Although a "Letter" today likened the Soviets' glasnost to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, I think these classics, satirizing Nineteenth Century society, contain quotes equally applicable to our own Iran-Contra scandal: "Curiouser and curiouser!"

"'Contrariwise,' continued Tweedledee, 'if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't it ain't. That's logic.'"

"'The time has come,' the Walrus said,

'To talk of many things:

Of shoes -- and ships -- and sealing wax --

Of cabbages -- and kings --

And why the sea is boiling hot --

And whether pigs have wings.'"

"'There's no use trying,' she said: 'one can't believe impossible things.'

"'I daresay you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen. 'When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.'"

"'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less.'

"'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.'

"'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master -- that's all.'"

Our Constitution -- our collective conscience -- should be our guide.