THE TEMPTATION OF TOM DOOLEY

“The Temptation of Tom Dooley” (by Diana Shaw, Dec. 15) made me feel like I did when I was 6 and found out about Santa Claus. It really hasn’t changed the spirit of Christmas for me, and the knowledge that Dooley was human won’t change how I feel about the importance of caring for others.

Dooley was my hero when I was a teen-ager in the ‘60s and vice president of the youth league of the Thomas A. Dooley Foundation. There were rumors even then about Dooley. My mother was so appalled when she heard a lecturer at Sarah Lawrence College blame U.S. involvement in Vietnam on Cardinal Francis Spellman and Dooley that she refused to allow me to apply to Sarah Lawrence.

I still think heroes are important. Their ideals can make us people we might never have believed we could be.

KATERI KRANNAWITTER ALEXANDER

Agoura