Letters

THE NEXT COLD WAR?

Thank you for objectively examining the seriousness of China's spying on the U.S. [THE COX REPORT, June 7]. While there is no doubt that China has sought to appropriate classified defense technology from the U.S., the Cox report sounds dangerously overwrought. The very notion that 80,000 Chinese nationals visit the U.S. every year to glean whatever military information they can reeks of xenophobia. Shame on the Republicans for using U.S.-Chinese relations for petty domestic political purposes. It will merely lend credence to hard-liners in China, who for reasons of their own would like a more adversarial relationship with the U.S. MICHAEL BIRD Toronto

Unless the U.S. is planning to confront the People's Liberation Army in the mountains of Manchuria, China is decades from posing a military threat. The Cox report exposes one thing: we continue to have significant security lapses at the highest levels of our military. ERIC J. SMITH Pontiac, Mich.

It is not surprising that some Americans think of China as an upstart world power. During the past century, the U.S. has risen to world leadership while China was brought to its knees by instabilities introduced into its society as a result of European imperialism. But China was a world leader two millenniums before this country was "discovered" by the Europeans. Throughout most of its history, the Chinese empire has not been particularly interested in territorial expansion. That the Chinese have done so little with the alleged stolen "secrets" supports this view. Americans would do well to see China as a former world power in the process of re-establishing its international legitimacy. RON WIECKI Madison, Wis.

The picture painted by the Cox report is no less ridiculous than the Chinese government's insistence that NATO's bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade was the result of a conspiracy. Let's hope cooler heads prevail and Sino-American relations improve in the long run, to the benefit of all of us. HONG MA Port Jefferson Station, N.Y.

TIME places Asian eyes on its cover, implying that Asians are spies. Once again the loyalty of Asian Americans is being questioned. JIMMY WANG Moffet Field, Calif.

The millions like me who took part in the events at Beijing University's Triangle and Tiananmen Square can never forget them. It is true that the student and civilian demands were justifiable and that the government's harsh response was a terrible mistake. But we must see that China has changed and that the government is different in some respects. More important, China is freer, wealthier and more open. At this critical moment, with the spy scandal and the embassy bombing, Sino-American relations have dropped to their lowest point ever. To salvage the relationship, don't contain China, embrace her. MOSES LI Charlotte, N.C.

The beauty of this country is that something called the American Dream is still true. It attracts the best scientists and engineers from all over the world. That is why America is the world's strongest nation. Unfortunately, the door is closing because the average Joes and Janes are told that the Chinese students we see every day on campus could be spies. This is dangerously misleading and can only hurt America. JANE HOWE Alfred, N.Y.

IN ENGLISH, LATIN OR ARAMAIC

Re the article on the return to the Latin Mass [RELIGION, June 7]: as a Roman Catholic priest for 19 years, it does not bother me that some Catholics are attending valid Latin Masses. What is bothersome is that many of them think only their style of worship is valid, and that mine is not. Fortunately, the Eucharist depends not on language but on the command of Jesus to "do this in memory of me," and these words were not spoken in Latin. (THE REV.) MIKE MAHONE Incline Village, Nev.

CABLE'S CATERED AND CATERERS

I wish to thank Ginia Bellafante for her fine article "Catering to Cable Guys" [TELEVISION, June 7] on the raunchy popular entertainment currently aimed at young "men." When she remarks on the "long boyhood" of American males, she hits the mark exactly. Men worthy of admiration and esteem have class and a sense of humor.

There is a great deal of value in relationships and in sex (when it is experienced as something more than a cheap thrill), all of which is denied, even mocked, in this form of popular culture. I feel sorry for the "boys" who revel in such entertainment and, presuming they are learning to be manly, learn instead only to be offensive. SARA E. LUSSIER New York City

TIME's description of television program content in "Catering to Cable Guys" clearly indicates there's a group even more cretinous than the men who find it entertaining and the TV executives responsible for airing these shows--the women who debase themselves and their gender by appearing in them. JULIE AHO Duluth, Minn.

ALL ABOUT STUPIDITY

I enjoyed Lance Morrow's piece [ESSAY, June 7] about the most plausible cause of the Chinese-embassy attack. Conspiracy, Morrow said, does answer our peculiar need to blame, but stupidity, that great but underappreciated presence in human history, is a more plausible cause.

A well-known logician and philosopher of science has defined the Great-Cause Fallacy as the mistake of believing that great significant events must have great significant causes. Reading Morrow's essay on stupidity, one might argue that the same fallacy is frequently employed by common people in arriving at everyday explanations: the greater the enormity committed, the less we are willing to attribute it to sheer dumbness and the harder we try to look for complex, elaborate, wicked and perverse causes. MARUXA ARMIJO Mexico City

A SOLDIER SERVING HIS COUNTRY

By opening your article on newly elected Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak with James Carville's remark about his "killer's hands" [WORLD, May 31], you gave the impression that our new leader is nothing but a dangerous criminal. The fact is that the acts of those hands saved the lives of many innocent Israeli citizens. SEFI PORAT Kfar Saba, Israel

Your story on Barak highlighted his military service at a time when Israel's efforts and focus are directed toward peace. You may at least have calmed some of Barak's opponents who fear he is too weak to negotiate a strong, safe peace. A soldier's job is to protect his country. Barak did his job in a superb fashion, earning his country's highest awards in doing so. MARLENE AND MOTIE ZASLOW Tel Aviv

THE SUBJECT IS GUNS

Re the school shootings [Special Report, May 31]: maybe your kids need external and interior silence, spiritual purposes and real leadership. EMMA RODRIGUEZ Guadalajara, Mexico

Bringing prayer or religious and moral instruction back into the classroom will not resolve the current problem of violence and mass murders in American schools. The main values children should be taught are respect and tolerance. Maybe the situation would get better if parents could have some control over violence on TV, in video games and on the Internet. The real cause of this problem is guns. SOPHIE PARSON Brussels

I'm not denying that anti-gun laws would solve America's problem. In fact, they probably would. But consider this: Every adult Swiss male owns a gun. Either Switzerland has a very good cover-up agency or shootings don't happen there. Does this suggest something about U.S. mentality? NAT KENT Munich, Germany

Humans have always killed one another. It is one of the things that humankind does best. Just read any ancient text. Invariably one of the first things that happens is a human kills a fellow human. And guns are tools for killing. I am pretty sure that when the first guns were invented, going to the local rifle range for target practice was not on the inventor's mind, and neither was hunting animals. EVIE PAYNE Cornwall, England

TOO MUCH TIME ONLINE

As a teacher in Japan and an ex-Coloradan, I've been following the debate on the Littleton murders. The Japanese want to know why these insane things happen in such a great and rich country. Then I read Ryan Nee's remarks [LETTERS, June 7] about how no one can stop kids from accessing forbidden things on the Net. Surprisingly, like the Japanese, many Americans don't have a real life (intimacy with people and nature). Given this, such tragedies as Littleton will happen again. Nee lives in a beautiful state with colorful cliffs, powder snow and dry cool breezes, yet he probably spends his time looking at fantasy imagery some adults make and others forbid. It's time for Americans to do some basic philosophical thinking. THOMAS HAMMELL Sapporo, Japan

LOSS OF CONTROL

Help must be there for those who, in their mental illness, cannot help themselves, as you indicate in your article "What It Would Really Take" [NATION, June 7]. On April 15, I was in Salt Lake City, Utah, on the second floor of the Latter Day Saints Family History Library, when Sergei Babarin walked in and started shooting. Like many others, I fled out the back emergency exit that unforgettable Thursday morning. I do not blame Babarin for the ordeal because I know that he was deep in the throes of his mental illness.

I do blame whoever denied Babarin the help he so badly needed. The old Victorian notion of warehousing the mentally ill and throwing away the key is barbaric. But pushing these people out on the street to fend for themselves is equally barbaric. I find it ironic that because of my experience with an uncontrolled madman, I must see a therapist to help me deal with the terror that remains. SANDRA KINTER West Bloomfield, Mich.

People who do not have complete control over their emotions under all circumstances are by definition "not normal"; i.e., they have a degree of mental illness. The published statistics are laughable to physicians on the front lines in primary care.

Eighty percent of the population is mentally ill at some given time, and all of us are mentally ill to a degree. By the way, the term mental illness is an anachronism; it should more correctly be called brain biochemical dysfunction. The majority of Americans, including some of the supposed intellectually sophisticated, don't have a clue as to the pervasiveness of the problem. JOHN M.R. KUHN, M.D. Rothschild, Wis.

FAITH AND ILLNESS

In Walter Kirn's article "The Danger of Suppressing Sadness" [VIEWPOINT, May 31], a factual error created the false impression that NAMI, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill--which you mistakenly referred to as the National Association for Mental Illness--considers feelings of being "specially connected to God" as a possible symptom of manic depression.

As biological brain disorders, severe mental illnesses can be treated with medication, but other factors also are important. Although delusions of grandeur, in which some people may believe that they are God or, conversely, the devil, sometimes mark the manic phase of bipolar disorders, NAMI believes spiritual faith can play a critical role in an individual's recovery and renewal. For more information about mental illness, readers can call (800) 950-6264. LAURIE FLYNN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR National Alliance for the Mentally Ill Arlington, Va.

EVERY MAN HAS WITNESSES

Tom Gill's comment on male-contraceptive ads told of the interesting Roman and Israelite custom of swearing by the male genitalia [LETTERS, May 31]. It should be noted, however, that the most common usage of the word testis in Latin texts is as a term for a witness, as in a court case. Thus an etymologist would note that the English word testicle is derived directly from the Roman custom of swearing by the genitals, and that every man carries his own "little witnesses." (And my parents have been wondering what I would do with my degree in classics.) CANDACE WEDDLE Greenville, Texas