Unbearable Hug

So actor John Randolph refused to hug President Reagan because that would sanction Reagan’s Nicaragua policy (“John Randolph: An Actor’s Life Overlaps Art, Activism,” by Janice Arkatov, March 12).

But he had no qualms about hugging Mikhail Gorbachev and sanctioning the Soviet slave labor camps, the Berlin Wall, the invasion of Afghanistan, the persecution of dissidents--to say nothing of 70 years of systematic oppression, murder and imperialism.

I don’t know what’s more revolting: Randolph’s callousness toward human life and liberty or the press portraying him as an “idealist” and “humanitarian.”

MICHAEL BERLINER

West Los Angeles