Dear Editor

Dear Editor Liberal Lament Being a liberal in Washington these days is indeed hard, as Richard J Margohs points out ("Strained Mercy of the Truly Rich," NL, March 9) Someof us down here are still...

...Km exam pie, iniglil mi 11 nut lo be nun c e I ttt u\t than cilhei ap The New Leader welcomes comment and criticism on an> of its features, but letters should not exceed 300 words proach alone One might object in the case of W ein-traub's theories that it is always easier to limit wages than salaries and profits—but putting a redistribution accent on matters could change that My suggestions are necessarily tentative What really matters when trying to uproot an evil, though, is that we all grab the trunk and pull together Boston J P Leclair Hitler Marvin Kitman has his finger on part of the reason why the American television industry's treatment of Adolf Hitler has been fundamentally rotten ("Hitler's Greatest Victory," NL, March 9) He rightly takes exception to TV's relatively sympathetic portrayal of the Nazi dictator in The Bunker, but he fails to pursue the point all the way The problem is focusing on Hitler as a madman out of context The historical and cultural complexities behind his rise to power are no less important than his personal character But television is wholly incapable ot addressing this crucial aspect ot why Hitler was so deadly Thus 1 would argue that Kitman's apparent desire to have Hitler accurately portrayed on television is unattainable The tube has an eerie way ot devouring everything from ultimate evil to sunny puerility, digesting it, and coming out w ith the same old tetching-lv packaged pap Using the medium to examine a horror having deep, smoldering origins is like trying to extinguish a volcano with a garden hose New York Cst\ Jack Lapidls Human Rights William Korev's concern lor human rights would ring truer had he paid more attention to the utter hypocrisy ol our own manipulation ot this issue( Rattling the Russians m Madrid, " NL February 9) B\ all means smite the Russians for their anti-Semitism and their terrorizing ot am Souet citizen who leels that his country might not be the New Jerusalem But let's not lorget about Ronald Reagan's chumminess with I he Pinochets Sn ocssners and Chun Uoo Hwans ol this world (in tact Jimmy Carter seems like a Mahat-ma Gandhi bv comparison) We undermine the credibility ot our concern tor Soviet Jews and other oppressed peoples when we tail to recognize that wr_ haye flaws in our human rights record too \tn )orkCi(\ Ronald Rosen Ambition It distressed me to read Barry Gewen s na\-sa\ing rewtw ot loseph Epsteins Ambition The St tret Pawnm ( V Cr ittsmun Turned Booster NL, Feb-ruar\ 9) \ irtuous sell promotion has losi its \ahda-tioniuoui eounln Sound thinking ;s endangered h\ iimi-himl hippies ,md tarpmg eomiiK.ni itors who mock am one with real dn\c and ericrgv \ltcr tile expellellcc ot the 60s u should be dear thai \mciie.in wilucs irt not onk tundanientalK sound but need nurturing 1 here is still ioo nuieh I vine ss ind sIkxIcK chilling in tlmeoimm Ciewen is critic U ol I pMcin tor uiging \oung people toda\ 10 stn \ t Ioi I line [iow ti and wealth I s i\ more pow iI <o him /), ,,\u I ih i1*' M...
...Dear Editor Liberal Lament Being a liberal in Washington these days is indeed hard, as Richard J Margohs points out ("Strained Mercy of the Truly Rich," NL, March 9) Someof us down here are still reeling from the election itself, not to mention Reagan's masterful sucker-punching with his delayed, unannounced budget cuts Connoisseurs of political maneuvering must admire the way our conservative Chief Executive has persuaded everyone (or so it seems) to look ai all legislative matters in terms of their cash value Margohs' observation that the worst is somewhat better than everyone had feared has been overtaken, as Reagan rolls back program after program on the grounds that they cost too much Alas, we must now admit that the worst is just plain awful 1 have an Eastern European friend who reminisces darkly about the days in his homeland when "inner emigration" was the order of the day—anything to distance yourself from the intolerable political reality I'm afraid that the phrase may soon becomean all-American term, along with "supply-side," "throwing dollars at problems," and "tough-minded " Washington, DC David Osterbrock Tito I must take exception to Mihajlo Mihajlov's contention that the West has been utterly naive about the true nature of Tito's dictatorship in Yugoslavia ("Stalin's Best Pupil," NL, March 9) To be sure, many benighted souls have seen the Croatian dictator as a model Socialist, but all along, even in the English-speaking media, some reporters and commentators have gone out of their way to record his inequities This is no way deprives Milovan Djilas' latest book of its value But Mihajlov should recognize that Tito The Story from Inside is simply the latest addition to a long-established body of literature that encompasses writers from Evelyn Waugh to Arthur Koestler Los Angeles Malcolm Winnerton Economic Woe Both Sidney Weintraub and Leon Kevserling seem to me mistaken in their separate approaches to eliminating the causes of inflation ("The Root of Our Economic Woes," NL, February 9) Their error, I would argue, is rooted in an attitude they share with most professional economists kevserling lays the blame upon maldistribution, Weintraub on income growth in excess ot what productivity allows, orthodox monetarists find the radix mulorum in keynesian manipulation of the money supply, the Kemp-Roth ad\ cxaics in excessive taxation that supposedly hinders American industry I rem shaking out its golden Jocks and rising like a puissani giant toconhont the dawn What is one to make ol a profession in which no one agrees, even on lundamcnul issues' Laymen like me, when laced with such discord among supposed piotcssion-ats, are tempted to give up in disgust Is ii not possible that our economic woes ha\c moa loolsthan.iticc' III Ins is in I id thecase, then it would behoove prolcssional economists to stop being so ical ous ol I heir pel thcoiies and 10 stai I seeking e ounce tionsbciwecnandamongcasltotlici suit is Acombi nation ol V\ eintiauh's tax based incomespohe\ with kevsuling's l\ toils lo icdisti Unite wealth...

Vol. 64 • March 1981 • No. 6


 
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