Monday, Sep. 14, 1981

Planner Rouse

To the Editors:

Jim Rouse [Aug. 24] is an astute, humane and endearing businessman; Baltimore is a city of vitality and promise. The amalgam is irresistible.

W. Ralph Snyder Marlton, N.J.

I visited my home town of Baltimore a couple of months ago and was amazed at the rejuvenation of the downtown area and the pride among Baltimoreans. I thought the plane must have dropped me off at the wrong city.

Robin L. Hornstein Plantation, Fla.

James Rouse is truly a "master planner"--he epitomizes what is needed in community development today: a marriage of bold, inventive private enterprise with planning that is sensitive to people and their needs and to the protection and beautification of our environment.

Irving Hand, President American Planning Association Washington, D.C.

A trip to Baltimore's Harborplace is no more rewarding than or different from a trip to Santa Monica Place or the Mall in Columbia, Md. Blindfold a stranger and take him into any of these areas, and he will not be able to tell the difference. They sell the same products from the same stores. Baltimore and other cities replanned in this way cannot exist forever on weekend sales of Day-Glo plastic planters and kites.

Mike Saint-Just Alexandria, Va.

Meaning of an Oath

I have looked in vain for the overriding moral issues that would cause the air controllers to break their oaths not to strike [Aug. 24]. Today there are so many "good" excuses to ignore inconvenient constrictions of honor that only a fool lets such a matter interfere with a clever tax return, an increase in profits or a successful strike.

Geoffrey Pitts Barboursville, Va.

If Americans found King George III wrong in his notion that oaths are binding even in the face of injustices, President Reagan is wrong to expect air-traffic controllers and other public employees to work as second-class citizens when they are denied the collective-bargaining practices that are granted to other employee groups in the U.S.

Joseph H. Acorn Alamo, Calif.

We have all broken oaths, promises, vows when it suited us.

Anita Doggett Alexandria, La.

Reagan's Vacation

The fuss over President Reagan's four-week "vacation" [Aug. 24], which appears to be liberally sprinkled with official duties, is ludicrous. It was Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis who said that he could do twelve months' work in eleven months, but not twelve months' work in twelve months. A periodic break from the rigors of work is not a luxury, it is necessary.

Margaret Page Albrecht Cambridge, Mass.

It is comforting that in this plastic and synthetic age, the American people are being led by a man who prefers to spend some time in simple work and private communication with nature. It seems unreal that munching canape's in the Hamptons (wherever that is) would be preferable to the glories of the out-of-doors.

Janie Ray Channing, Texas

"Ah Wilderness" is the cheekiest report TIME has written on Reagan. Bravo! After 200-plus days of presidential honeymoon and vacation it's time we turn the other cheek. As a small-business owner in a building construction-related field, I can't afford even a three-day vacation.

Mary Myers Tucson

Recognizing Nurses

As a registered nurse I applaud your article "Florence Nightingale Wants You" [Aug. 24]. The public, as well as many physicians, should realize nurses are intelligent, problem-solving professionals--not just bedpan pushers.

Loretta Butterfield-Miner Sayre, Pa.

Hospitals can raise salaries and increase the perks, but that will not significantly change the shortage of nurses. Studies have shown that it is respect for the profession that nurses desperately want. Why can't doctors realize that we both have jobs to do and neither profession can do the other's job?

Nancy Kennedy Barnett, R.N. Cincinnati

I am offended by the statement that "registry nurses are often incompetent." I am a registered nurse with a master's degree; the hospital in which I work, through a nurses' registry, is lucky to have me. Not only am I a competent nurse, I also work the shift and days most "staff nurses" don't want.

Gloria K. Watson, R.N. La Mirada, Calif.

Certainly nurses need more money. But the nursing profession has serious internal problems that cannot be resolved by money. A dichotomy among nurses has resulted from the fact that many training programs have been taken over by universities. They push their degree programs since they are in that business. Somehow, many of their graduates come into nursing believing that they already know so much medicine that they have failed professionally if they are still taking care of patients three or four years later. Hospital nursing schools, on the other hand, have traditionally taught that patient care is a noble end in itself.

Shelley Walker, R.N. Des Moines

Hair Combing

I take exception to the interpretation in the book review of Presidential Anecdotes [Aug. 24] of John Quincy Adams' remark, "Well, I suppose she combs yours now," as indicating a lack of small talk. In its day it would have been an apt and humorous response. In the 18th or 19th century, to "comb one's hair" or to "comb one's head" meant to scold.

Mary Harbinsky Manhattan Beach, Calif.

The State University of New York at Oswego, proud possessor of thousands of the papers of our most underrated President, Millard Fillmore, rises once more to his defense. There is a quotation much more representative of the true Fillmore than the one used. In declining the honorary degree from Oxford University, he said, "I had not the advantage of a classical education, and no man should, in my judgment, accept a degree that he cannot read." How many honorary degrees the world would have been spared if others had followed his example!

Albert C. Leighton Professor of History SUNY, Oswego

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