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The 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz commemorates the most heinous crimes ever perpetrated against human beings. Sadly, Time has chosen to feature on its cover yet another story about O.J. Simpson. What a pity that the memory of the slaughtered millions should be overshadowed by the media circus in Los Angeles. Clearly, this shows the motivating factors behind modern-day journalism: exploitation, ratings and money. What a glorious lesson to teach our youth.
Lorne Stepak Don Mills, Canada
Leave the Driving to the Car
After reading your article on ``smart cars'' [Business, Feb. 6], I am furious! Engineers are trying to make cars idiot-proof no-brainers to drive. What is needed, instead, is to get the idiots off the road and onto public transportation, where they cannot injure anyone. Most ``accidents'' occur because people do not pay full attention to their driving. People drive while reading, shaving and using car phones. People change lanes without looking or signaling. Hazards can appear in seconds, and full attention is essential to avoiding tragedy. Many so-called accidents are really criminal negligence. People need to have their brains in gear while their cars are.
James Yanik Casselberry, Florida
I wish I still had my 1937 ``stupid'' car, a six-cylinder Dodge with no gadgets. For air conditioning, I would crank open the windshield, and I got a consistent 18 m.p.g. Pity the poor smart-car buyer who has a breakdown in the boonies!
Gilbert A. Robertson Gretna, Nebraska
Dance with Death
Bill T. Jones is not crossing the lines of reality and theater in Still/Here, as New Yorker dance reviewer Arlene Croce complained in her criticism of the piece, unseen by her [Culture, Feb. 6]. The theater is usually a reflection of reality. Maybe this reflection is too close to the surface for Croce. By including in his work people who are suffering from AIDS, Jones is being honest about his themes. Isn't it often said, ``Write about what you know''? People should, by that logic, dance and talk about what they know. The people involved in the piece are sharing the collective experience of living with an illness. They are making a positive experience of their coping with AIDS, in contrast to Croce's negative response of refusing even to see the piece. Everyone is a victim of something or other. If you can take a tragic situation, turn it into a positive experience for yourself and educate others at the same time, are you a victim or a victor?
Garvin Burke Hoboken, New Jersey
Convinced as I am that the true aesthetic event is always human anguish transfigured (resolved) into an aesthetic act or object, I see the Bill T. Jones work as a possible incarnation of this belief. Is it? Does Jones' use of videotaped portraiture of anguish and suffering find aesthetic transfiguration in the dancers' action? Or is the work ``just'' a morality play?
Paolo Soleri, President Cosanti Foundation Mayer, Arizona