To the Editors:

With the launching of the space shuttle this year [Jan. 12], Americans will once again be migrating to a new frontier. As in California more than a century ago, the colonization of space offers the same hope for new resources, new industry and a renewed sense of national spirit.

William N. Ellis Huron, Ohio

When you described the space shuttle, you were blind to its most poetic resemblance. It looks like the Taj Mahal.

Leslie Riley Cannon Cincinnati

Some people loudly object to NASA and the shuttle, saying the money should be spent elsewhere. From the beginning of the manned space program in the late '50s until the end of Project Skylab in 1979, NASA spent approximately $60 billion. This sounds like a lot until one considers that today $60 billion would last four months in the Department of Health and Human Services.

Kenneth P. Myers Houston

The U.S. space-shuttle program is fascinating, but it also calls to mind the adage: In the land of the blind, the one-eyed is king. Little wonder that the Soviet Union should be so eager to get its own project off the ground. For the rest of us, the prospect of two purblind princelings contending high above for the throne of the kingdom is terrifying.

John Beattie Foix, France

I find it deplorable but typical that the Government would shortchange the space program in favor of the welfare system or Chrysler Corp., thus allowing other countries to surpass us in developing space technology.

Edward B. Marsh Ipswich, Mass.

Reagan's Ranch

Ronald Reagan's love of the wildness at his Rancho del Cielo and his designation of James Watt as Secretary of the Interior represent a Jekyll-and-Hyde personality [Jan. 51. How would Reagan feel if his "ranch in the sky" were sacrificed to the drillers, diggers and scrapers as an insignificant contribution to a short-term energy solution?

Robert Carlyle Day Martelle, Iowa

Sunbelt vs. Snowbelt

The proposal to help the urban poor to migrate to the Sunbelt [Jan. 12] could be the Snowbelt's blessing in disguise. If Chairman William McGill's commission can create an efficient and economical enticement for all the poor of the Northeast to migrate to the Sunbelt, where the work is, perhaps the urban communities of the North can survive after all.

John Mitchell Glen Cove, N. Y.

No one section of the U.S. has a monopoly on where people live, work and play, but the migration pattern clearly indicates a preference for the Sunbelt. It is people who need assistance, not the supercities and their satellites.

Lawrence W. Hester Cookeville, Tenn.

Having lived in the Sunbelt and the Snowbelt, I think one has as much to offer as the other. If U.S. resources can't meet demands in the North, how can they in the South and West? It takes energy to air-condition as well as to heat. Not everybody can live in the South. Nor does everybody want to. What the North lacks in January, it makes up for in June.

Regina P. Hickey Menomonie, Wis.

Second Opinions

In your article on the pros and cons of two medical opinions [Jan. 5], you did not mention that these second opinions can also be lifesavers. For example, a woman was told she had an ovarian cyst that could be operated on any time. Another doctor diagnosed it as an advanced cancer of the colon and advised emergency surgery.

Kristine Maish Corona del Mar, Calif.

The purpose of a second opinion should be to protect the patient against a possible error in judgment by the first physician. Thus the value of two opinions lies not only in reducing unnecessary surgery but in increasing necessary surgery. To think of second opinions strictly as a way to cut down on operations is illogical.

Kathleen Karpenter Dietrich Southgate, Ky.

Minister Malpractice

Malpractice suits against ministers? Why not [Jan. 12]? Surely, it is the next logical step for an increasingly litigious society that has decided to bypass old-fashioned dialogue, communication and reasonable negotiation.

But what has happened to the legal profession that accepts such cases, and the judicial system that hears such suits?

William R. Tipper Jamesburg, N.J.

Why shouldn't clergymen be responsible for what they say? I was a child victim of a faith-healing church and was prevented from receiving medical help when my left leg was severely burned. Thirty years later I am still trying to repair the damage. If medical doctors are legally responsible for their deeds, why not the clergy?

Paul Michener Waynesville, Ohio

No Offers

In your Press story about the families of the American hostages [Dec. 1], you reported that the Boston Globe had made offers to the daughter of a hostage to pay for her flight to Germany. The statement is not true.

John S. Driscoll, Managing Editor Boston Globe Boston

Donitz Death

I agree with the German government's decision not to join the funeral of Karl Donitz [Jan. 12] and not to allow German soldiers to attend it in uniform. We should not honor a leading officer of Hitler's navy who not only supported a dictatorship that caused so much suffering and death but commanded German submariners, of whom roughly two-thirds did not come home.

Wolfgang Stenzel Kiel, West Germany

Leonardo's Mistake

As the title of your article on Social Critic Bernard Rudofsky correctly suggests, "Leonardo Had It Wrong." But for reasons other than Rudofsky thought [Dec. 15]. If Rudofsky had spent more time on what was eaten at the Last Supper than on how it was consumed, he would have realized that the biggest mistake on the canvas was the round rolls on the table. Jesus, who was a practicing Jew, undoubtedly would have been served the traditional flat Passover matzos.

Sam Lehman-Wilzig Petach Tikva, Israel

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