To the Editors:

Congratulations on presenting a glimpse of the darker side of the exploitation of the Rocky Mountain high [Dec. 15]. Too many folks out here have the blindly optimistic notion that all this "progress" is a wonderful thing. Actually we are exchanging our wilderness, our water, our heritage and our very special way of life for a bunch of money that is bound to dry up when our minerals give out. Not much of a bargain, in my eyes.

Gregg Sutherland

Casper, Wyo.

The destruction of the natural beauty of the Rocky Mountain states in order to provide the nation with a few years' supply of oil is like a bum burning a Renoir for a few minutes of fire.

Lee Salas

DeKalb, Ill.

Several years ago, I engaged in a long and bitter battle to kick the proposed 1976 Winter Olympics out of Evergreen and, eventually, out of Colorado. We feared that the environmental impact would be too severe. Now I realize how futile that fight was. Colorado has had it. Between the sagebrush rebellion and the oil companies, the once beautiful national forests and other public lands here will soon be parceled out to the highest bidder.

Boyd Norton

Evergreen, Colo.

The beautiful mountain identified in the picture as Grand Teton Mountain is really Mount Moran, as those, like myself, who have loved and climbed them both will recognize.

Robert D. Welch

St. Clair Shores, Mich.

Remembering Lennon

For the first time in my life I feel old. When I was growing up in the '60s, the Beatles represented all the excitement, hopes and dreams of my generation. The future was boundless; it could only get better and better; and no words can recapture the feeling of being alive in that time. Now, with the death of John Lennon [Dec. 22], I feel that the spirit of the '60s is over.

Ron Eckert

Ardmore, Pa.

With no problem at all, some crazy person gets a gun and carelessly blows away my youth and that of hundreds of thousands of people my age.

Abby Norling

Skowhegan, Me.

I had very few idols; now I have even fewer. Losing Lennon is like losing a member of my family.

Art Halperin

Hartsdale, N. Y.

"All you need is love"--but a gun for your protection is also useful. Shame on you, America, shame on you!

Graham Morison

Paisley, Scotland

TV Boycott

Why should the Rev. John Hurt [Dec. 15] force on me his opinion of what television America should watch? I enjoy Dallas, Soap and the other "immoral" programs, and I don't feel I have been adversely affected by them. Mr. Hurt does not have to watch these programs if he feels they are immoral; or has he forgotten that there is an Off switch?

Kevin Lee Sutter

Blacksburg, Va.

Although I am not a card-carrying "clean up TV" member, I am struck by the double standard the TV industry applies to freedoms. It would appear that the networks believe they have a unilateral and inalienable right to use any material they choose to their economic advantage. If, however, another group with a differing opinion chooses to use the free-enterprise mechanism to express itself, its course of action is construed to be censorship.

Lowell J. Hyland, M.D.

Sioux Falls, S. Dak.

I, too, am offended by some material on TV, especially the ravings of those preacher-entertainers who saturate the air waves these days. However, it would never occur to me to advocate the type of censorship or blackmail these groups are so ready to resort to.

Robert Swidler

New York City

It amuses me to read about all the righteous indignation concerning the immoral TV programs such as Dallas, Three's Company and a few others. These programs are fairy tales compared with the daytime soaps. I've heard many say, "If you want to see a porno movie, watch the soap operas." And I believe it.

Betty Harris

Hamburg, Ark.

Teaching Aristotle

"How to Protect Tender Minds" [Dec. 15], about suspending a teacher because he introduced the works of Aristotle and Machiavelli to tenth-graders, is one more demonstration that public schools are not primarily concerned with training minds and developing critical thought. The intensity that Cyril Lang takes to his classroom is now expected only of athletic coaches.

Ellis Workman

Rochester, Minn.

Hurrah for Cyril Lang! Superintendent Andrews wants "reasonable procedures" for choosing learning materials. Why not choose your teachers carefully and then have faith in them? Students are hungry for challenging material.

Connie Elston

Rapid City, S. Dak.

Doesn't Add Up

Comparing the math capabilities of seventh-and eighth-grade boys and girls and concluding that boys have a greater inherent ability [Dec. 15] is like concluding that rocks in a stream are softer than rocks on a bank because the rocks in the stream are more worn. Only when boys and girls are raised alike and given the same toys, goals and values will a study like Benbow and Stanley's have merit.

Norine A. Bradshaw

Carmel, Calif.

When I was four, my father taught me the beauty of numbers, and I have excelled in mathematics ever since. My conclusion? The males who grew up with a high aptitude for math are not spending enough time with their daughters.

Nancy Whelan Reese

Potsdam, N. Y.

Judy Chicago's Concern

The review by Robert Hughes of The Dinner Party [Dec. 15] was grossly unfair. If Artist Judy Chicago has expressed the concern of her times in her work, feminism, she is not doing anything artists haven't been doing for hundreds of years. She is not any more "strident" and "simple" than, say, Picasso was in Guernica.

Alcestis Oberg

Houston

It seems that female-oriented thinking, concepts and action are still suspect and unwelcome, while those that are male-based--right or wrong--are unquestioningly accepted. As I was an embroiderer for The Dinner Party for sev ral months, I am glad that at least your review recognized the historical authenticity and quality of the needlework.

Elisabeth Eldred

Seattle

I thought we were all through hearing and reading about the Judy Chicago Dinner Party. I'll be very glad when it winds up in the garbage disposal.

John Degatina

Los Angeles

The Wheel

Your Essay "The Endless Rediscovery of the Wheel" [Dec. 15] strikes an oddly optimistic note at the end. I fear we've lost far more of our cultural traditions than we can hope to rediscover. Too much of the social glue--church, family, local community--that used to hold our psyches intact has been dissolved.

High crime, alienated youth, epidemic narcissism and other social ills attest to the fact that it is better to maintain and slowly change our heritage than to pick through throwaways for useful remains.

Charles A. Child

Ann Arbor, Mich.

TIME'S Essay reaffirms the old adage that "experience is the best teacher" and, for some people, the only teacher.

William M. Lackermann Jr.

Warrensburg, Mo.

Lance Morrow fails to realize that the "baby boomers," now in their early to mid-30s, were grappling with realities in the '60s--the war, racial prejudice, starvation in underdeveloped countries and the discovery of a new awareness of themselves and others. Satisfying relationships and deep love resulted from what he describes as "mere roommating." And raising children is not limited to a scramble for financial security. Love and child rearing require thinking human beings, whom he flippantly labels "narcissists."

Diane Muntal

Las Vegas

Hear This, Zamyatin

I have some answers for Soviet Spokesman Leonid Zamyatin and his critique of American-Soviet relations [Dec. 8]. If he wants peace, then stop butchering Afghans. If he wants self-determination, then leave Poland alone. If he wants human dignity, then allow freedom of speech. If he wants detente, then act responsibly and cease helping terrorists. Talk is cheap. Actions show that the Soviet government is a brutal, repressive warmonger.

Richard Sybert

Los Angeles

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