Dear Editor

...Find out what you and your neighbors can do to prevent crime...

...You'll be seeing a lot of me, but in the meantime, find out more.Write to: Crime Prevention Coalition, Box 6600, Rockville, Maryland 20850...

...Don't carry a purse when you don't need one...

...Dear Editor Jimmy's Trail It's absolutely incredible According to John P Roche ("Benevolent Brezhnev in Afghanistan," NL, January 14), "Pakistan is the ideal location for starting the 'Jimmy Carter Trail' to carry arms and other useful materials to Afghan freedom fighters " Unbelievable 1 realize thai you do not necessarily share the positions of your contributors- and that you try to provide an open forum for varied viewpoints But to give space to one of those who made the movie Apocalypse Now possible, to encourage "Jimmy" and the rest of America's jingoists, borders on the irresponsible Obviously Roche has not learned the lessons of the past He wants us to think that he was right on Vietnam after all, and that we can now cleanse ourselves by helping Moslem murderers create a Vietnam for the Soviets Turn the tables on them, so to speak I'll gladly buy Roche an M-16 and a one-way ticket to Islamabad if he'll promise to act on his crazmess instead of wasting space in a magazine that generally offers reasonable criticism and enlightenment An example, in the same issue, was Donald Kirk's excellent article, "Challenging the Nationalists in Taiwan " Austin, Tex Gajry L Jordan Video Pablum Two months after reading Robert Asahina's review of Kramer vs Aramer("Hollywood on Fatherhood," NL, December 17), 1 braved the long winter lines and saw it For once, I thought your critic did not come down hard enough What the film offers is pap and pablum for those who suffer from the maladjustments and strains which characterize our time, what it says is you can solve your problems without having to change your mind The two leads were admirably chosen to fill their roles without ever being bound to them Dustm Hofl-man smiles so well you can't imagine him being indifferent to his family or cold-blooded enough to win the "big account " We know he'll defrost fast, and he does But where does he find all that time for the park1...

...Another example...

...That's one way to help...

...So locking your door could ruin a crook's night...

...if you don't have your purse, it can't be snatched...

...I'll be giving you tips on how to discourage burglars, disappoint muggers, and generally make life a little harder for criminals...

...Like, for instance, did you know if a burglar can't break into your place after four minutes, chances are, he'll quit...

...It makes a lot of sense...

...But you will...

...The fey Meryl Streep somehow transforms herself into a 32-grand-a-year designer without losing any of her distinctly " temimne" waozmess She's as witless at the end as at the beginning And, despite The New Leader welcomes comment and criticism on an\ of its features, but letters should not exceed 300 words what Asahina says about her versatility, woozy is what she plays best I guess after having their personal lives flayed by Ingmar Bergman's films (and mocked by Woody Allen's), people want to be comforted —and films about happy divorces are as near as we'll get in this day and age to romance New York City Gretchen Stefj^j Modernism In his provocative review of Peter Berlmrut's The Colloquisis ("On the Times and the Timeless," NL, February II), H William Fitelson makes some interesting distinctions but fails, 1 think, to make some important ones First, he contends that modernism has been unwilling to "probe" the horrors of the times, choosing instead to "evade" reality But it can be argued as well that modernism has indeed payed "close and impassioned attention to what is and what is not " Are Eliot's The Waste Land, Picasso's Guernica or Sartre's Nausee "fatuities'"7 Second, while careful to say that the work under review does not fit comfortably into the categories of fiction or philosophy, Fitelson seems to confuse admirable talk about life with the recreation of fully lived experience which is the basis of true art In a great novel, we not only listen to the characters, we suffer with them I suspect that The Colloquisis is not wholly successful as either fiction or as philosophy—but at least Fitelson has provoked me to buy it and find out1 Philadelphia, Pa Elliot Finch Party Days Hope Hale Davis' memoir of her years as a Communist ("Looking Back at Mv Years in the Party," NL, February 11) was a bold undertaking and made fascinating reading of course, the idea of the parallel between the Church and the Communist Party is not new, it's at least as old as Eric Hoffer s True Believer Yet rarely has it been explored from such an intensely personal point ol view Mv only criticism is that the parallel is ai times u^ed less to explain than to excuse Davis political involvement Alter all, it wasn't inevitable that with such an upbringing she would join the party, though she makes it sound that way And about the period of conversion she says too little New London Conn Willliam Sheffield You don't know me yet...

...See, I've been assigned to help you learn how to protect yourself against crime...