Letters: Oct. 6, 1967

New Day, Old Outrage

Sir: Thanks to Peggy and Guy Smith for the inspiration their love story gave me and to you for sharing it with the world [Sept. 29]. Heaven knows that what the world needs now is love. But, Peggy and Guy are more than two people in love. They are, indeed, prophets for our time. They have had the courage to proclaim their love to a world still overburdened with a cultural overlay of prejudice. And may those no longer young learn from the parents of this brave couple. They showed us all that love can indeed be blind—blind to ignorant assumptions and fears. I'm optimistic enough to back up my faith in their future and ours with Teilhard de Chardin's prediction: "Today something is happening to the whole structure of human consciousness. A fresh kind of life is starting."

RUTH J. DRUHAN

Silver Spring, Md.

Sir: We Georgians are doubly nauseated and ashamed that Rusk is a native of this state.

MARY HAMMOND

Atlanta

Sir: When I saw that your article on the Rusk-Smith wedding was under "Races," I was annoyed. But after reading the article, I wish to thank you for an unbiased report. I only hope that the day will soon come when a Negro can come into the limelight without anyone's feeling the need to point out his or her race.

JEAN ROBERTSON

Mount Kisco, N.Y.

Sir: Your glorification of the mongrelizing of races, depicted by the daughter of the Secretary of State and her bridegroom, does you no credit. The situation would be more properly ignored.

E. H. BRANDT JR.

Charlotte, N.C.

Sir: There will come a time when the stigma will be removed, when we will be able to marry the person of our choice without regard to color or race or religion, and with society's blessings. A time when persons of diverse backgrounds will marry and go unnoticed by the nation's news media, and the wagging tongues of our populace. When that day arrives, then we will indeed have won the battle against racial and religious intolerance.

JEANNE JACOBS

North Arlington, N.J.

Raga-Rah!

Sir: Hail to Gerald Scarfe's surrealistic creation of the Beatles incarnate [Sept. 22]! And raga-rah to your smashing account of psychedelic Beatledom!

GINGER HUNT

Piqua, Ohio

Sir: What with the war in Viet Nam, the opening of the U.N., trouble in the Middle East, China and Russia, you put those insects on your cover? I'm glad.

BERT SIROTE

Far Rockaway, N.Y.

Sir: The Beatles seem to synthesize their sensations into a position of non-position that exemplifies the circular course of transcendental experience. A freedom love is revealed in a music and manner that describes a balance between nihilism and mundane involvement.

ELIZABETH HEATH ATKINSON

New Hope, Pa.

Sir: As a middle-aging Beatle-manic mother, may I suggest that it is not "the parents who are targets of the Beatles' satirical gibes" but rather the soppy cult of pseudo-sacrifice wherein Aunt Bessie of the Missionary Society tells everyone about the hair shirt she has to wear because she donated all her brassières to the Uncivilized Savages.

HELEN P. BOLLINGER

Aspers, Pa.

"Victory" & Votes