Letters: Battered Dollar

To the Editors:

President Washington should not be pictured as battered [Nov. 13], but his admonition to us certainly has been. Remember his warning?

"Cherish public credit . . . use it as sparingly as possible . . . By vigorous exertion . . . discharge debts . . . not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burden we ourselves ought to bear."

Robert P. O'Donnell, M.D. Las Vegas

I propose that we balance the budget now, and require balanced budgets by law.

Tom Fonte Fulton, Mo.

Who causes inflation? At the count of three, everybody look into the mirror.

John M. Weis Clearwater, Fla.

TIME'S picture of the President's "economic policy advisers" grasping baseball bats to "go to bat against inflation" certainly indicates the futility we all face in looking to Government to halt rising costs. Just what I need: bats, buttons and more rhetoric.

Frank Horcajo Glendale, Ore.

Erotic Football

The article "Football as Erotic Ritual" [Nov. 13] is really the pits. Sexual symbolism and ritual could be applied to most any activity if that's your hangup. Give the jocks and their fans a break. Forget the kinky gimmicks.

Frances Donovan Maplewood, N.J.

Perhaps in the future Anthropologist Alan Dundes could enlighten us on the homosexual rituals of golf, in which a long club is used to hit a ball into a hole. How about tennis, baseball, hockey, etc.? And as for erotic jargon, how about hole in one, love-30, squeeze play and high-sticking? Pretty racy, huh?

George Bashara Oklahoma City

Alan Dundes might also find needlepoint to be sexually symbolic. One pokes a needle into small holes and derives satisfaction. What nonsense!

M. Cyrene Wells Epsom, N.H.

The idea of football being a homosexual ritual is pretty wild. But then I think football is aggressive and violent, right? Well, war's aggressive and violent. And when you think about it, those missiles and cannons all have some pretty heavy sexual overtones about them. Can you imagine what would happen if we convinced the world that every time a war is fought, homosexuality runs rampant?

John Beers Elkhart, Ind.

Trojan Horse

As an Arab American, I would like to know why Middle East studies constitute a "Trojan horse" at Southern Cal [Nov. 13]. Nobody questions centers for Hebrew studies at our major universities, but it seems that any knowledge of Arab history or culture is "propaganda." It is in America's interest to explore both sides of the Middle East issue. Perhaps Americans are afraid of the truth?

Cynthia Norman Baltimore

Allen Ziegler's remark: "I wonder where they're going to put the mosque" is bigoted. A gentile would have been called an anti-Semite for making a similar remark about the establishment of a synagogue or any other Jewish institution.

The intellectual community of U.S.C. should protest the undue influence of those Jewish leaders who want to decide who gets heard in this country.

Orayb Najjar Terre Haute, Ind.