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Your article "Attack on Litter" [Dec. 23] used terms such as "environmental problem," "plague," "defiling," "mess" and "blight." Your thinking is muddled. Litter is beautiful. Who wants to live in a sterile, well-ordered, Prussian-army-officer-shiny world?
Americans have been hoodwinked by the real polluters. While our cities and towns are dumping unimaginable amounts of raw sewage into our streams and rivers, Boy Scouts pick up harmless beer cans. While automakers demand a relaxation of air pollution standards, happy motorists fill their litter bags with dreaded candy-bar wrappers. While researchers warn that aerosol sprays are destroying ozone, millions are affected by such meaningless campaign slogans as "Every litter bit hurts."
John T. Halls
Wheaton, III.
False Hero
Some people who can accept anything at face value can accept the late Lucio Cabañas, as a Mexican folk hero in the American tradition of Jesse James or Bonnie and Clyde.
But what I cannot swallow is your comparison of Cabañas and Zapata [Dec. 16]. Emiliano Zapata. was a man with a legitimate cause who fought against a government of horrendous oppression. The personalities of these men are absolutely incomparable in their historical perspective and should not be carelessly twined. We have had enough erratic hero worship in Latin America.
Eugenia Novelo
Ensenada, Baja California
La Belle Mort
Your account of the private life of Giscard d'Estaing [Dec. 23] mentions la belle mart of Third Republic President Félix Faure (not Fauré) who died at the Elysée Palace while making love to his mistress. The French enjoy relating that the priest who received an urgent summons to attend Faure asked on arrival, "Est-ce qu'il a toujours sa connaissance?" This means, "Is he still conscious?" but can also be understood to mean "Does he still have his acquaintance?" Little doubt exists as to the interpretation given the question by the member of the presidential staff who replied, "No, Father, she just left by the back door." The incident, some believe, gave rise to the expression, "It's the only way to go."
Graham Tucker
Crewe, Va.
Curb Your Werewolf, Please
Throughout mythology and recorded history, animals have figured in religion and mysticism. The Assyrians some 4,000 years ago worshiped gods who were half animal, and the ancient Egyptians deified cats. During the Middle Ages werewolves were real. Today our Halloween witches are accompanied by black cats.
Have our ancestors passed some dollop of DNA carrying a primitive association of animals with our fear of the unknown? By establishing our ownership over pets, do we try to confront the hereafter? By indulging them, do we propitiate the deities?
Perhaps Cerberus does indeed guard the gates of Hell.
R.A. Huebner
Athens, Ga.