Letters, Sep. 29, 1980

The Automakers

To the Editors: I was disappointed that your cover artist Richard Hess didn't put blindfolds on the three auto executives [Sept. 8]. They must have been around in the late '50s, the '60s and the '70s and observed the trend and need for small and efficient cars. Their foreign competitors did.

Harold H. Bach Sun City, Ariz.

If the Detroit worker had done better when he had a job, he would not now be looking for a job.

Virginia B. Thomas Alexandria, La.

Let the Government buy every household a new economy car every two years. This would 1) revive the auto industry, 2) cut unemployment, 3) continue highway construction, 4) reduce imports and 5) stop the rush to push mass transportation down an unwilling public's throat.

George Strahan Fort Worth

It is not un-American to buy a foreign-made car, and it certainly is not anti-American, but if it seriously hurts the American economy, can it be right? Thinking Americans can change their habits—if they want to.

Harold G. Hartgerink Phoenix

Debate About the Debates

It is high time that the League of Women Voters instructed the candidates about the debates [Sept. 8] as follows: "The American voters are going to conduct job interviews for the post of President, at such-and-such places, dates and times. Serious applicants will show up for these interviews. Others need not show." Perhaps this will indicate just who's supposed to be doing the hiring around here.

Lee W. Douglas Germantown, Md.

Carter is the recognized champion, and he has agreed to defend his title against major challengers, one at a time, in the TV ring, starting with the top contender. To keep his title, must the champ simultaneously confront and overwhelm all the opponents who can be crowded into the ring?

David B. Gary Jacksonville, Ala.

The real question is not whether John Anderson should be included—he should —but why Libertarian Ed Clark hasn't been invited as well. An open political process in America should not be dictated by Jimmy Carter or the League of Women Voters.

Mark A. Larson San Diego

Why not have debates just between Reagan and Anderson? Carter's record speaks for itself.

Tom Evans Acton, Mass.

Back to Main Street

People are moving to smaller towns and cities [Sept. 1] in record numbers seeking not only intimacy and peace, but a place where their actions count. They are fed up with ineffectual, unresponsive Big Government interfering with their lives and no longer able to solve the problems it has created.

Anne Steely Fort Collins, Colo.

Small-town life produces achievers. A large proportion of the men and women in Who's Who came out of small towns. Count 'em.

Lucia Meyers Madison, Miss.

Perhaps these ambitious native sons from such small towns as Plains, Ga., and Tampico, Ill., have an urge to overachieve so that they can compensate for their feelings of provincialism and insignificance.

Mitchell Winthrop Chicago

My mother's advice: If you ever decide to practice medicine in a small town, drive in in a Cadillac if you have to beg, borrow or steal every cent it takes to buy one. Because if you don't, and you buy one at the end of a year, everybody will know you paid for it with money you made from them.