Accentuating the Negative

It was good to see that most of the letters regarding your stories on writer Charles Bukowski, former contra Arturo Cruz Jr. and the missile submariners in the Pacific were negative. Certainly the Bukowski article was redundant--his ugly scribblings have been available for years, and knowing that he is not a humanitarian, decent sort won’t discourage those in the market for his stuff (or encourage those of us who can’t stand it). “Red Hunt” made nuclear war sound like a totally awesome arcade game and was easily seen through as nothing but war propaganda.

The Cruz article, though, put me in mind of a human (inhuman?) interest article about California Nazis that ran in the View section some years back. I only hope that this time The Times will see fit to balance the scales with something folksy about the other side--maybe an article by a surviving contra victim about his authorial efforts.

L. Robert Sims

Pasadena