Shots Fired at White House

Re “Tremor of Doom in the Disunited States,” Commentary, Nov. 1;

William Rees-Mogg sees in the recent attacks on the White House a portent of American decline. Perhaps, there is a simpler interpretation closer at hand.

To advance their ambitions, the Republicans and their allies to the right have accused the President of crimes ranging from draft dodging to murder. Newsletters and syndicated radio programs are devoted to peddling this nonsense. The candidate for the Senate from Virginia announces that the President and his supporters have stolen the country from good people and he is going to rescue it. He goes on to proclaim that he is superior to the law because his heart is pure, and politicians, even serious ones, stumble over themselves to support him lest they lose the votes of some cretin who has mistaken adolescent posing for political argument.

Is it any wonder that someone already disturbed, as those who have attacked the White House clearly were, should take this ethical pollution as an invitation to violence, should even believe that it is brave and virtuous to take potshots at the President?

EDGAR SCHELL

Irvine

* It’s maybe a long stretch for Rees-Mogg to equate a seriously deranged Colorado man’s shooting at the White House with the deterioration of American values and economic supremacy in the world. Rees-Mogg is on solid ground when he envisions the eventual overtaking of the United States’ industrial power by other nations--that’s the cyclical nature of the universe: What goes around comes around.

But the accused upholsterer’s behavior is evidence of nothing except the wild-eyed, hare-brained, makes-no-sense activity of a nut-cake in transition. The dishonorably discharged, gun-toting Coloradan is symbolic of only his own miserable, frustrated, misspent life. Lord, let’s not fancifully make any more of it than that.

CHARLES R. BARR

Upland

* I read, with some sense of irony, your headline in reaction to the walk-by shooting at the White House, “White House to Weigh Limiting Public’s Access” (Nov. 1). I wondered how many people who live in South-Central L.A., Beverly Hills, Calabasas, or Burbank would like to limit the “public’s” access to their neighborhoods and homes.

Unfortunately, we’ve become accustomed to this type of response from Washington and politicians in general. They form a cocoon around themselves, shielded from reality and ponder weightier issues like their retirement plans, free parking at Washington National Airport, or how many millions of dollars they might want to spend on their campaigns. Maybe if they had to live with the same “access” issues that the rest of us do, there might be more of a sense of urgency in dealing with the issue of crime in this country.

PEPPER de CALLIER

Burbank