Letters: Sep. 12, 1969

Turning On or Dropping Out

Sir: Congratulations! Your article, "The Message of History's Biggest Happening" [Aug. 29], does a superb job of furthering the moral decay of this nation. The photograph, "Boys and Girls Relate in a Nearby River," was just a little too much for my 31-year-old "traditional values." When I was their age, we "related" with our clothes on.

If this is truly, as you say, "what's happening," then I'm dropping out.

MRS. A. ANDERSON HUBER Atlanta

Sir: It was so encouraging to read something favorable regarding the much-talked-about younger generation—how they can behave and take care of themselves when left to do so!

As a parent of a long-haired boy (and a long-haired daughter) who still has faith in them and their ideals, I was most pleased and grateful for this fair coverage.

MRS. T. S. WOODS Redondo Beach, Calif.

Sir: I was there, and I'm proud of it. For three days I looked around at the generation that I am part of. This group of strangers sat, listened, talked and related, but related completely without violence. Everyone did "their own thing," without causing a ruckus. We proved that under difficult circumstances we don't need to fight to rid ourselves of aggressive feelings; no, instead we try to enjoy life through music and each other. My peers are indeed beautiful people.

CAREN SLOBODKIN Brookline, Mass.

Sir: They're gonna build, no matter how they destroy. They're gonna teach love, no matter who they hurt. They're gonna be useful by being useless. They're showing commitment by not being committed. They're gonna lead a new social order without a leader. They're gonna reject materialism, no matter how much they have to sponge off the parents. They're showing a new morality, no matter how immoral they have to be to prove it. They're going to scrub the world down, no matter how bathless they are.

They are going to show a new purpose by having no purpose. They're gonna create a new system of nonsystem. They want to create new rules of no rules. They don't understand their parents' misunderstanding. They reject technology by using the microphone, the car, the roads, maps, electricity, medicines, drugs, booze and prepared foods. They want to be nonproductive on someone's production. Now I understand why I don't understand.

DR. Louis GARRETT Canton, Ohio

For the Record

Sir: Your story, "The Dilemmas of Power" [Aug. 29], contains a garbled paragraph that is misleading and embarrassing to me and my company. Observations about the alleged harmful effects of fossil-fuel burning on public health appear" to be erroneously attributed to me. You should correct the record.

ROBERT H. GERDES Chairman, Executive Committee Pacific Gas and Electric Co. San Francisco

>TIME regrets that, due to a production error, an entire quote from Mr. Gerdes was dropped. He said: "There has got to be some sympathetic attitude by the public toward the problems that we are facing, if it wants to have enough power to keep the air conditioning going."

The observations that followed this remark were TIME'S, not Mr. Gerdes'.

Menace of the Machines