DATE: Sunday, August 17, 1997               TAG: 9708150114

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E8   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: IMPERFECT NAVIGATOR

SOURCE: ALEXANDRIA BERGER

                                            LENGTH:   76 lines

A POEM AND OTHER ITEMS THAT HAVE SPECIAL MEANING TO READERS

YOUR LETTERS bring me total joy.

Claudette A. McAuliffe, a 60-year-old registered nurse from Buffalo, N.Y., wrote in answer to a column on physician egos. Claudette believes a support network is needed to eliminate ``the conditions which foster such behavior.''

I'm with you, kid. There is strength in numbers. Write to Claudette at Post Office Box 146, Buffalo, NY 14223.

Mike, from the Oklahoma Agent Orange Foundation, wrote about scientific experimentation based on my column on African-Americans denied penicillin for treatment of syphilis:

``Your article . . . is right on! Enclosed are declassified documents from the Combat Development Experimentation Center concerning Agent Orange.''

Thanks. To obtain more information on Agent Orange and other chemicals used during the Vietnam War, write to Mike c/o Oklahoma Agent Orange Foundation, P.O. Box 849, Lexington, OK 73051.

John Kling, Kill Devil Hills, N.C., wrote to say my column on bigotry rang a bell:

``I was five years old in 1922, when I was first exposed to a clash of cultures. Italian immigrant hand labor paved our dirt road. They jabbered away unintelligibly, fingering switch blades in their pockets. A couple of years later, a poor Italian family moved near our home. No matter what they had, I was offered a share. I eventually married an Italian immigrant's daughter and have been happy for fifty-eight years.''

John, your letter was terrific. It proves, again, prejudice is taught to naive youth by tainted elders. Experience can dissolve it. Sorry you liked my old picture better, but I, too, am getting older.

From Mrs. Sara H. Ballenger of Norfolk: ``The article you wrote on Charles Kuralt . . . had a special, special meaning to me. The poem you quoted by Isla Pascal Richardson could very well have been written by my husband, who died February 16.''

Thank you for the lovely thought. You weren't the only way who loved it. For the many requests, here is that special poem - ``To Those I Love'' - by Isla Pascal Richardson. Clip and save it.

If I should ever leave you,

whom I love,

to go along the Silent Way,

grieve not,

nor speak of me with tears,

but laugh and talk

of me as if I were

beside you there.

(I'd come - I'd come,

could I but find a way!

But would not tears and grief

be barriers?)

And when you hear a song

or see a bird

I loved, please do not let

the thought of me

be sad . . . for I am

loving you just as

I always have. . . .

You were so good to me!

There are so many things

I wanted still

to do - so many things

to say to you. . . .

Remember that I

did not fear. . . . It was

just leaving you

that was so hard to face. . . .

We cannot see Beyond. . . .

But this I know:

I loved you so - `twas heaven

here with you!

In time, I promise you'll all hear from me. I wish I had space to answer all your letters here.

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