E.T. DOESN’T GO BETTER WITH COKE

I am shocked by artist Will Weston’s depiction of E.T. on the front cover of The Times’ Calendar section (“The Second Coming,” by John M. Wilson, June 16).

E.T. has become an international symbol of all that is good about the innocence of children and familial morality. Why The Times would become a party to an unconscionable perversion of those ideals is incomprehensible.

At a time when many of us are reaching out to impressionable children with costly efforts to dissuade them from becoming a part of the drug culture, their most impressionistic symbol is emblazoned on the cover of Calendar, adorned with a cocaine spoon, a razor blade and cocaine horns.

Surely, The Times has a better message for our children.

DARYL F. GATES

Chief of Police, Los Angeles