Letters: Aug. 29, 1969

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LISA LOCKEN Minneapolis

Kilroy Was There

Sir: As I read your speculative comment on the planet Mars, "A Fearful Omen in the Sky" [Aug. 8], I became increasingly suspicious of what we may find when we do reach that frontier.

Perhaps Mars, farther from the sun, cooled earlier than earth and formed life sooner. Its life evolved, perhaps created an advanced civilization. Then, lacking modern earthman's foresight in conservation matters, Martian life used up its fresh water, polluted the rest, filled the atmosphere with carbon dioxide—its own waste—and died like any overpopulated bacterial colony, leaving only traces of methane and ammonia—and perhaps canals?—to indicate that life had been there.

JEAN M. MOSELEY Santa Barbara, Calif.

Thoughts About Chappaquiddick

Sir: I am deeply grieved and appalled at the circumstances surrounding the death of Mary Jo Kopechne. Grieved because this young woman might have been struggling for interminable moments, perhaps minutes, possibly hours, trapped and alone. Appalled because the man responsible for her eventual death was first concerned with his threatened political future, aided and abetted by two other men who became his accomplices in the abandonment of a woman in desperate danger.

(MRS.) JEANNETTE A. SLACK Lookout Mountain, Tenn.

Sir: A pox on these letters and articles implying that Edward Kennedy lost his head, hence is not responsible enough for high-government position. As one who easily loses his head, I am an authority. Had I been in Kennedy's shoes and found I could not extricate my woman companion, I would have run to the nearest of the two houses, yelling like a maniac for the cops, fire department, Coast Guard—anything, anyone to retrieve the girl. Only later would my senses have returned and my thoughts turned to a political career probably by then irretrievably ruined.

But E. K. remained cool under fire. Isn't such crafty hardheadedness just what is needed on a national decision level?

ELA SALGUDJIAN Tempe, Ariz.

Sir: Never have I witnessed such unity of opinion among the informed and uninformed—people who have acted as prosecutor, judge, witness and jury. The verdict: guilty as charged, and a bit more so. Nearly all of these people say, "If he had been a poor man, etc." This little remark perhaps unconsciously reveals the real crime Kennedy is believed to be guilty of.

SHELTON FARRAR Shreveport, La.

Sir: For weeks, the mass media have been regaling us with accounts of what a terrible blow Kennedy suffered in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne.

But the ultimate in misplaced sympathy came with TIME'S article on how bravely Rose Kennedy is bearing up under her "latest travail." Will you please explain to me just what loss Rose Kennedy suffered in the death of Mary Jo Kopechne?

GLORIA WOHL Brooklyn

Sir: It is incredible that as astute as Kennedy is supposed to be, he doesn't realize that his silence is his loudest accuser and, with so many people in on the secret, either conscience or cupidity will force the complete story into the open.

DONALD C. SKONE-PALMER Van Nuys, Calif.

Something Else to Investigate