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LETTERS | MARCH 2, 1998 VOL. 151 NO. 9 |
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Letters BILL CLINTON IN CRISIS
What President Bill Clinton and White House intern Monica
Lewinsky may or may not have done does not interest me in the
least [Feb. 2]. The Orwellian qualities and nightmarish
implications of the investigation and the media coverage make me
sick. An independent counsel is allowed to spend years and more
than $30 million of the taxpayers' money and use underhanded
methods like taping close friends. Yet all this results in
something that is not proved and very, very private. Then the
media jump on the story as if it were the start of World War
III. Why expose and speculate on the private life and
conversations of Lewinsky? The target should be America's sick
legal system and the lack of ethics of the media.
On English buses we are not allowed to talk to the driver while
he is behind the wheel. President Clinton is the leader of the
most powerful country in the world. He has managed the U.S.
economy with skill and has in general improved the lot of
Americans. Whenever there is a major crisis in the world, people
look to him to step in and try to find a solution. He deserves
the full support of the people while he is in office. Please,
Americans, don't distract the driver.
Why would Americans be interested in crippling their own
President? Shouldn't the top man remain immune from civil
lawsuits while taking care of the nation's problems?
What a cast of characters: a White House intern suspected of
having a relationship with the President and quoted as saying
she has lied her entire life; an ex-White House secretary who
makes a habit of "befriending" women who claim to have had
intimate encounters with the President; a political spy turned
tell-all literary agent who counsels the secretary; and a
special prosecutor who arranges for undercover taping of the
intern's private conversations about her sex life because they
might have some bearing on his investigations. Is there anyone
with integrity in Washington?
It is amazing that when President Clinton is facing his version
of the Cuban missile crisis in the standoff with Iraq, he is
being subjected to harassment about whether he had sexual
relations with Lewinsky. It is potentially disastrous that the
leadership of the Western world is in the hands of what appears
to be a democracy gone mad.
A year from now whether Clinton did or did not have an
extramarital relationship won't affect anyone. But the entire
nation will still feel the impact of having a strong economy. If
I were Clinton's adviser, I would stick to the campaign slogan
"It's the economy, stupid!"
In "When Sex Is Not Really Having Sex," Walter Kirn, under the
guise of innocent banter, put official declarations to the test
and laid bare noteworthy instances of hypocrisy and double
standards. This is the age-old way of the jester who hammers
home his hard message with lighthearted wit. The article is a
journalistic gem. WHAT'S WITH AMERICANS AND SEX?
Remember the tale of the emperor who wore no clothes? Only the
innocent saw that he was naked. If the so-called good people in
America dropped their sanctimonious attitudes [Feb. 2], public
figures like the President would be able to tell the truth.
Americans, take responsibility and grow up. You will get the
truth when you are ready to deal with it.
The sexual behavior of human beings concerns only the people
directly involved and has nothing to do with their professional
life. In terms of sexual morals, America is stuck in medieval
times. No wonder President Clinton is being subjected to an
inquisition.
Most of the world outside the U.S. does not care where, why and
with whom President Clinton has slept recently. The matters
being discussed are about the President's private life. What's
wrong with it staying private? AND ALL THAT SLEAZE
Your "Monica And Bill" cover hit a new low [Feb. 2]. It belongs
on supermarket racks with the sleaze magazines.
The media have elevated unsubstantiated gossip, political rumors
and spite to the front page. Have serious journalists suddenly
enrolled en masse in the National Enquirer's School of
Journalism? Any future President will be the subject of
"professional" investigations by prosecutors with unlimited
public funds at their disposal, not because the President has
done anything wrong but in the hope that he will. Why not let
the people decide and elect not only a President but also a
"presidential prosecutor"?
This witch-hunt is absurd and puerile. Isn't what Clinton does
in the White House as President more important than what he has
done or is doing with consenting adult females? Clinton is by
far the best President in decades. Perhaps that's the problem.
If the conspirators get their way, will the next President have
to sign an affidavit about whom he or she has ever slept with?
As a top weekly newsmagazine, TIME should set an example. When
the facts and truth come forward, will they be on your cover
also? AFTERMATH OF THE POPE'S VISIT
When he returned to the Vatican from his triumphant visit to
Cuba [Feb. 2], Pope John Paul II likened his pilgrimage to his
first trip back to his native Poland. We can only hope that the
Cu- bans who have endured Castro's brand of communism for 39
years will eventually experience the same positive results the
Poles did. If history repeats itself and Cuba follows the
example of Poland, where the political system was restructured,
Castro's evil empire will also fall.
It's scary that while the Pope was in Cuba talking about
religious freedom and human rights, the attention of the media,
especially in the U.S., was diverted by a sad and dubious tale
of sex and betrayal. The press missed covering the news that was
really important. KOREANS UNDERSTAND ECONOMICS
Investment expert David Roche made a good point in his
commentary [Feb. 2] when he said the treatment being applied by
the International Monetary Fund is valid for troubled Asian
countries, including Korea, however hard it is for us to take.
But TIME used a misleading picture to explain the antagonism of
some Koreans toward the IMF's intervention. The people shown in
your photograph are not demonstrating against the imf, but are
protesting the overuse by Koreans of foreign-made luxury
products. I want the world to know that most Koreans recognize
that we have severe economic problems and are eager to overcome
them with the help of the IMF. INDONESIA'S MIDDLE CLASS
It would be misguided to assume that Indonesia's so-called
middle class is rebelling against President Suharto [Jan. 19].
Look at the people who make up the class and their behavior
during Suharto's rule. When Suharto came to power 30 years ago,
there was no real middle class. It arose simply because of
Indonesia's economic growth. Members of the group were firm
Suharto supporters, and in a nation where it is who you know,
not what you know, they grew wealthy by supporting him. The
middle-class has depended on Suharto's market policies to enrich
them. Now they are upset, not because Indonesia is undemocratic
but because they can't afford to buy a new BMW, go to Singapore
on holiday or pay their children's overseas-school fees. The
middle-classes are distancing themselves from the people they
supported, afraid that the finger could be pointed at them if
Suharto's rule is overturned. DUTIES OF A SUPERPOWER
I am sick of America's interference in the matters of other
countries like Iraq [Feb. 2]. I do not deny that the U.S. has
certain duties economically and politically as a superpower, but
if there has ever been a classic example of misuse of power, it
is in America's foreign policy. Why on earth should Iraq dispose
of its weapons if the U.S. will not destroy its own arsenal,
which is much more dangerous? If any country should be stripped
of its weapons, it is the U.S.
Clinton and his allies have to think about what will happen if a
determined Saddam Hussein refuses to comply with the U.N.
resolutions. It is hard to imagine a massive international
military buildup such as the one that preceded the Gulf War.
Former allies and minor powers are not ready to crush Saddam's
regime, as Americans hope. Of course, Britain is still ready to
play its role as the perfect ally. But if we have to go to war,
the Arab allies will not back us up financially this time. The
Iraqis are so poor they can hardly afford to die. THE RIGHT MOUSETRAP Due to an editorial mistake, the mousetrap pictured on page 137 of TIME's special issue, The New Age of Discovery, was misidentified. The mousetrap shown is not an example of the Victor, but a Little Nipper, made by Proctor Bros. in the U.K., from which the name was inadvertently removed. We regret the error.
ABOUT THAT COVER PICTURE A number of readers were curious about the photograph we ran of President Clinton and Monica Lewinsky on our cover [Feb. 2]. A few asked if we had somehow fiddled with the picture and even wondered if it was genuine. The answer: it is a real photograph that was not altered in any way. This picture and others that we used inside the magazine were taken at the Nov. 6, 1996, postelection White House victory party on the South Lawn. The person who shot the film provided us with all the negatives from the event so that we could view them in context. CNN and other television media were subsequently able to find and air videotapes of the victory party showing the President and Lewinsky in the same setting.
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