Hail, Columbia

To the Editors:

I rose early on a rainy day to watch the televised landing of Columbia [April 27]. The message to Americans is clear: there isn't anything wrong with U.S.-built items. Come on, America, stop knocking your own country.

Robert A. Holmes

Picton, New Zealand

Some people view Columbia as a waste of money. "If you can put $10 billion into space projects, you can also put it into welfare," they say. Don't these people realize that Columbia has made Americans feel like giants again? The $10 billion spent on welfare would have been gone tomorrow.

Glenn H. Tarsi

Seymour, Conn.

While millions of people on this planet are crying out for something to eat, the U.S. satisfies its selfish hunger for prestige. Worse, it does it by unleashing a vehicle with terrifying military capabilities.

Columbia is a giant step backward for mankind.

Stephen W. Murphy Torrens Park, Australia

The smooth sailing of the Columbia marked the dawning of a new era for the space age. It proved to the world, especially the Soviet Union, that the shuttle is workable, reusable and real.

Wong Chong Chin Clayton, Australia

When the Soviet Union accuses us of having military plans for the space shuttle, our response should be: "You're absolutely right--and you're the people who are making this necessary."

Desmond Leigh-Hunt

Santa Barbara, Calif.

For some years we have been led to believe that over-45 executives were heading for the scrap heap. It was a pleasure to see the magnificent control with which 50-year-old Astronaut John Young brought Columbia back to earth.

Douglas Smith

Auckland, New Zealand

Why was the American flag displayed backward on one side of Columbia'?

Ethel H. Dorlon

Medford Lakes, N.J.

The flag was placed in the direction in which it would have waved on takeoff and landing had it been an actual flag.

Cooke's Tale The newsroom clatter of our medium-sized California daily diminished as reporters gathered around the wire machine, watching in disbelief as the incredible story unfolded of Janet Cooke's fictional article about '"Jimmy" for the Washington Post [April 27]. I cringe and wait for the person who, while I am on my next assignment, looks me in the eye and says, "Why don't you just make it up? The Washington Post does."

John D. O'Connor

Pleasanton, Calif.

As Janet Cooke's former teacher, I think it is important that we not lose perspective on what she has done. She is a talented young reporter whose response to the pressures of her job and of the times we live in was to make a mistake -- a mistake for which others surely must share the blame. I hope that her real abilities will not be forgotten through the outcry that has ensued, and that in time she can take up where she left off in achieving the distinction she has in her to achieve.

Michael Manheim University of Toledo Toledo

The real culprit could be inverse racism. The reporter, a black woman, could have been put under additional pressure so that this "progressive" journal, which hires blacks and women, could point to their accomplishments.

Berman E. Deffenbaugh Jr.

San Antonio

The fraud in the Pulitzers brings up two points. One: Who controls the Pulitzer Prize board? How could 17 board members negate the decision of the Pulitzer Prize jury? The second: It is past time for the Washington Post to identify Deep Throat. When the paper with an unidentifiable source can bring down a President and win a Pulitzer for doing so, then that paper must come clean.

Lanthe Rush Campbell

Greeneville, Tenn.

Businessmen As Villains

TIME'S story on the Media Institute report [April 27] presents a shallow analysis of why businessmen are portrayed on TV as undesirable and objectionable characters. The article implies a conspiracy among writers to defame the honest businessman. Before that image is ever projected over the air waves, the businessmen who pay for the program can decide whether or not it should be aired. J.R. Ewing of Dallas is on television not because he downgrades or upgrades the image of businessmen but because he sells.

Lars F. Soholt

Bolingbrook, Ill.

It is green-eyed envy, not congenital antipathy, that makes TV writers cast businessmen as villains.

Carmen Spencer

Las Vegas

Best Speed

In the U.S., with its fine highway system and vast territory, it is irrational to have the lowest speed limit of all Western countries [April 27]. An even lower speed might save more lives and fuel, but the question becomes one of practicality. High-speed driving on rural interstates, with fuel-efficient automobiles, can be done safely. The fuel saving that results from lowered speed limits is insignificant compared with the increased use of gasoline in rush-hour traffic in urban areas.

Keith Kotarski

Des Plaines, Ill.

Rolling Back Regulations

By dropping so many regulations on automobiles [April 20], the Government will allow the auto industry to undermine the consumer again. Modifying the requirement that bumpers withstand crashes at speeds up to 5 m.p.h. without a dent will surely lead to higher insurance premiums. The elimination of the tamper-proof odometer only helps the shady used-car salesperson. Not requiring certain specifications for roof pillars will put another squeeze on the consumer if he happens to roll over in his machine.

Barbara and Michael Tucchio

East Lyme, Conn.

Never Too Late to Audit

In your discussion of playing audit roulette with the IRS, you perpetuated the myth offered to the taxpaying public by Paul N. Strassels [April 20] that those who file tax returns close to April 15 are less likely to face an audit.

The selection of returns for audit has absolutely nothing to do with when the returns are filed. On the contrary, all individual returns are scored by computer formulas to determine the probability that they contain error. The returns with the highest scores are then reviewed to see if the apparent error can be resolved or if the return must be audited. Taxpayers who wait until the last minute to file cannot reduce the chance of an audit--they can only delay any refund they may have coming to them.

A. James Golato

Assistant to the Commissioner

Internal Revenue Service

Washington, D.C.

Generation Gap

I must take issue with the letter by Leonard Artigliere [April 27], who refers to the '60s generation as "heroic hypocrites." Our commitment to our "cause" was demonstrated by the sacrifices and odium we accepted in order to accomplish it.

As to the charge that we gave up our cause and vanished into nothingness, I must point out that the Viet Nam War was ended and Nixon was displaced. We made it possible for self-satisfied people like Artigliere to pursue their own interests by helping to solve the problems of our time.

Micheal Hutchison

Muscatine, Iowa

Dallas Works

Those were nice words about Dallas [April 27], but less praise should be given to the city manager for the efficient public facilities and more to the agreeable taxpayers. My property taxes have increased 1100% in ten years. Any administrator should provide decent services with that kind of revenue.

Pat Randolph Dallas

Answer to Abortion

Some of your letters opposing abortion [April 27] support the persistent myth that only women are morally responsible for pregnancy. Too many men still consider sterilization or the use of birth control on their part a threat to their masculinity.

When every man accepts his share of responsibility for parenthood, there will be almost no need for abortion.

Margery H. Peck

Las Cruces, N. Mex.

We have adopted more children than we could easily care for financially or emotionally. Yet we continue to survive. We are grateful every day to the mothers of the eight of our eleven children who were adopted instead of aborted, even though none is a cute, cuddly infant. In fact, they are racially mixed, Asian, emotionally disturbed, physically handicapped, learning disabled and "too old" --but a total joy.

Henry and Ann Steffens

Clearwater, Fla.

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