LETTERS

SHOULD HE DIE?

"It is essential to our own peace of mind that we be able to forgive Timothy McVeigh. And he can most easily be forgiven if he is dead." KANE MCADAMS Scituate, Mass.

You said that it might be best if Timothy McVeigh were not executed [CRIME AND PUNISHMENT, June 16], "to deny him his bid for martyrdom, to keep him earthbound and watch him slowly wither...just another old jailbird shuffling around his cell." But McVeigh will never be a martyr in the truest sense of the word, which comes from the Greek word for witness. It connotes one who testifies for his beliefs with the ultimate passionate guarantee of sincerity and a willingness to die for them. McVeigh stood on his right to silence and did not admit to the bombing or seek to justify it. No one will be converted by his death to an ideology that he did not publicly embrace. No armies will march to the strains of Tim McVeigh's Body. GEORGE R. NOCK Tacoma, Wash.

It is wrong for us to allow the Timothy McVeighs of this world to define the American culture and, by use of the death penalty, turn people in our society into murderers. Let us take that power away from the McVeighs and expend our efforts in defining ourselves. I don't believe we are a nation of killers. Our compassion, our creativity, our potential to heal and be gracious and forgiving should prevail at times of pain and loss. We are better people than our eagerness to be executioners would indicate. ROBERT H. ILES San Jose, Calif.

I am no fan of the death penalty, but if not McVeigh, then who? Perhaps some people will understand his hatred of the Federal Government and his desire to blow up the building in Oklahoma City. Perhaps some will even be persuaded by his delusions that Federal Government workers were his enemies and that he was driven to attack them. But to deliberately choose a time that would kill the most people defies imagination. The retiree checking on his Social Security payment was McVeigh's enemy? The veteran applying for a Veterans Administration loan was his enemy? Parking a van loaded with explosives in front of a day-care center and blowing up 19 babies? No amount of psychobabble and stories about McVeigh's childhood can explain an act so heinous. ERICA PASCAL Chicago

The effectiveness of the death penalty as a general deterrent will always be debated, but there can be no doubt that it is the ultimate specific deterrent: dead people do not commit crimes. LEN B. LOVEDAY Lewiston, Australia

Death by injection is too painless. Life in prison is comparable to a stay at camp. Let's reinstate hard labor and send animals like McVeigh to Devil's Island, the way the French used to. FRANCOISE M. RICH Universal City, Texas

While the families and friends of the Oklahoma City bombing victims have my deepest sympathy, I cannot help shuddering at the inhumanity displayed by the people who cheered when McVeigh was sentenced to death. This showed they are capable of the same anger and desire to take a life. Are we no better than he is? JEFF GEBAUER Dubuque, Iowa

It costs thousands of dollars a year to keep a person in jail. Those who advocate life imprisonment should pay for it out of their own pocket. I would rather spend my tax dollars on something productive for society, such as a new hospital wing, better roads or books for my kid's school. If I want a roof over my head, I have to come up with the money for it. Why should I have to pay for a murderer's amenities for life? TOM BRADFORD McCall, Idaho

Death is final--no pain, no measured time in which to reflect, and worse, no payment of debt to society: no punishment. Where is the justice in that? Decades of confinement, imprisoned with only yourself and your conscience, a life without joy, love or laughter. That's true punishment. HILDA B. CLASSON New York City

PREDICTIONS IN THE BIBLE

I'd like to correct some points in your story about my book The Bible Code [RELIGION, June 9]. I didn't write it for money. No one works five years on a book to get rich. I wrote it because I believe that there is a code in the Bible and that we would be foolish to ignore its apparent warnings. As the code's discoverer, the eminent Israeli mathematician Eliyahu Rips, told my publisher in a signed letter, the Bible code contained an accurate prediction of the Gulf War before it began. I was not being "defensive" when I told your reporter that I believe the Bible encodes all our possible futures rather than one predetermined future. I was simply repeating what I told Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1994, when I warned him that the code indicated he might be killed in 1995. The most important conclusion of my book is that even though the Bible code may warn us of real dangers, we can still determine our own future. MICHAEL DROSNIN New York City

Your report suggests that the Bible encodes knowledge of the future that can be discovered through biblical gematriot and textual interpretation. We skeptics, however, believe that all books are written ultimately by man. We have a simpler explanation: what men or women put into a book, other men or women can take out of a book--be it murky wordplays about the future ("assassin will assassinate"), Euclid's geometry, clues to Agatha Christie murders ("the butler did it") or a recipe book in any language ("add a pinch of salt"). BERNARD W. POWELL North Miami Beach, Fla.

ADVERTISING'S NEW AGE

Your article on how clients are changing their advertising agencies at a record rate [BUSINESS, June 16] provided a glimpse of an industry that is being redefined after being organized in much the same way for more than 80 years. Major companies are leading the way by telling traditional agencies that their business model is wrong for the times. The silver lining is the opportunity for small, creatively driven agencies to play in a game that was once dominated by the giants. Smart marketers will embrace the change. JEFFREY J. HICKS Miami

DANGEROUS IVORY TRADE

The 600,000 African elephants that exist today may be wiped out by lifting the seven-year ban on selling "white gold" [ENVIRONMENT, June 16]. Allowing legal trade with even one country, Japan, for example, will inevitably lead to the poaching of these beautiful creatures and to their gradual disappearance. Why can't we let them be in the wild? I agree with the U.S. in opposing even limited ivory sales. DURGA DEVI RAMANAN Pittsford, N.Y.

Tourism is the main hope for Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, countries that have huge caches of elephant tusks. Selling their stock of ivory will be only a short-term solution to their problems. With money derived from tourism, these countries could preserve their elephants and provide food, education and other necessities for their people. They could create more and larger game reserves for their elephants, which would draw more tourists. Surplus elephants could be sold to zoos or given to other African countries that have few elephants. SCOTT PALCZAK Longmont, Colo.

TO THE HONOR OF JONATHAN LEVIN

One evening a week I volunteer as a tutor in a settlement house in St. Paul, Minn., teaching English as a second language to immigrants. Since the unspeakable murder of New York City teacher Jonathan Levin [NATION, June 16], I feel strengthened and guided by his spirit. He was an exemplary teacher. But the gratitude and awe I feel for him can't stanch my tears. QUENTIN MILLER Minneapolis, Minn.

I came home a few days ago after working a 12-hour day emptying my three classrooms and closing out the year. I'm tired of teaching writing and literature to high school students. I'm tired of making do with makeshift classrooms and a paucity of supplies. I'm tired of spending my own money on things I want for my students. I'm tired of knowing how to be a good teacher but not knowing how to be one and still have a life outside school. In this frame of mind, I read about Jonathan Levin. I too have students on the fringe of society who do not know that they already possess what they need to live joyous lives, who need to learn to hear their own voice and connect to those who have gone before. I wept when I read of Levin's death, but found my heart again. I will honor Jonathan Levin in my work. I will study hard this summer, think, pray and plan. I'll return next year and wish the world and my students well once again. CONSTANCE R. KRUEGER Rapid City, S.D.

FREEING THE MINK

After reading about the Animal Liberation Front's attack on an American mink farm and the liberation of some 10,000 mink [NATURE, June 16], one might think it was O.K. because it was an "act of love," as the A.L.F. put it. But why doesn't the A.L.F. go to chicken farms and set free the millions of chickens that are going to be killed for human needs? Mink are not an endangered species; they are raised in captivity for a special purpose. Is society out of focus? JUAN TRAVERSO Key Biscayne, Fla.

Mink are a product with a set financial value. These activists initiated the break-in to cause financial damage to and instability in the fur industry. CARLIE SHANNON Lexington, Ky.