Stop election speculations

The more articles I read speculating about the 1988 presidential race, the more I'm convinced they mean absolutely nothing [``Pitfalls lurk on path to presidency for front-runners Bush, Hart,'' Nov. 28]. How can Gary Hart be ``fading'' when the formal campaign hasn't even begun? To handicap the horses before they've even taken their warm-up laps serves no purpose other than the press's desire to fill up space. Give the public a chance to hear from the candidates before writing them off as winners or losers. That way people can decide for themselves, instead of having their choices made for them. Gary Weinman Brooklyn, N.Y.

A temporary solution The argument by anti-birth control/pro-life factions that the DuSable clinic is taking responsibility and control over children out of the hands of the parents seems to be a rather desperate move that avoids the real problem - that control over the children has already been lost or perhaps never existed [``The battle over birth control,'' Nov. 18].

Considering the high teen pregnancy rate prior to opening the clinic, it is rather obvious that the threat of pregnancy or disapproval or moral outrage of the community has not been a deterrent. Birth control is not the ideal solution and is a stopgap measure, designed to stem the further downward spiral of poverty and illiteracy, but it does offer some hope, whereas the anti-clinic faction offers nothing. Susan Palmer Albuquerque, N.M.

That Canopus Marcia Youngman loved having Canopus, great star of the Southern Hemisphere, pointed out to her when visiting in Australia, and added that it was not visible in the north.[``I share the stars,'' Nov. 26].

Each January, when we are in Delray Beach, Fla., we watch eagerly for Canopus low in the south and watch it set to the west. And some years ago, driving home from Florida, my husband and I stopped in Myrtle Beach, N.C. There, in a crystalline night sky, we saw our Southern Hemisphere friend, Canopus, setting. That is as far north as this brilliant star can be seen, and it is the only star in the Southern Hemisphere that is ever visible in the Northern Hemisphere. Canopus is the second brightest star in the heavens after Sirius. Billee W. Gontrum Jarrettsville, Md.