Letters

Jeanne-Claude’s Role
The article “California Dreamin’ ” [June 2010] erred in omitting artist Jeanne-Claude’s essential role in the creation of the artwork Running Fence, Sonoma and Marin Counties, California, 1972-76. She was an equal partner with her husband, Christo, in creating the dazzling public artworks for which the couple is justly world-renowned. Jeanne-Claude’s role is commemorated in the title of our current exhibition, “Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Remembering the Running Fence.” She was deeply involved with all aspects of our exhibition before her death on November 18, 2009. The exhibition, catalog and a new documentary film commissioned by the Smithsonian American Art Museum are dedicated to her memory.
Elizabeth Broun 
Margaret and Terry Stent Director
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Washington, D.C.

Today’s Prohibition
Daniel Okrent’s account of alcohol prohibition [“The Man Who Turned Off the Taps,” May 2010] is very instructive and relevant to our current marijuana prohibition and the failed war on drugs. The nation realized the idiocy of alcohol prohibition after 13 years and repealed the constitutional amendment, but the idiocy of the present prohibition on marijuana has persisted for decades. This policy has resulted in marijuana arrests totaling at least half of all drug arrests and thousands of people being incarcerated for “nonviolent” drug crimes. Hundreds of people have been killed in Mexican cartels’ drug-related violence. The United States must come to its senses: legalize, tax and regulate marijuana. The revenue could be used to treat people who have serious substance abuse problems with drugs, alcohol and tobacco.
Edwin L. Stickney, M.D. 
Billings, Montana

Correction:
The photograph of a New York City speak­easy [“The Man Who Turned Off the Taps”] was taken in 1933 by Margaret Bourke-White when she worked for Fortune magazine, not Life, as stated in the caption.