Closing the Generation Gap
Sir: Cheers for TIME and its Man of the Year [Jan. 6]—an honor long overdue! Since the generation gap is being widened daily by headlines confined to hoods, young criminals and rioting, it is refreshing and encouraging to be shown the whole picture.
MRS. CARLTON E. WOOD Long Beach, Calif.
Sir: I felt a special surge of pride when I read your story and could identify with those you wrote about.
Many weeks go by when we feel as though there is no place for us in the adult world. This article helped to give us the identity for which we search, though sometimes fail to find.
MARGARET HIRSHFELD, '70 Smith College Northampton, Mass.
Sir: As a college sophomore and member of the younger generation, I thank you for realizing that not all of us spend all our time parading on Sunset Strip, on the Berkeley campus, or at protest meetings.
Some of us do attend classes. Some of us do support the President's action in Viet Nam. Some of us don't wear miniskirts or jump suits to a formal affair. Some of us haven't been in a wreck on the L.A. freeway. Some of us are human.
ROXANN PLOSS George Washington University Washington, D.C.
Sir: Thanks for casting light on the bearable, if not entirely acceptable, character of a generation that has been ridiculed and grossed out for more than a decade.
PAUL ROBERT HALLOCK University of Massachusetts Amherst
Sir: The Now People belong to one of our best generations. They sometimes puzzle me, occasionally annoy me, always interest, intrigue, delight and awe me.
ELIZABETH O. DORNEY North Tonawanda, N.Y.
Sir: Thank you for an excellent story. Having three members of this generation in our home, teaching two classes a day, and performing the duties of dean of women, I am in constant contact with young people. I am always impressed and amazed; I have great faith and tremendous hope for us because of them. There are moments when I wish I were 20 years younger, but quickly shift my feelings to gratitude for being alive in this, their time. I wouldn't want to miss one minute.
B. MARGARET VOSS Davenport College of Business Grand Rapids, Mich.
Sir: Let the young Man of the Year wear his hair long enough to drag the ground. Let the girls wear rough workman's clothing and boots. Let them express themselves with the skull-cracking noises they call music. We of the Beaten Generation can endure all that, but in the end we expect them to make a better world.
HASTINGS W. BAKER Darien, Conn.
Sir: An outrageous choice. A generation that has made our streets unsafe to walk, our highways suicide avenues, and our schools a shambles doesn't deserve such recognition. They are the overpublicized generation.
Your eloquent nonsense had me in stitches. If they have no time for hate, as you boldly state, who is it who commits more than half the crimes in this country? If they have no time for hate, whence comes the distrust they evidence? You write, "Today's youth appears more deeply committed to the fundamental Western ethos—decency, tolerance, brotherhood—than almost any generation." Fact is, the opposite is true.