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Sir: Federal Judge Julius Hoffman's handling of the trial of the Miserable Seven in Chicago [Feb. 23] deserves a great deal more than passing praise. His patience, his wisdom and his refusal to be intimidated by a group of anti-Americans stamp him as a truly great man.
Judge Hoffman's actions have given me, along with millions of other Americans, a spark of hope that maybe all is not lost. We need more Hoffmans. We need more people who have the fortitude to tell the unwashed minority that it's time to take a bath.
E. I. H. BENNETT
Pittsburgh
Sir: The political credos of the individuals being tried by Judge Hoffman are so diverse that the charge of conspiracy must be viewed as the Government's paranoid fantasy.
The political tendencies of the defendants converge upon one point: they are all disdainful of Government policy. I urge all who are guilty of this crime to turn themselves in.
STEVE MILLIGAN
Boulder, Colo.
Sir: Nobody comes out of the Chicago Seven trial with clean hands. The defense histrionics were almost as bad as the judge's suppressions.
I think that liberals and conservatives alike are now supersaturated with the violence on both ends of the political spectrum. We are equally sickened by right-wing atrocities (such as civil rights assassinations) and left-wing atrocities (such as the San Francisco police-station bombing). Eventually liberals and conservatives will have to join forces to freeze out extremists on both ends.
NICK NICHOLL
Pueblo, Colo.
Swatting the Cow
Sir: Vice President Agnew again swatted the liberal news media [Feb. 23] which so long have made Richard Nixon the butt of their abuse.
It's like the Quaker farmer whose fractious cow kept overturning the milk bucket and kicking him. His patience at last exhausted, the farmer said to the cow: "Thou knowest, as a Quaker, I cannot beat thee. Nor curse thee. So I will sell thee to one who can do both."
The President has now succeeded in transferring title to the ill-tempered cow.
EVELYN CRANE
Hollywood
Character Analysis
Sir: Boy, that letter of Mrs. Onassis [Feb. 23]! Not its content, but its chirography: stubborn, insecure, self-centered, secretive, ungenerous and frigid. Ask any handwriting analyst.
VERA TASS
Colonia, N.J.
Sir: Poor Jackie! It makes one wonder if one should not be penning notes on self-destructing stationery—just in case.
LYNN AZZAM
Bridgeport, Conn.
In Dresden, Too