Will it be scars and strikes forever at the Boston Pops?

"MUSIC HATH charms to soothe the savage breast" -- well, apparently, not anymore.

What type of society have we turned into? Now we have fistfights at Symphony Hall because someone would not be quiet ("Opening night at Pops packs an unexpected wallop," Page A1, May 11). Can one even go to the movies without having people talking or babies crying?

As a five-day-a-week commuter on public transportation, I see increasing displays of selfishness and self-centeredness -- people leaving their trash , talking loudly on their cellphones, and, a first last week, injecting themselves in the stomach with a hypodermic needle in the middle of rush hour on a moving subway car.

I fear for this country. We have lost all sense of propriety. It is all about "me."

KAREN BAYTCH
Sharon

I EMPATHIZE with the gentleman who had to ask a fellow concertgoer to be quiet at Symphony Hall. My husband and I attended the Van Morrison concert at the Opera House recently and sat next to a couple who talked throughout the concert, a drink in each hand. I thought I was at Fenway Park. The louder the music got, the louder they talked. The only relief we got was when they went for more drinks or to the restroom -- which happened often, thankfully. Audience etiquette seems to deteriorate more and more. Venues would be well served to address this problem. It made me wonder whether paying all the money we did for those seats made a live concert worth my time.

CATHERINE MEANY
Rockport

MY GOD! That was my father's orchestra!

If people brawl at the Boston Pops -- as they did, by the way, at the 1913 premiere of Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" -- I wonder what they would do at my antiwar Fourth Symphony?

MARSHALL FINE
Memphis

The writer is assistant principal violist in the Memphis Symphony, and a composer.

SO I went to the Boston Pops and a hockey game broke out.

BILL DRURY
Cambridge

The writer is associate conductor of wind ensembles at the New England Conservatory of Music.