JESSICA DUBROFF'S LAST FLIGHT In the beginning it may have been the father's idea for Jessica Dubroff to make the cross-country trip at the age of seven [NATION, April 22], but she loved to fly. Whether she made the flight for the world record or simply for the love of flying, the choice was ultimately left up to her. Society is always looking for an answer to every tragedy, but it should take into consideration that this little girl set and accomplished goals for herself that 80-year-olds probably have not. I hope those who point their finger at others take a good look into their own lives. They may then realize that life is short and there are no guarantees of how long we'll be on earth. We should do the things that bring us joy and happiness. SUZANNE REISER Rocklin, California

Your scathing article "fly till i die" was right on the money. What a heroic indictment of child exploitation. Young Jessica had absolutely no freedom of choice regarding her right to life, liberty or the pursuit of a normal education. Most of her teachings came from her self-appointed guru mom Lisa Hathaway, who, in a supposed quest to give her daughter freedom, imbued Jessica with Hathaway's own airhead philosophy. No wonder the kid wanted to fly! It makes no sense for Hathaway to call a nose dive to the ground a "state of joy." CYNTHIA HEBNER Wyckoff, New Jersey

The pint-size bicycle with training wheels, pictured in the forefront of your photograph of Jessica checking "her" plane, speaks volumes. PAULINE ELZAS ANDREWS Santa Monica, California

Perhaps we should not judge Lisa Hathaway's stoic reaction to her daughter's tragic, untimely death. But when Hathaway states that emotion is unnatural and untruthful, we have to wonder whether Jessica had the "freedom and choice" to express fear or lack of confidence before taking off in the thin, storm-tossed air of Cheyenne, Wyoming. Hathaway says it's acceptable to die in a state of joy, but we know it's not O.K. to die in a state of fright. This mother may very well believe that she would do nothing differently a second time. The question remains: Would Jessica? JERILYN DEPETE Syracuse, New York

I was shocked and dismayed by your report on the death of my niece Jessica, my brother Lloyd and Jessica's pilot and instructor, Joe Reid. To suggest that Lloyd for any reason would have purposely exposed Jessica to anything dangerous or life threatening is ridiculous. Remember, a licensed pilot was responsible for flying the plane the entire time and for making safety decisions. I knew Lloyd for almost 50 years. He was a warm, tender, loving, caring man. Lloyd and Jessica's flight was not a publicity stunt. The idea for this father-daughter adventure came about long before the news media became involved. DUNCAN D. DUBROFF Houston

For all their modern philosophy and New Age thinking, Jessica's parents lacked one simple, crucial ingredient: common sense. ANNE HYYTIAINEN Brampton, Ontario

The unfortunate death of Jessica Dubroff has nothing to do with the expression "child pilots." It is a story about a certified flight instructor and his judgment. Sadly, his aircraft carried two passengers--Jessica and her father. JORN HARALD ANDERSEN Horten, Norway Via E-mail

Surely no dream is worth dying for at the age of seven. Children must be protected until they learn safety and self-preservation. As a pediatrician in emergency service, I have seen many childhood deaths, but this one broke my heart. It was cruel to get to know Jessica through the media before her devastating accident. Her death was so palpable, so public, so preventable--a living docudrama most of us wish we had never seen. Jessica's upbringing probably desensitized her to many risks, but she is the innocent bystander in this case. PAM STONE Calgary, Alberta What parents in their right mind would let a seven-year-old drive a car across the continent, never mind fly an airplane the same distance? This whole tragedy shocks and angers me. The reported weather conditions at the Cheyenne, Wyoming, airport were obviously unsuitable for Jessica's plane to take off. I obtained my pilot's license two years ago, when I was 17, and I know when and, more important, when not to go flying. In the aborted takeoff from Cheyenne, the most logical thing for the pilot to do would have been to make an emergency landing on the available area ahead of the plane and past the runway. This seems to me a lack of good decision making by the pilot. CRISITAN HIESTAND West Vancouver, British Columbia

THE TREASURES OF TROY

In reading your article on the exhibition in Moscow of the gold treasures unearthed by Heinrich Schliemann [ARCHAEOLOGY, April 22], I was surprised that part of the article seemed to be a propaganda tool for Turkey to claim ownership. There was no ancient Turkey, and the ancestors of the modern-day Turks did not inhabit the Turkish coast, also known as Asia Minor, in ancient times. So do these artifacts truly belong to the Turkish nation? German and Turkish claims on the Trojan antiquities certainly ring hollow, particularly when you consider that the frieze of the Parthenon and other sculptures taken from the Acropolis in Athens, the crowning symbol of the birth of democracy, still reside as part of the controversial Elgin Marbles in the British Museum. I am sure that the return of these carvings to the descendants of ancient Greece would have "obvious nationalistic appeal," and it would certainly "make scientific sense" to display them in their proper home, in a museum in Athens near the Parthenon. JOANNE ANDREADIS Baltimore, Maryland Via E-mail

THE UNABOMBER SAGA CONTINUED

My heart goes out to David Kaczynski. He made an honorable but surely agonizing decision to turn his brother Theodore over to the FBI as the Unabom suspect [NATION, April 22]. As if enough had not been asked of him, he had to see you question his motive for doing so. Time said, "Can anyone be sure that an apparent act of principle isn't also, ever so slightly, a subtle act of retaliation?" Your article failed to show any credible reason why David Kaczynski should feel a need to retaliate against his brother. I wish you had written an objective account about a man who, faced with horrifying suspicions about his brother, did what was right. JULIE STEVER Baldwin, Maryland

What causes a man to kill for his beliefs? Is his intention really to take the lives of others, or is it simply to protest against modern society? There must be a way to express resentment without harming others. Writing articles and making speeches are seemingly not sufficient. Anger must be declared by punishing others. And we in society never know when a murderer will strike again. It is incredible that the Unabomber suspect managed to hide out for almost two decades. His arrest is a great relief. EDEL-ELIN SALOMON Bergen, Norway

QUIT YOUR JOB AND GO NORTH

Garrison Keillor deftly nailed the repercussions of corporate downsizing [ESSAY, April 22] and validated many of the emotions that people where I work are experiencing post-merger. The nirvanic green world that beckons out there is a place from which many of us unwittingly withdrew years ago. Now Big Business waits quietly in a dark cloak carrying a scythe. It stalks the very elements that made it profitable and yielded it market share--its people who have labored so hard. The parvenues of "new management" will wring out every last drop of dedication from the drones in the name of profit. But as Keillor noted, there is an appealing green world, and no one is permanently marooned. TERESA HOMMEL Boise, Idaho

So Keillor favors reality, by which he means something other than the corporate world. Sure, the life he describes at the re-engineered Amalgamated Potato stinks, but (news flash, Garrison) bad smells are real. And what does he offer instead? The romantic notion that life in the wild where the caribou roam is better. Well, he also invented a town where all the children are above average. If all those "drones" with salaries "in the mid five digits" he describes flee the corporate world, who will be left to pay Keillor for spinning yarns and reading poetry on public radio? The good folks of Lake Wobegon will have to put their heads together and start forming an economic-development commission. JANET ROHLER Ames, Iowa Via E-mail

HISTORICAL EYEWITNESS REPORTS

In your article on the search for Jesus, you stated that German scholar Carsten Peter Thiede thinks a tiny papyrus fragment containing a couple of verses of the Magdalen St. Matthew's Gospel could have been written around A.D. 70 by someone who was an eyewitness to the events described [RELIGION, April 8]. A 1st century date for all four Gospels is now agreed upon by most scholars. Even if St. Matthew's Gospel were written as early as Thiede suggests, this would tell us nothing about the historical value or theological truth of its contents. A Gospel written by an eyewitness or near contemporary (or even by Jesus himself, as the English title of Thiede's book The Jesus Papyrus seems to imply!) need be no more trustworthy than a later account. I am the author of The Apocryphal Jesus and was pleased to be correctly quoted in your article making the above point, but you inaccurately gave my last name as Lincoln. This error might tell us something about the historical value of contemporary reports. J. KEITH ELLIOTT Department of Theology and Religious Studies University of Leeds Leeds, England

GORE VIDAL AND BEN-HUR

What are we to make of Gore Vidal? He has earned a respectable reputation as an essayist and novelist, but now he's irrationally determined to pass himself off as a screenwriter, particularly of the script for Ben-Hur. This past year his obsession has grown like crabgrass. Your story on homosexuals in film and the documentary The Celluloid Closet [CINEMA, March 11] said that in Ben-Hur, "writer Vidal got actor Stephen Boyd to suggest, sub rosa, a homoerotic tryst with Heston." That demands a response for the record. Vidal was in fact imported for a trial run on a script that needed work. Over three days, as recorded in my work journal, Vidal produced a three-page scene that director William Wyler rejected after Steve Boyd and I read it through for him. Vidal left the next day. His ludicrous claim that he somehow slipped in a scene implying a homosexual relationship between the two characters insults Willy Wyler and, I have to say, irritates the hell out of me. CHARLTON HESTON Beverly Hills, California