Letters

THE VICE PRESIDENT TAKES AIM AT 2000

Al Gore's sole problem is that he is not a celebrity [NATION, Dec. 15]. He may be the only hope for preventing a takeover by show-business politics. DONALD KUSPIT New York City

The Vice President's biggest weakness is not his inability to emulate the Clinton model of politicking but his adoption of its most unsavory aspects. Examples are his "no controlling legal authority" excuse to charges that he violated campaign laws and his denial that he knew the Buddhist temple affair was a political fund raiser. Gore has learned the wrong lessons from the Clinton presidency. But how can we expect him to keep his wits about him in an Administration whose motto seems to be "Everyone does it"? MICHAEL D. ALEX Glendora, Calif.

Mercy, me! Al Gore makes Dan Quayle look like the president of Mensa! NANCY NILSSON Rockville, Md.

Gore wouldn't get my vote. Hillary Clinton is the logical choice for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. Her meeting with Tony Blair underscores her charisma and political savvy. And just a few years ago, she scared the health-care industry into lowering my premiums about 10%. I am a 65-year-old, lifelong Republican, but I will vote for Hillary if she heads the Democratic ticket--even if she is running against Elizabeth Dole, my first-choice Republican candidate. WILLIAM S. GAITHER Philadelphia

Gore's book Earth In The Balance is a bold, moral, intelligent and visionary work about environmental threat that should be read by every American. Perhaps if Gore became President, he would approximate the levels of morality and genius that were exemplified by Martin Luther King Jr. Why would we want a President who is more image than substance? Our Constitution was written by people of sound morals, reason and vision. This is the kind of leadership that we need today. JOHN SEEM La Crescent, Minn.

One incident says it all about Gore. The Senate was deadlocked, 50 to 50, on a crucial vote to cut off funding for logging roads in our national forests. And where was Gore when his vote was needed to break the tie? Off at a fund raiser, as usual. Is this the same Al Gore who has written a pro-environment book and is concerned about issues like global warming and conserving our natural resources? Gore is just another Clinton, spending too much of his time raising money. Perhaps that's good enough for a lot of people, but it isn't for me. VIDYA SHASTRI Kent, Wash.

The cover photo of Al Gore captures all the dignity of our next President. DENNIS A. KLEIN Vermillion, S.D.

Your question "What's missing?" suggested that something is lacking in Gore's qualifications. Yet your article never articulated any lack. What's missing? It doesn't seem like much is. MITCHELL ROSE Los Angeles

Walter Mondale and Hubert Humphrey failed to move up from Vice President to the No. 1 position in part because they seemed too eager for the job. Al Gore should start acting as if he doesn't care whether he becomes President. If he can do that, he'll convince the voters, and he'll win. MICHAEL ROSENBERG Chevy Chase, Md.

OUT-OF-CONTROL COPS

A bad cop like "Blondie," the Philadelphia police officer who is guilty of racism, lying, theft, brutality and cover-ups [CRIME, Dec. 15], tarnishes the badges of all policemen. The majority of our nation's 700,000 law-enforcement officers are honest, hardworking individuals who are willing to put their lives on the line. Someone like Blondie should never have been given a badge. If Americans want to end police brutality and corruption, we must re-evaluate hiring practices. Last year an applicant for a police force was rejected because he scored too high on the entrance exam. All too often applicants are hired on the basis of whether they meet affirmative-action goals rather than on merit. To maintain a police force whose members will not yield to the temptation of corruption, municipalities must raise both police salaries and hiring standards to attract the most qualified individuals. ROBERT T. SCULLY, Executive Director National Association of Police Organizations Washington

By their actions, bad cops like Blondie are criminals who have largely abrogated their rights to be protected by the laws they chose to ignore. But the justice system has gone overboard in protecting criminals and made it difficult for cops to do their job. We force police officers to live (and sometimes die) by rules that enemies of society routinely ignore. ROBERT TOROK Toronto

PUNCHING OUT THE BOSS

So basketball player Latrell Sprewell doesn't think he should lose his means of income just because he attacked his coach [SPORT, Dec. 15]. How many people in the real world would still have a job if they did what Sprewell did? And they wouldn't be fired or suspended for just a year either. It all comes down to respecting authority. If the NBA lets Sprewell back on the playing court, what will this tell people--that it's O.K. to punch out your boss? I hope the NBA shows some backbone and finally takes a stand on the violence in its game. DOUGLAS KOSZUTA Nekoosa, Wis.

If anybody else attempted murder and assault in front of witnesses, chances are he would be sitting in a prison cell, not holding a press conference about how he was unfairly treated. Sprewell may have lost his right to earn millions and play in the NBA, but he should be thankful he's not in jail. SYLVIA SUNG Chicago

KEEP THE NOISE AND DUST DOWN

Your item about the ban on leaf blowers in Los Angeles [PEOPLE, Dec. 15] had some mistakes. Although we value Julie Newmar as one of our members, she was not one of the founders of the Zero Air Pollution group, as you implied. Also, ZAP was organized mostly by hardworking members of the middle class, not celebrities. And, finally, your statement that the cops won't enforce the ban isn't true. The L.A. police chief has confirmed that it will be enforced. If it isn't, the real losers will be the thousands of people who are sensitive to dust and who suffer from respiratory and heart diseases. And the winners will not be gardeners, as you said, or lawn-care workers; the winner will be the company that makes a blower that complies with city noise standards. JACK ALLEN Zero Air Pollution Los Angeles

PANAMA LOOKS AHEAD

Why would you denigrate Panama and its citizens by implying that we will be incapable of running the Panama Canal [WORLD, Dec. 15] when it is transferred to us on Dec. 31, 1999? Understandably, the international community would prefer that the U.S. continue to play a role in managing the canal, but is it so unusual to try to preserve the status quo? Was the international community not present at the recently held Universal Congress of the Panama Canal, whose main thrust was to reassure users that the Panamanian people are quite capable of running the canal? Panama, like every other country, is a mixture of good and bad, with no monopoly on virtue and wisdom or on vice and folly. IRMA LEIGNADIER DE BLATCHFORD Consul of Panama Chicago

MAD ABOUT HELEN HUNT

Thanks for the magnificent article on film and TV star Helen Hunt [CINEMA, Dec. 15]. It is a joy to see someone with so much talent and class approach the status of being a national treasure. KEVIN JOHNSON Vallejo, Calif.

Our family has watched Hunt since she acted as a child. She deserves every award and more. And Paul Reiser, Hunt's co-star in Mad About You, should get equal honors. It is his delicate presence in every aspect of the show that has helped it survive risky schedule juggling by the network. Hunt's TV show is not about comedy, it is about real life, which is often very funny. CATHERINE WILSON OPPER Dubuque, Iowa

Gore is stiff, calculating, intense, meticulous and formal. Hunt is intelligent, witty, beautiful, gritty, determined and willing to take risks. It's a no-brainer. Hunt for President in 2000. If she needs a campaign manager, I'm available. STEVE GRUNDMEIER Auburn, Calif.

IT DOESN'T TAKE THAT LONG

I am glad your health report recognized the Good News in our recommendation, which promotes breast feeding babies for at least a year [NOTEBOOK, Dec. 15]. Unfortunately, by saying feeding takes six hours a day, you neglected to mention that only newborns require that much time for feeding (whether by bottle or breast). As infants grow, they require fewer feedings each day and the amount of time diminishes. We hope you have not inadvertently discouraged women from nursing by exaggerating the time required after the newborn period. The bottom line is that any amount of time spent breast feeding benefits both mother and child. JOSEPH R. ZANGA, M.D., President American Academy of Pediatrics Elk Grove Village, Ill.

Babies fed formula in bottles should be held and attended to, and the mother can expend even more time (heating, mixing, shaking and testing) than she would breast feeding. We can't expect babies to zoom up to a bottle like cars at a gas station. Surely parents who use bottles can be just as in touch with their babies as breast-feeding mothers. Maybe bottle and breast feeding, done properly, take the same amount of time. MELISSA NOBLE Yokosuka, Japan

THE UNSINKABLE TITANIC

Film critic Richard Rorliss's verdict, "dead in the water," for the Titanic blockbuster movie [CINEMA, Dec. 8] misses the point entirely. It won't float or sink on the plot. Just about every male over age 30 will be drawn to this "spectacudrama" out of sheer curiosity to see the unstoppable forces of nature delivering a mortal blow to the unsinkable leviathan, with all the tension and the terror that Hollywood can muster. QUENTIN BRISTOW Ottawa

A GRAVE FRAUD?

After hot debates and serious negotiations at the Kyoto summit on climate change, the European Union, the U.S. and Japan agreed on a treaty with specific targets for each party [ENVIRONMENT, Dec. 22]. Vice President Al Gore, however, announced afterward that the agreement would not be presented to the U.S. Senate for ratification until developing countries have joined the pact. I wonder if he thinks they will participate in the treaty in a reasonable period of time. I suspect that the U.S. went to Kyoto with no intention of being serious about the agreements to be reached there. The value of the treaty will be badly undercut without substantial participation by the U.S. It is grave fraud. KATZ TOMONO Higashi-murayama, Japan

If I damage another person's property, I have to restore it. The U.S. pollutes the earth's atmosphere by producing 22% of the world's carbon-dioxide emissions. Will it repair the damage it produces? And will that even be possible? ANTONI FERNANDEZ LABORDA Barcelona

SOUTH KOREA BITES THE BULLET

It is not so pleasant to borrow a lot of money and end up with debts owed to foreigners, as South Korea has done [WORLD, Dec. 22]. Economic dependency upon foreign capital in the end leads to crippling dependency on outsiders. But this crisis is a good chance to analyze Korea's economic and political situation. By doing so, we can make our future better. The only thing we need is time. JI HYUN KIM Pusan, South Korea

It is misleading to say the crisis this country is facing is wholly due to the structural fragility of Korean economics. Capitalism, with its excessive investments and surplus accumulation of wealth, is the driving force behind the pressing economic uncertainty that all Asian countries, including Japan, are now experiencing. With billions of dollars flying around the world in speculative investments and huge hedge funds, the liberalization of financial and capital markets has directly contributed to the crisis in Korea. But the hardships of Koreans could be trivial compared to what others will soon experience. South Korea will feel a burn, but other parts of the world will feel conflagration. NAM SOOHYOUN Seoul

THE MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE

You described TIME's plans for special issues in which the 100 most influential people of the 20th century will be named [TO OUR READERS, Nov. 24]. In terms of pure influence and impact, the shadow of Adolf Hitler looms above all. It is difficult to find a truly significant event or situation from the middle 1930s to the early '90s that is not the direct or indirect result of, or is not in some way related to, his personal decisions. But for Hitler's war and its sequel, all the others--surely Churchill, undoubtedly De Gaulle, probably Roosevelt and maybe Stalin--would have remained local phenomena, or would not even have emerged. GEORGE RIEGL Nantes, France

TAKING SADDAM PERSONALLY

Why have Americans taken Saddam Hussein's actions so personally [WORLD, Dec. 8]? Why should the U.S. pursue a country that is striving to produce destructive weapons, when the U.S. has yet to get rid of its own nuclear weapons? We are now faced with individuals like Saddam, whose priority is to build weapons and not feed Iraq's children. What can the U.N. do to halt such endeavors by power-hungry autocrats, when the five Security Council members are the world's only declared nuclear-weapons states? MAYURA K. WIJESINGHE Colombo, Sri Lanka

UNPLUG AND DRIVE

You blew a unique opportunity in your report on the electric car [BUSINESS, Dec. 15] to expose it for what it really is--a dodo: an extinct, flightless bird whose future exists only in the minds of the bureaucrats and wealthy hobbyists. Real people can't afford it. DENNIS KELLY Costa Mesa, Calif.

A FUEL THAT BURNS CLEAN

I was pleased with the first-rate report on the economic viability of solar and wind power and electric vehicles [BUSINESS, Dec. 15], but I was disappointed that the excellent environmental benefits of ethanol were not mentioned. America already produces large volumes of this renewable, clean-burning liquid fuel from plants, including grains such as corn. Tomorrow new processes and technologies will enable us to produce this high-quality fuel from a wide range of plant feed stocks at prices competitive with those of gasoline. In conjunction with fuel cells, ethanol will let us reduce our need for imported oil and dramatically cut our greenhouse-gas emissions. TERRY E. BRANSTAD Governor of Iowa Des Moines