Letters, Jun. 11, 1973

Ambassador to Everywhere

Sir / Lady Bird [May 21] is being wasted. This lovely woman should be a U.S. Senator, ambassador to everywhere, a member of the Cabinet, a distinguished columnist, president of a university, etc. She is a national asset.

JAMES THOMAS MURPHY

Crown Point, Ind.

Sir / Thank you for the interview with Lady Bird Johnson on the absence of [Lyndon's] presence and the presence of his absence. The piece was meaningful to anyone adjusting to the loss of a loved one.

JOAN M. MACEY

Binghamton, N.Y.

Let's Hear It for Antioch

Sir / Hallelujah! At last we have an educator who is willing to let the institution die that education may live [May 21]!

MICHELLE DUNCAN

Oklahoma City

Sir / You wrote that for days people tried to figure out what the chaos and anarchy-promoting president of Antioch College meant by comparing his campus "to a well-balanced fishbowl populated with guppies, goldfish and piranhas." How utterly obvious! The militants he pampers will destroy every last guppy and goldfish in his "liberal" fishbowl.

AARON REICHEL

New York City

Sir / The New Directions program, with its ideals of cultural pluralism and ethnic diversity, did not upset the balance of the "fishbowl" but rather created the balance. I believe that the changing quality of our student body is not inconsistent with national trends.

If prospective students have second thoughts about entering Antioch after reading your article, then possibly they should stay home with their mothers another year and reconsider.

JIM VOIGT

Yellow Springs, Ohio

Hitler as Satan

Sir / I can realistically view Hitler as a man as you suggest in your Essay, "The Hitler Revival: Myth v. Truth" [May 21]. But the more insignificant he appears as a human being, the more astounding his power to mesmerize millions of apparently normal minds appears.

Made desperate by the threat of chaos, the Central Europeans embraced Hitler as a messiah. Broaden the threat of chaos to worldwide dimensions, and another Adolf Hitler will be equally acceptable to the vast majority.

I am too tough-minded not to entertain the probability that in both instances the mere man is a medium for manifesting the power of Satan.

Is this the reason "Adolf Hitler's presence never vanishes"?

F.S. DONN

Berkeley, Calif.

The Grand Slam

Sir / Upon viewing the Margaret Court-Bobby Riggs match [May 28], one could not help noticing the inadequacy of one player and the total brilliance of the other. It did my heart good to see women slammed back into reality.

MIKE QUASS

Elkhorn, Wis.

Sir / From now on, as far as I am concerned, any feminist who wishes to state her case should take it directly to Court. Only an emasculated magazine could deny that Bobby Riggs is the Man of the Year.

NEWTON E. FINN

Chicago

The Early Lightweights

Sir / A point was made in "God's Muscle" that "most of the heavyweight preachers are theological lightweights" [May 21].