Letters: Dec. 22, 1967

(2 of 4)

Sir: You report the news that "the Defense Secretary would soon leave his post for the relative backwater of the World Bank's presidency." This comparison is between heading an international lending institution that has only about $1 billion to $1.5 billion a year to spend to raise the standard of living of 1.5 billion underprivileged people on one hand, and heading the most powerful institution in the world that shoots away twice that amount in the space of a month in that "limited" war in Viet Nam on the other. No doubt this is real downgrading.

EROL HAKER Nairobi, Kenya

Open Letter

Sir: Thank you for the excellent Essay "On Being An American Parent" [Dec. 15]. Oh, how I wish every parent and future parent would read it and take it to heart!

You quoted the Beatles, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, with the line, "We gave her everything money could buy." What about a following line, "Fun is the one thing money can't buy."

I love my parents and I know they love me, but they've ruined my life. Your paragraphs under "Listen" very well sum up what I'm trying to say. I could never tell my parents anything, it was always "I'm too busy . . . too tired . . . thats not important . . . that's stupid . . . can't you think of better things . . . oh, your friends are wrong . . . they're stupid." As a result, I stopped telling my parents anything. All communication ceased. We never had that very important thing—fun.

Oh, we had love. Prompted on my side by an ever-present fear of my mother and pity for my father, and prompted on their side by the thought that I was their responsibility and if I went wrong, they would be punished by God.

After four rotten years in a Catholic girls school (I did have two or three very wonderful teachers) I'm now stuck in an even worse Catholic women's college. Only the best for me! They knew I didn't want to come but made me anyway.

Their daughter wasn't going to be corrupted! I had already been saved from the evils of early dating and doing things that "everyone else" did.

What is the result of this excellent upbringing? I'm 18 years old, drink whenever" I get the chance, have smoked pot, and as of a very eventful Thanksgiving vacation, am no longer a virgin. Why? Was it my parents or just me? I'm so very confused—but who can I talk to. Not my parents. My parents could read this and never dream it was their daughter.

I have only one important plea to parents . . . Listen, listen, and listen again. Please, I know the consequences and I'm in hell.

A COLLEGE STUDENT

Ohio

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