Letters
Letters Head Cases With reference to your remarks about treatment of the mentally ill ["Tilting at Windmills," July/August]: I watched the interview with Henry Cisneros and was impressed, as you...
...Samuel Taylor Carmel, IN Mob Rules Since when have lawyers been held responsible for the crimes or qualities of their clients...
...Thus, there are among the homeless a great many people who suffer serious mental illness and have an alcohol problem or a drug problem...
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...Galbraith) equally ludicrous...
...An even larger factor in the rise in women's clothing prices is the "Dress for Success" concept...
...Many single women postpone the purchase of big-ticket items such as china, crystal, silver, and home appliances because they associate those purchases with married life...
...My realtor says, with spotless credit and no other debt, you need an annual income of $65,000 to buy that house...
...Reprints of articles are available to individuals or schools at $2.00 each (prepaid...
...I get a bunch of magazines and other stuff that I have to read, and I have developed a certain rhythm that usually gets me through this as needed of an evening...
...Elizabeth Austin Oak Park, IL Thanks a lot You guys tick me off...
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...Dan would be proud, feel right at home, offer to share some used golf balls...
...two years, $72...
...William McGowan's article on Harold Ickes ["The Mob and the Deputy Chief of Staff," July/August] insinuates that the deputy chief of staff is somehow disqualified from public service because his New York law firm represents a union reputed to have ties to "organized crime...
...Tor reprint rights for all or part of an article call Albeit Lukban at (202) 462-0128...
...This violates a fundamental principle of American justice...
...Further, I think it is important not to proceed from the fact that most of the homeless have needs beyond housing to the conclusion that they do not need housing...
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...Young workers, especially women, have been indoctrinated with the idea that, to rise in the company, you must dress up like the boss—or better yet, the boss' boss...
...Frank Melville Norfolk, CT The editors reply: It's unquestionably true that some of these people are truly home-less, and society should do all it can to provide housing for them...
...However, to argue that the distribution of the fruits of production among the participants in a laissez faire economy will automatically tend to converge, as the single equilibrium hypothesis suggests, seems to me (and evidently to Mr...
...Even into the 1970s, there were many home seamstresses with adequate skill to make a simple pair of pants...
...Darn...
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...It is also worthy of note that treatment facilities and programs are almost as scarce as is housing...
...In the absence of a transcript, I cannot quarrel with your quotation of his opinion that a third of the homeless are mentally ill and another third are substance abusers, but I am extremely suspicious of it...
...Then your little magazine comes along, just a tiny part of the periodical pile, and I end up having to read every word on every page...
...Assistant to the Publisher Mark J. Lalback Proofers T. King Carvell, Virginia Cope, Alan Greenblatt, John Kalajian...
...There is stark need for safe housing that is within reach of the poorest...
...I also think prices are rising, not just because women are working, but because a large number are working and remaining single...
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...James Weinstein Editor, In These Times Chicago, IL The editors reply: Nostra culpa...
...The evidently unacceptable truth is that our society is not unable but simply unwilling to pay very slightly increased taxes to help those who, for whatever reasons, are unable to cope on their own...
...Mark Lono Lutz, FL The Washington Monthly Editor In Chief Charles Peters Publisher Hilary M. Ross Editors Daniel Franklin, Jon Meacham, David Segal Contributing Editors Jonathan Alter, Thomas N. Bethell, Tom Belhell, Taylor Branch, Matthew Cooper, Gregg Easterbrook, James Fallows, Christopher Georges, Paul Glastris, Mickey Kaus, Phil Keisling, Michael Kinsley, Nicholas Lemann, Suzannah Lessard, Arthur Levine, Joseph Nocera, Leonard Reed, John Rothchild, Jonathan Rowe, Walter Shapiro, Scott Shuger, Sleven Waldman Editorial Advisory Board Charles Bailey, James David Barber, Edgar Cahn, David Halberstam, Murray Kempton, Richard Reeves, Hugh Sidey Assistant to the Editor Pam Matthews Business Manager Kristine Norquist Production Manager Albert Lukban Interns Steven Barksdale, Hillary Covington, Phoebe Dean, Liz Greenspan, Celeste Katz, Leyla Kokmen, Rachel Van Dongen...
...Like a fine wine, age has mellowed rather than dulled his keen perception, droll sense of humor, and way with the written word...
...But when the crook is rich and has many lawyers at his beck and call, why should a decent lawyer lend his credibility to an evil cause...
...The women's movement has had many great successes, but I think the death of universal home economics classes is not one of them...
...When the crook is poor, we have great sympathy for the lawyer who takes his moral obligation seriously and represents him...
...Abraham Lincoln represented railroad interests in the 1850s and that did not make him a "robber baron...
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...The real conundrum is why a defender of the underdog need suffer such a hatchet job from the "legitimate" press...
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...Letters Head Cases With reference to your remarks about treatment of the mentally ill ["Tilting at Windmills," July/August]: I watched the interview with Henry Cisneros and was impressed, as you were, with his recognition that homeless people need a lot more than housing...
...All Americans are entitled to full and fair representation in our legal system, and lawyers are not guilty by association...
...Only the client can release the attorney from this duty...
...But we do believe that two-thirds of the problem is not lack of housing but need for treatment...
...Oops Pardon I. O.K., so Dan Quayle isn't too bright and can't spell, but that's no reason to speak his language, as Walter Shapiro did in his review of Standing Firm ["The Book of Dan," July/August...
...Jeanne Herring Ridgewood, NJ The editors reply: We believe lawyers are guilty by association when they continue to represent a well-heeled crooked organization...
...McGowan suggests that Ickes circumvented the attorney-client privilege while defending Mayor Dinkins...
...You keep this up and I'll just have to keep reading...
...Unsolicited manuscripts must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope...
...Money Matters It was a pleasure to read John Kenneth Galbraith again ["Capitalism's Dark Shadows," July/August...
...air mail delivery add $3Z Back issues, $5.00...
...Recirculating tabloid scandal instead of reporting the facts strikes me as poor journalism...
...I am sure you will understand that a very high percentage of the mentally ill who must live on the streets drink heavily or use other drugs, as do many of the homeless who are not mentally ill...
...Clothes Horsing I think there are several reasons for the appalling cost of women's clothing ["Tilting at Windmills," June], One, which has been overlooked, is that women no longer know how to sew...
...The professionals categorize them as "dually diagnosed," and they constitute a significant portion of the homeless, but they must not be counted twice...
...Second class postage paid at Mechanicsburg, pa...
...Don't you know anything about what magazine readers expect...
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...So your proposal for mandatory outpatient treatment, which sounds very sensible, is of much the same cloth as what you refer to rather snottily as "the usual liberal line...
...In the absence of public policy that recognizes this reality and takes actions to mitigate it, the various levels of rich will continue to get richer, while the various levels of poor will continue to get poorer...
...This privilege belongs to the client, not the attorney...
...Hardly anyone argues today that anything so complex as a national economy that is itself a part of an even more complex world economy can be controlled by the state with results short of disaster...
...Failure to protect the privilege is grounds for disbarment...
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...Finally, and most importantly, single working women (like so many of the rest of us) are disheartened about saving...
...Today, in my not-terribly-fancy suburb, a rather basic house costs about $200,000...
...And even if she did, she couldn't qualify for the mortgage...
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...If she makes $30,000 a year, and saves 10 percent of her pre-tax income (no small feat), it will take her more than 10 years for her to put a downpayment together...
...Without something of the sort, no amount of treatment will have anything but a temporary effect...
...They do it, it seems clear, in a mistaken effort to relieve their misery...
...It throws the whole evening's schedule askew...
...and possessions: one year, $38...
...If only the conventions of quasi-objective journalism allowed my colleagues and I...
...That leaves a good amount of cash available for clothing purchases...
...Not since Senator Joe McCarthy have I seen such unsubstantiated character assassination...
...Where's the fluff, the filler...
...If we faced a choice between spending $65 for a store-bought skirt and spending $15 and three hours making it ourselves, many of us opted for the latter...
...That means a single woman who wants to buy that house has to come up with $40,000 for a downpayment...
...Is this empathy or what...
...So they end up spending more than half their disposable income on clothes, telling themselves it's an investment in their careers...
Vol. 26 • January 1994 • No. 9
