Monday, Mar. 23, 1981

Budget Blues

To the Editors:

When the people elected Ronald Reagan, it was with the full knowledge of how he planned to cure the economic mess facing the country [March 2]. He spelled it out loud and clear. The medicine is bitter, but it may help our recovery.

Constance Beardsley West Caldwell, N.J.

A compromise is needed in enacting Reagan's programs. For two years we should defer those proposals that will have a harsh impact on the nation's poor, minorities and cities. After all, no 50-year addict can go cold turkey overnight. If Reagan is right, then the private sector will have made progress in alleviating the problems. If Reagan is wrong, then a disaster will have at least been deferred.

Bob Higgins Ann Arbor, Mich.

You quote House Speaker Thomas P. ("Tip") O'Neill Jr.'s warning: "We're not going to let them tear asunder the programs we've built over the years." These programs that give away this or give away that, regardless of the cost to taxpayers, have produced the mess we're in.

Charles M. Stone Kissimmee, Fla.

As Canadians faced with similar problems, we applaud President Reagan's determination to dismantle his country's tangled web of pyramiding bureaucracy. But we question his increased military spending in contrast with massive cuts for the arts and humanities. Certainly, every nation should maintain its defenses. But if that means neglecting its precious arts and culture, the U.S. may survive but, in fact, cease to live.

Helen and Alton Dahlstrom Rossland, B.C.

While gutting some of this country's most progressive social service programs, President Reagan assures us that "we will not balance the budget on the backs of the poor." I don't think he will either, but certainly his attempt will increase the number of poor and soon to be poor. Seldom in our history has one man proposed taking so much from so many to so little purpose.

Ken Scheel Las Cruces, N. Mex.

If we are indeed committed to the American philosophy of capitalism, we must accept the fact that unless we encourage the rich to put their money into stocks, bonds, factories and mines, there will be no jobs for the poor. It is natural enough to envy and even hate the rich, but killing the goose that lays the golden egg puts no meat on the table.

Jon B. Leder Chatham, Mass.

American Renewal

After reading American Renewal [Feb. 23], I felt that I must congratulate you for having the intestinal fortitude to undertake such a monumental project and for articulating solutions to the great problems. Although some may not agree with all of your proposals, business and labor statesmen as well as Government leaders should take the time to peruse this landmark document.

Mike Douglas Los Angeles

I'm a young federal employee, working with pollution in our environment. I'm also a woman. By your description I am a "special interest" person. But I also have a special interest in America. I support all the elements of our American Renewal. Bravo TIME! Bravo America!

Amanda Morrow Dallas

Nowhere has the decline of the U.S. been so evident as in the decay of our once proud space program. There can be no American Renewal unless we again explore the solar system as we did in the 1960s. A generation of young Americans is chomping at the bit wanting to carry the flag into space.

Martin Ross Ann Arbor, Mich.

In your discussion of special interests, it is not correct to include environmental and women's issues. Special interests are single items, like tobacco, sugar, guns and oil. On the other hand, environmental concerns and women's rights are fundamental to safeguard constitutional liberties and earthly survival, for the good of all, not only a certain few.

Jane Boren White Tucson

Lance Morrow touches only briefly on violent crime, the most important issue facing our nation. No renewal is possible until we can control crime. To accomplish that we need to rid ourselves of the notion that the judicial system is for the rehabilitation of criminals. It is not and shouldn't be. We have to learn to stop apologizing to culprits and punish them.

Jack Zawid Atlantic City, N.J.

America cannot be renewed by relegating to the ranks of special interests the one thing that holds the hope for a better future-education. Teaching the country's young must be an important priority for us in the coming years. We can go nowhere unless we are willing to develop people who will become the leaders of our nation.

Joshua B. Fraitnow Oberlin, Ohio

American Renewal is a brilliant and an enduring contribution. Congratulations and thanks for your leadership and imagination. I have a particular interest in reforming the use of television in political campaigns and have made similar recommendations. If you keep at it, maybe the time will come.

Newton N. Minow Chicago

Minow was chairman of the Federal Communications Commission from 1961 to 1963 and responsible for the description of TV as a "vast wasteland."

America has to operate in an increasingly belligerent and dangerous international arena, but our security, legitimacy and authority are nowhere more threatened than in the backwaters and slums of rural and urban America. The Soviets may be one enemy, but poverty and racial inequality are our mortal enemies, the danger from within. If our democratic system continues to tolerate an increasingly violent and economically unjust society, who will choose America-and why?

Steven Marc Click Democrats Abroad (U.K.) London

In your fantastic report on the American Renewal, there was one topic you missed in the discussion of how to reform the system. I think we are in line for an overhaul of our federal superstructure, reducing the number of states to 20 or 30. It's something to look into, considering how many levels of government are required to deal with all the problems in the metropolitan areas of the country such as New York, Washington and Weirton-Steubenville.

Andy Higgins Weirton, W. Va.

Since when is concern for the environment a "narrow cause"? Why did Henry Grunwald not include obvious narrow causes like those represented by relentless developers and speculators and all-too-powerful corporations? Without a healthful, life-supporting planet, all other causes are worthless.

Patricia Cole-Blaha Melbourne Beach, Fla.

Guns for El Salvador

President Reagan should be commended for his handling of the situation in El Salvador [March 2]. Since our nations share the same continent, our vital interests and national security are at stake, not just because that country is experiencing civil strife, but because that struggle is being actively supported by the Soviet Union.

David Grossberg Upland, Calif.

In Iran, Americans were taken hostage and finally released. None of them died. The U.S. howled to condemn this act of violence, yet failed to acknowledge the full implications of its own ambiguous and self-centered policies.

In El Salvador, four Americans were killed last December, murders for which, it seems, Salvadoran authorities are heavily accountable. The response from the U.S. was vague protests and military aid. There have been rumors about an alleged "new American consistency," but it seems the only consistency in the U.S.'s policies is its pursuit of self-interests at the expense of truth and real freedom.

Cante Philippe Bordeaux, France

Americans who recall how we got embroiled in Viet Nam must have a chilling sense of dej`a vu as they read of our increasing involvement in El Salvador. Are we sliding into another Viet Nam while Congress and the public understandably have their attention focused elsewhere -on our domestic economic problems.

Don Shaw East Aurora, N. Y.

Khmer Rouge: Friend or Foe?

How can the U.S. and the Western European allies even think of accepting the barbaric Khmer Rouge [March 2] in the U.N.? Unless the resistance groups in Cambodia disavow the Khmer Rouge, there is no excuse for the U.S. to give them any support, not even moral. The regime now in power may be proSoviet, but it is not carrying out mass murders. It would be disgraceful for the U.S. to help bring back this terror for the sake of controlling Soviet expansion.

Lawrence A. Barros Shippensburg, Pa.

I read and reread with great interest your article about the fear of Viet Nam by Cambodia and Thailand. As a South Vietnamese who suffered the inhumanity of the Communists for more than five years, I can only regret how much damage the American press did both to us and to the American people. Only the negative aspects of South Vietnamese efforts were emphasized. Similarly the American involvement was viewed with skepticism. This of course served our enemies well. The result was that we lost our land, and our people were put under the rule of the new Soviet tsars.

The Vietnamese people fully realize now that the system they lost (even though there was need for great improvement) is much superior to the alternative the Communists keep boasting about to the world. I regret my delayed expression of appreciation for the American sacrifices in Viet Nam.

Chu Tarn Cuong Paris

Murdoch on Fleet Street

Researching the Fleet Street career of G.K. Chesterton for a biography, I found it amusing to note that the staid London Times [March 2] was taken over in 1908 by a vulgar, pushy publisher, Alfred Harmsworth, who was known for his yellow journalism. Chesterton wrote that while "almost everybody attacks the Times on the ground it is very sensational, very violent and vulgar and startling, I say this journalism offends by being not sensational or violent enough. The vague idea that our yellow press is sensational arises from such external accidents as large type or lurid headlines [which] are soothing to people in a dimly lighted train." It is likely that the Times, having survived in a venerable fashion for the past 75 years, will be able to survive Rupert Murdoch.

Alzina Stone Dale Chicago

No Black Pilots

The passages from Mary Mebane's book Mary [March 2] brought back memories of similar encounters in my own life. In 1938 the principal of my high school summoned my mother to his office, because I insisted on taking a college-prep curriculum instead of a general course, so that I could become an airline pilot. The principal said to her: "There is no reason for Henry to take such a course, because there will be no black pilots."

During World War II, I became one of the first black Marines, and in 1951 I obtained my pilot's license. Yet I was never accepted by a commercial airline.

Yes, Mary Mebane, as a black male I can share your feelings and remember when the "chosen few" were light, bright and damn near white.

Henry R. Manning Goleta, Calif.

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