Soviet workers already have--a guaranteed job.

Richard Murray Seattle

The Morality of Assassination

Roger Rosenblatt's essay "The Wars of Assassination" [Sept. 8] pinpointed the reason assassins and assassin countries escape punishment for their dastardly crimes: lack of outrage and resolve on the world, national and individual levels. The slain Ali Akbar Tabatabai was a cultured, pro-Western and democratic man--a human being of excellence and compassion.

Lucinda B. Hanna Arlington, Va.

If Hitler had been assassinated, would the moral argument for not taking one life have been weightier than the morality of saving the lives of millions? If potential breeders of wars are not to be struck down because of moral considerations, then moral considerations must be of considerably less value and significance to humanity than purely practical considerations. Assassination may be not only more practical than war but, if morality can be quantified, much less immoral.

Walter Weir Newtown, Pa.

Taj Mahal in West Virginia

My daughter has been a Hare Krishna for eleven years, and I have come to understand the philosophy of this religion. I am proud of the palace the Hare Krishnas built in West Virginia [Sept. 15]. I know of no schools in this country that could teach the art of building such magnificence as well as these devotees have done "by trial and error." We need more palaces like the one in West Virginia.

Rose Forkash Carpinteria, Calif.

The days of building Taj Mahals should be over. No founder of any lasting religion lived in a palace. Self-denial and simplicity in life-style were usually the foundations of their beliefs.

Eleanor Possavino Allison Park, Pa.

Impact of the Missionaries

Art Critic Robert Hughes' claim that the destruction of the Hawaiian culture in 1819 was "urged on by Christian missionaries" [Sept. 15] is faulty history. Missionaries did not reach the islands until March 30, 1820, nearly five months after King Kamehameha II abolished the kapu system, the all-encompassing Hawaiian political, religious and social order, and ordered the heiau (temples) destroyed and the ki'i akua (images) burned.

David Kittelson, Hawaiian Curator University of Hawaii at Manoa Honolulu

Abbie Who?

As one who suffers from an elephantine ego, Abbie Hoffman [Sept. 15] may have made a mistake by surfacing. While on the lam, he could believe the whole world was focused on him. Now, if people ask at all, the question will be, "Who is Abbie, and who cares?"

Verne F. Noyes Silver Spring, Md.

Quitting the Iranian Circus

Sadegh Ghotbzadeh is not stepping down as Foreign Minister, as implied in TIME's interview [Sept. 1]. He is no longer wanted. His criticism of the present regime in Iran is calculated to pave the way for his future, since he knows that the circus is coming to an end. He hopes to secure a place in whatever is to follow.

Reza Hakimelahi London

Poets Laureate

In your Essay pairing poets laureate with presidential candidates [Aug. 25], I was surprised to find that "James Dickey probably would belong more with Lyndon Johnson than with Carter." Why, exactly? It is true that I was asked to write a poem and deliver it at President Carter's Inauguration, which I did. I was poetry consultant to the Library of Congress during Johnson's Administration, but poets are not allowed to pick their Presidents. My political sympathies at the time were in no sense with the late President, but with then Senator Eugene McCarthy, who was and is a personal friend.

James Dickey Columbia, S.C.

Henry VIII's Church

I really wish that TIME and other popular publications would stop referring to Henry VIII's "creating" the Anglican Church [Sept. 1]. Henry did separate the Church of England from the papacy, and he did (unlawfully, certainly) make himself its head. But he did not create a new ecclesiastical body. The Anglican Communion constitutes a body of Catholic churches with real Catholic scriptures, creeds, sacraments and ministry.

(The Rev.) John B. Pahls Jr. Colorado Springs, Colo.

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