Letters

LOOKING AFTER MOM AND DAD

"Caring for our parents as they grow old is a task for which no one is prepared. We learn on the spot." SUZANNE P. HIATT Fairfield, Conn.

Confetti to TIME!--for placing the perplexing topic of elder care on the nation's kitchen table [FAMILY, Aug. 30]. Writer Cathy Booth's personal story and the article on making the right choices touched the lives of millions and initiated critical conversations between generations of families, between employers and employees, and among those who provide services for seniors. Booth wrapped her personal story around our hearts and gave those of us who care for our parents the courage to break our silence and discover ways to forge a new map in uncharted territory. GAIL GOELLER Spokane, Wash.

For many middle- and lower-income individuals, bearing the cost of quality assisted living or other long-term care is about as realistic as buying a Rolls-Royce as the family car. The real long-term-care story is too often not about options but about impoverishment, the lack of choice and the loss of dignity. JON DAUPHINE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Long Term Care Campaign Washington

No mention of adult day-care centers? What an oversight. My husband has Alzheimer's, and I can't imagine coping with this situation without one. EVE VAN STRALEN North Hollywood, Calif.

Once you take the exhausting roller-coaster ride of caring for your parents, you never view the elderly and aging in the same light again. PAMELA MCCAY JOHNSON Central Point, Ore.

As the owner of a home-care agency, I applaud your report, but it missed a crucial part of the elder-care equation. Finding and retaining good caregivers is difficult now, and as the need grows, where are the workers to come from? If we want good care for our parents (and ourselves soon enough), we're going to have to pay for it. Instead of blowing the budget surplus on a big tax cut, we should find ways to invest in those who care for our vulnerable elders. Providing decent pay, training and benefits would be a start. JUDITH B. CLINCO, R.N., B.S. Catalina In-Home Services Inc. Tucson, Ariz.

Why are we a nation obsessed with forcing our parents out of their homes and into nursing homes or alternatives, when the greatest comfort and peace of mind can be had at home, at a lower cost, with in-home caregivers? One option is a government reverse mortgage to cover costs. Most seniors desire to live and die in their homes. RICHARD SUTTON Palatine, Ill.

ANOTHER SIDE OF AGING

I am 79 years old, play golf three times a week, spend two to three hours a day on my computer and enjoy my new, medium-format camera. I'm a legislative representative for my union. My wife also leads a very active social life. So take heart, seniors. Old age doesn't have to be a rest home or doom and gloom. HAL MCCLINTOCK Pasadena, Calif.

TURKEY: AMONG THE RUINS

After tucking my child into bed, I opened my TIME to the article on the earthquake in Turkey and saw the photograph of Emine Kacar, trapped in the ruins of her building [WORLD, Aug. 30]. I wept for this woman, her children dead, a child's small body lying beneath her own. I had read the headlines and kept pace with the daily death-toll updates, but the scale of human suffering did not touch me until I connected with this victim. You say in your article that "it is the individual snapshots that bring Turkey's tragedy home." It certainly came home to me, and I ache for the loss. VICKI ERICKSON Raleigh, N.C.

Your reporting and photos indeed brought home a "tragedy beyond comprehension." But your coverage left me wanting more--accounts of the doctors who left their practices at a moment's notice to provide aid, information on the search-and-rescue specialists called into action and an update on the Red Cross's efforts to collect money on the home front to support our neighbors to the East. We wealthy Americans can't even imagine what a loss of life and homes of this magnitude would feel like. We need you, TIME, to bridge the humanity gap that exits between affluent America and our less fortunate neighbors. PAUL FALCONE Valencia, Calif.

THE DEBATE OVER HOROWITZ

In "A Real, Live Bigot," your columnist Jack E. White writes as though he has been granted a special license to hurl hateful epithets that stigmatize good people for life [DIVIDING LINE, Aug. 30]. Indeed, this piece has set us all on a perilous course. Who will have the courage to enter this vital debate? Is a new version of the French Revolution's Reign of Terror upon us--with reputations, rather than heads, falling? D.L. COBURN Dallas

In Webster's Dictionary a bigot is defined as "a person obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices." Given that definition, White is correct, even polite, when he refers to David Horowitz as a bigot. Anyone who examines Horowitz's writings over the years will discover a perverse obsession with black people, an obsession for which he has been paid handsomely by right-wingers whose problems with blacks are probably more profound than his. Bashing black people is a lucrative 19th century industry that has survived into the 20th. ISHMAEL REED, PUBLISHER Konch Magazine www.ishmaelreedpub.com Oakland, Calif.

I respect the astute and rigorously unsentimental David Horowitz as one of America's most original and courageous political analysts. He has the true 1960s spirit: audacious, irreverent, yet passionately engaged and committed to social change. I regard him as an important contemporary thinker who is determined to shatter partisan stereotypes and defy censorship wherever it occurs--notably, in this case, in the area of discourse on race, which is befogged with sanctimony and hypocrisy. As a scholar who regularly surveys archival material, I think that a century from now, cultural historians will find David Horowitz's spiritual and political odyssey paradigmatic for our time. CAMILLE PAGLIA PROFESSOR OF HUMANITIES University of the Arts Philadelphia

Horowitz is a '60s turncoat who discovered that the grass is greener--and the opportunity for self-promotion greater--on the reactionary side of the fence. White was too kind. More could have been made of Horowitz's invitation to black Americans to love America or leave it--a sentiment he abhorred when used against him and his former cohorts. Horowitz may ruminate about being accused of being a closet racist. He need not worry--he's outed himself. JULIAN BOND, CHAIRMAN N.A.A.C.P. Baltimore

TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME

I can relate to Paul Gray's "Dueling Head Shots" on the endless TV close-ups of ballplayers' faces [ESSAY, Aug. 30]. As a 25-year veteran of producing and directing professional baseball, I too have tried to convey what occurs over acres of ground in a sensible and entertaining way. However, most baseball viewers are just casual fans. Nine out of 10 can't tell you the difference between a curveball and a slider. But viewers can understand the sweat dripping off the brow of the pitcher. The tight shot of the hitter showing his determined stare is also appropriate. Just talking about it reminds me why I think baseball is such a terrific sport on television. MARK WOLFSON, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER Oakland A's Television Oakland, Calif.

In their effort to "make the game more interesting," the directors are missing a great deal of the essence of the action. I'm glad Gray has reminded the TV gods that most of us fans actually enjoy watching the game. BRIAN V. WILLICK Toronto

AMNESTY FOR BUSH?

George W. Bush would be politically dead if a crime other than possible past illicit drug use were uncovered [NATION, Aug. 30]. To his advantage, this case indicates that in the public mind certain drug use is no longer considered a crime. What makes you gag is that a politician who attempts to criminalize drug use by means of tougher laws takes advantage of the situation. FLORIAN KOELSCH Cambridge, Mass.

In his coy statements regarding past drug use, Bush has consistently labeled any alleged indiscretions as "mistakes." If so, they are obviously mistakes he believes should be without consequences, either in the past or during the current presidential campaign. His evasiveness makes him just another hard-line hypocrite willing to lock up other "youthful offenders" for breaking the same laws that he was once too weak to obey. JEFF HORN Niceville, Fla.

About Bush's alleged drug use: who really cares anymore? Experimenting with drugs was a phase for millions of people who grew out of it. Bush is an intelligent, professional statesman who has nothing to hide and should not have to defend what he did as a young person. JOE MARTIN Izmir, Turkey