Letters to the Editor

Last year I posted on my strange and almost masochistic fascination with the letters to the editor that newspapers such as the Miami Herald publish on a daily basis. Some of the most absurd and ridiculous comments and opinions I've ever heard have been found in those pages.

I'm sure the Herald purposely chooses the most outlandish, far-flung ones to publish. Maybe they do it for its sensationalistic value. Maybe they do it to expose the letter-writers' intelligence (or lack therof).

Most of those letters irritate me, but like flies to a rib roast, I can't help but come back to them every morning.

I thought I'd share a few with all of you this morning. These are far from the best (or worst) I've seen, but they are quite representative. If any of today's letter writers happen tostumble upon this post, I apologize in advance for posting your name along with your comments!

Enjoy!

Re the Feb. 8 article Spy culture takes toll on exiles' psyche: There's no doubt that the Castro regime is trying to import its ''sickness'' to Miami. But for all the talk of agent provocateurs, there was no hint of exploration of what seems probable -- that some of those advocating to preserve the embargo are doing so to keep Castro in power.

Lest that sound paranoid, many Cuban exiles have never hesitated to attribute the most baroque and Machiavellian of motives and maneuvers to this crafty old dictator. Wouldn't it be logical to assume that at least a few of his most seemingly implacable enemies are actually double agents, as some rumors have had it?

DAVID APPELL, Miami

In an otherwise perceptive news article, I was surprised to read: ``A common whisper in Miami: Luis Posada Carriles, the exile suspected of anti-Castro bombings, is probably a Castro agent himself.''

That kind of phrasing is unworthy of a professional newspaper. Many years ago, as a cub reporter at the student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, I quickly learned that the phrase ''rumor has it'' should never appear in the news. Later, as The Crimson's managing editor, I had to tell many newcomers that they must lose the phrase.

While journalists are forever driven by rumor -- same thing as a whisper -- their job is to find out the facts in order that the rumor, or the whisper, never has to be invoked.

DAVID LANDAU, Los Angeles

I can certainly understand the anguish of Cubans and Cuban Americans over the fact that their native land has long since become a dictatorship, suffering under unworkable economic policies. However, I have no sympathy for their unfortunately successful efforts to maintain an utterly failed policy on Cuba on the part of the United States.

The embargo has not and will not do anything to dislodge Fidel Castro; only his inevitable death will accomplish that. However, for 47 years, the embargo has provided a convenient whipping boy.

The travel restrictions were originally an unconstitutional and outrageous abrogation of the right of Americans to travel freely. More recently, new and harsher measures have proved gratuitously cruel to Cuban and Cuban-American families. These measures are kept in place largely at the behest of three Cuban-American members of Congress and a few opportunistic congressional allies.

I can't help feeling that they would countenance mass starvation of everyone on the island if Castro would starve as well. But, of course, he would not. Nor will the remaining inhabitants, thanks to the refusal of the rest of the world to abide by our absurd policies.

RICHARD ROSICHAN, Miami Beach