Dear Editor
Dear Editor Kudos Even faithful readers of The New Leader (and I have been one for the last quarter of a century) have their favorite columns. Upon receiving an issue, I always turned first to the...
...But never fear, Reuven Frank...
...Your selfrighteousness is certainly an effective shield...
...And they know that when they go to a candidates' meeting or listen to a Presidential forum where the League is in charge, it will be run fairly—all sides present will be given equal treatment, and every effort will be made to reflect issues, not emotions...
...Upon receiving an issue, I always turned first to the essays of Pearl K. Bell...
...They happened to be the questioners...
...Bell and Mrs...
...In the past two years, important successes have been achieved...
...Sometimes they are embarrassed when their answers are compared to those of opposition candidates...
...It hardly diminishes his reputation as a journalist that Jody Powell and Dean Burch marked nihil obstat beside his name...
...Perhaps it never happened...
...In that way, control of the questioners would control the questions...
...Even against the truth...
...Fire broadsides...
...But the League of Women Voters made it possible...
...He must be be a very tough guy, this Reuven Frank who stands up and tells off the League of Women Voters...
...The League was the first to press the Legislature to establish a permanent Commission on Judicial Conduct, and the voters' approval of this body in a constitutional amendment last fall has caused a revolution in the way we discipline our judges...
...He reminds me of the columnists and commentators who regularly denounce that easily identifiable villain?the Congress...
...When the League takes on an issue it does not give up simply because the going is rough, or because the newly-elected Legislature looks unfavorable, or because controversy arises, or because the issue doesn't head the list of current conversational topics...
...Urbana, Ill...
...Dykman claims for her organization, I am still shocked that it should be a party to the arrangement...
...New York City Natacha P. Dykman President, League of Women Voters of New York State Gee...
...The League of Women Voters is perhaps the only group in New York working consistently in the fields of election law reform and apportionment, two areas vital to the effective functioning of our democracy...
...I am really impressed by Reuven Frank's piece on the debates...
...It is not true that, "If you control the questioners you control the questions...
...No guidance, no direction, no suggestions...
...Lots of politicians consider the League a nuisance because, even when they agree with League positions right down the line (a rare occurrence to be sure), the League will not endorse their candidacy...
...This is why voters feel confident about the election information on candidates and issues coming from the League...
...That is, of course, because the League never supports or opposes any candidate or any political party...
...From the League, the candidates or my employer...
...New York City Patricia Blake Defending the League The wine pressed from the sour grapes expressed by Reuven Frank ("Programming the Debates," NL, October 11) causes amusement at its presumption...
...In addition, the League and the State Bar Association began working together in 1971 for enactment of the system of state financing of the courts passed in this summer's special session of the Legislature...
...Much remains to be done, and the League will be there...
...If some other journalist had been expected to ask an unwelcome question, approval might well have been refused...
...By studying problems in advance and then being persistent in its efforts to effect change, the League is acting on behalf of all citizens in its attempts to plug the leak in the roof before the rain ruins the house...
...Maurice Friedberg Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, University of Illinois I'm writing this to tell you how very good I thought two recent reviews were—Ruth Mathewson's of A Voice from the Chorus (NL, September 13) and Anne Frydman's of A New Life of Anton Chekhov (NL, September 27...
...At least Frank knows enough to realize that politicians running for office do consider the League a nuisance...
...The League of Women Voters of New York State, for instance, has been working for 25 years in the critical area of court reform, on its own and in coalition with other groups...
...Some politicians consider the League of Women Voters a nuisance because when the election is over, the League is still there...
...You are also wrong...
...Nobody on earth knew what the questions would be, except the people who drew them up...
...Amusement, that is, if his statements did not reflect an appalling lack of knowledge about the League of Women Voters, its methods, procedures and achievements...
...No individual is hit, but the institution is smeared...
...Congratulations to all...
...Bell is on leave, her space is being filled most often by the very perceptive and imaginative essays of Ruth Mathewson...
...The League deals with issues solvable by government...
...It is my considered opinion that both Mrs...
...As a teacher of literature, I probably see more literary criticism than most of your readers...
...They consider it a nuisance to be asked hard questions about school finances, environmental protection, judicial reform, and the many other serious governmental matters they will have to deal with if elected...
...It is for this reason that I was especially gratified to discover that while Mrs...
...In the last session of the Legislature, recodification of the Election Law, a League goal for over 10 years, was finally passed, as was a series of important amendments expanding the pool of people eligible to vote in primaries...
...League members have studied these issues and reached conclusions, and are genuinely interested in the views the candidates have on them...
...Nobody controlled the questions...
...In the first debate nobody controlled the questioners...
...Washington, DC...
...they know it will be impartial, that it can be depended upon...
...One glaring gap in Frank's perception of the League of Women Voters is the fact that all those "pussy cats" now include quite a number of men, since the League, in keeping with its support of the Equal Rights Amendment, admitted men as voting members in 1974...
...Frank Reynolds ABC News Correspondent Reuven Frank replies: I shall always regret having made Frank Reynolds lose his temper...
...The Open Meetings Law, dear to the hearts of the media but certainly not to those of some politicians, was similarly passed in the last legislative session with the aid of indefatigable League lobbyists, as well as those of the Citizens Union and other good-government groups...
...Mathewson are among the most gifted critics writing for any general American periodical...
...I wonder what Larry Spivak would have done if some politician tried to interfere with his panel on Meet the Press...
...In fact, I know what he would have done, because he did it...
...My interest, however, was in those to whom approval was refused...
...Just as one tends to notice that the roof is leaking only when it rains, so citizens and the media tend to notice defects in laws or programs only when they are directly affected by them...
...We therefore invite Reuven Frank, and all of your readers interested in an organization that really is where the action is, to join their local League...
...You are fearless, indeed...
...Congratulations, Reuven Frank...
...League members turn up at town council and school board meetings, county legislative meetings, state hearings, and in the halls of Congress, not only asking questions but proposing solutions and legislation...
...That is why, particularly recognizing all the noble achievements Ms...
...In fact, no advance collusion among the questioners themselves...
Vol. 59 • November 1976 • No. 22
