Letters: Dec. 5, 1969

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He speaks his convictions. The people understand them. The majority agrees with him. If this is the claimed weakness of oversimplification on Agnew's part, then let me say that I love it. It's refreshing to hear something us pore ole voters savvy —without all the pontifical ambiguous oratory typical of today's politicians.

(MRS.) MARY THOMAS Big Spring, Texas

Sir: Nixon and Agnew are reading the pulse of America correctly. We want nightstick law enforcement, and don't you forget it.

H. D. WEIR Detroit

Sir: Vice President Agnew's apparent role as "Nixon's Nixon" doesn't exactly represent any innovation in political oratory. Twenty-three hundred years ago, Aristotle offered the following advice to the political speaker: "There are assertions which, if made about yourself, may excite dislike, appear tedious, or expose you to the risk of contradiction; and other things which you cannot say about your opponent without seeming abusive or ill-bred. Put such remarks, therefore, into the mouth of some third person."

(MRS.) CAROL W. SCHLICK Kent, Ohio

Sir: It is a strange phenomenon that the militant and destructive organizations such as S.D.S., the Communist Party in America, etc., and these TV network commentators all run to the same sanctuaries when their actions and intent have been questioned: the American freedoms of speech, press and assembly.

Following the self-righteous wailing of the network bigwigs as though their sanctuar were the same as apple pie, the American flag and the Fourth of July, one really wonders if the networks and the militants might not actually come from the same egg.

WILLIAM R. BURKHART Dallas

Sir: I don't know why the news media are down on Vice President Agnew. Any man who hates peace, kids, the Bill of Rights, the New York Times and Huntley and Brinkley can't be all bad.

K. WARD VINSON Levittown, Pa.

Sir: Intelligence is the demon of our age. Mine bores me horribly. I am always trying to find a remedy for it. I have experimented with absinthe but gained no result. I have read the collected works of Frances Crofts Cornford, which are said to sap the mental powers. They did not sap mine. Alcohol has proved useless, and green-tea cigarettes leave me positively brilliant! What am I to do? I so long for the lethargy, the sweet peace of stupidity. If only I were Mr. Agnew!

P. CHASE WILSON Warwick Neck, R.I.

Sparks Across the Gap

Sir: Six outstanding senior students from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, requested and initiated a discussion group with 20 members of the "great silent majority" on Nov. 15. They could have gone to Washington on a bus or stayed on campus for a date or a party, but they drove 60 miles on a cold and snowy night to talk to us. We listened to their feelings and frustrations, and they listened to ours. The lines of communication were open, and there wasn't even a gap. It was the most stimulating and worthwhile Saturday evening we have spent in many years.

DR. AND MRS. WILLIAM BROWNE Greenville, Ohio