Letters, Oct. 15, 1979

(4 of 4)

Regardless of what the FBI did in the Jean Seberg case, as a champion and admirer of the Black Panther cause, why should she have felt disturbed, distressed or discredited? That is racist thinking, and if I were black I would feel insulted.

Grayce Torosian

Johnson City, N. Y.

Pass the Salt

Reader Paul W. Capor [Sept. 10] has a good sense of humor. He sees the oil that has been hitting U.S. beaches because of the accident in the Mexican well as a gift. We Mexicans, however, haven't felt that way about the salt the U.S. has sent us for years, day after day, in the water of the Colorado River. We haven't even been lucky enough to scrape it off our valley.

Susana Castellanos

Guadalajara, Mexico

Ansel and the Duke

As the German consul for cultural relations in San Francisco in 1968, I asked Ansel Adams [Sept. 3] if he would like to make an artistic tour of West Germany as a guest of the federal government. His answer was remarkable and convincing: "I have never left the U.S. except for a glimpse over the Mexican and Canadian fences. I have done that only because the nature, the landscape is the same on both sides of the frontier. I am afraid to visit Europe, to see all your ancient towns, all your fairy-tale castles because, as I understand, all the landscape in Europe is converted into overcultured scenery. I'll never be the same after such a trip. I might lose my identity."

In this sense Adams is indeed as American as John Wayne.

Erich F. Sommer

Munich