The Editor, Sir:

As we mourn and grieve collectively, both here and overseas, at the loss of one of our greatest cultural icons - our beloved and much cherished Miss Lou - I have noted with great interest the voices raised suggesting that Miss Lou should be considered for elevation to the status of National Hero. Or should that be National Heroine?

Over the many years of our Independence, I have been more and more disturbed at the fact that leading politicians have been so honoured, together with the proposal to have Michael Manley raised to this exalted status.

I say this entirely due to the fact that I firmly believe a National Hero should be someone revered and respected by ALL Jamaicans, not just those who support one political party over the other. If half of our citizens love that person, and the other half dislike and even revile him/her - then that, to me, does not a National Hero make.

Miss Lou falls in the other, universally beloved, category. I can think of no one more fitting or more appropriate as a National Hero for she was and still is revered by all - young and old alike - and this is precisely the sort of person we would all be happy to honour in this way.

Think on these things.

I am, etc.,

DOROTHEA WHITEHORNE, JP