Inaugural Preview
Sir:
I was amazed to notice how closely this year's official Inaugural Medal resembles TIME'S Nov. 12 cover. I wonder if there is any connection between the two.
MICHAEL GRADY Chestnut Hill, Mass.
¶ None. President Eisenhower decided on this year's medal before TIME'S Nov. 12 cover appeared, the second time in history that the medal has shown two profiles (the first: Taft and James S. Sherman in 1909). For the resemblance noted by Reader Grady, see cuts.—ED.
Man of the Year
Sir:
Congratulations on naming the Hungarian Freedom Fighter. Since the embattled American farmers stood at Concord in 1775, there has been no greater and finer and braver blow struck for human liberty and freedom than that by these modern sons of Thaddeus Kosciusko.
CYRIL CLEMENS St. Louis
Sir:
I don't think you could have chosen better. A wonderful choice!
GEORGE LOOMIS
Cambridge, Mass.
Room in the House
Sir:
May I suggest we open our hearts and pocketbooks to the homeless starving Arabs as well as the brave Hungarians ?
GRANT C. BUTLER Pacific Palisades, Calif.
Sir:
Why all the fuss and noise about freedom for the Hungarians? Let's first give freedom to the millions of Negroes in the South, and show the rest of the world that we believe in freedom for all peoples—not just for the whites.
W. R. WILSON
Los Angeles
Sir:
We call the able-bodied refugees "heroes." I should think the heroes are those who have remained in Hungary to fight. If we in this country were oppressed by a totalitarian government, and I fled to England while my compatriots fought and died, would I be a hero to the cause of freedom? What would I be if my wife and I fled leaving a nine-year-old daughter behind? A hero?
WALTER J. BOETTCHER Canonsburg, Pa.
Sir:
"Any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankinde, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee" (John Donne). The bell which tolls for Hungary tolls equally for us who watch in helpless impotence.
NOLA WALLACE
Los Angeles
Sir:
Mrs. Bloomstadt asks [Dec. 3] how we are going to feed, clothe, etc., the Hungarian refugees here. Where there's room in the heart, there's room in the house.
M. C. McLAY Flint, Mich.
The Catholics as Censors
Sir:
I am one of many Roman Catholics, I hope, who are appalled at the shallow thinking of our Chicago brethren who became a pressure group protesting the showing of the TV film Martin Luther [Dec. 31]. If, as Catholics, we possess the truth, why do they resort to such intolerance in order to prohibit what they consider to be false from the beginning. We cannot deny the historical existence of Luther and his founding of the Protestant Church. Do Chicago Catholics fear the facts of history? I wonder if they realize how much their bigotry damages the cause of Catholicism and the fellowship of man?
GERALD QUINLIVAN Honolulu, T.H.
Sir: