Carol Burnett
It took guts to make public the story of her daughter's battle with drugs, but telling it has helped innumerable families face similar problems (PEOPLE, Oct. 1). I thank Carol Burnett for the opportunity to know her not only as a comedienne but as a wife and mother, struggling, like so many of us, to raise her children properly.
The Rev. Russell C. Block
Berkeley Heights, N.J.

We're going through much the same thing, and the hardest part has been the feeling that we were the only ones having this problem. There is a lot of guilt that parents carry through an ordeal like this, some self-inflicted, the rest given you by your child, who isn't able to face up to his/her responsibility. Thank you, Carol and Carrie, for helping us understand this better.
Sharon Snider
New Richmond, Ohio

I am in the seventh grade at the West-lake School for Girls, and I think that the article about Carrie Hamilton was good except for a couple of things about "fashionable" Westlake School (as you put it). When Carrie said "about 80 percent of my school got high," that was probably a fast little remark that she didn't even give a second thought to, and it led to terrible rumors which aren't true.
Brigid Joyce
Pacific Palisades, Calif.

Hurray for the Hamilton family. It's too bad they didn't allow Carrie to hate them sooner. She might have been saved all the trouble of being a stoney. I thank God for the times my parents let me hate them for standing their ground and being stern, because today I can say they are two of my best friends.
Michele
San Diego

Bleacher Bums
You'll never convince my husband that the Chicago Cubs are losers. Each year he prepares for all the Cub wins with his outdated yellow Bleacher Bum helmet and some significant saying to let me know he still has kept the faith. All this and we've been away from Illinois for nine years.
Dinah Grosch
Mission Viejo, Calif.

Dr. Paul Wiesner
"An incurable VD called herpes is sweeping the country." It is statements such as yours that undercut our attempt as physicians in the community to provide good health care to patients who suffer from HVH-2. I know of no "cure" for diabetes mellitus, hypertensive cardiovascular disease or cancer, but I certainly am aware of effective treatment for these diseases. To concentrate on the word "cure" is to create a sense of profound depression in patients who have this affliction.
Stanley M. Bierman, M.D.
Los Angeles

Richard Fogel
Typical. GAO's Richard Fogel has discovered a perfectly obvious and overt tax dodge—moonlighters, owlhooters, windjammers, okie-dokies—that has existed for many years, and his amazing discovery has cost the taxpayers a million or more. Vastly reduced federal spending is the sole cure for this epidemic, and geniuses like Fogel should seek private employment to help reduce the insane federal payroll.
Deek Gladson
Segundo, Colo.

Jimmy Carter
The lack of readiness, the premature accelerated start, the unrealistic goals...The similarities of Carter's road race and his Presidency are hauntingly apparent. The President, however, has learned much from his experience, and with a second wind we might find him to be the strongest runner in the next race.
William Slocum
Toms River, N.J.

Irma Thomas
After reading about Irma Thomas' tragic crusade for the victims of Utah's nuclear tests, I can only say that it is the integrity of this government that is at stake.
B. McManus
San Francisco

Deborah Raffin
Deborah Raffin stated that she would not do a TV series like Three's Company or Charlie's Angels because "they are insulting to the intelligence and provide horrible role models for young girls." In The Last Convertible Raffin gets pregnant out of wedlock and has a friend line up an abortion. In Once Is Not Enough she portrayed a young woman who attempted to resolve her sexual desire for her father by having an affair with an older, married man. Are these the role models she wants to project to young girls? Excuse me, but I think my intelligence has just been insulted.
L. Waletzko
Phoenix

More From This Article

People Next Week
Has Mork blown his cork? Fast fame had Robin Williams going "slowly bozo," but with a hot new LP, a movie deal and a tight marriage, he's come back to earth

Charlie Daniels fiddles with fame The 265-lb. picker's bagged three C&W awards since The Devil Went Down to Georgia

A survival course for stagflation

Consumer economist Sylvia Porter has a plan for you—and the country—to stay whole in a dicey decade