Fight, Team!

To the Editors:

The only element lacking in all this commotion about Jerry Ford's team [Nov. 17] is a group of pompon-waving cheerleaders in the background chanting that all-American classic: "Lean to the left/ Lean to the right/ Stand up, sit down/ Fight, fight, fight!"

If only Mr. Ford would fight for something more important than a "first-round draft choice" at the Republican National Convention.

Maria Girsch

St. Paul

American foreign policy without

Schlesinger may not improve Ford's political survival, but without Kissinger it becomes a question of American survival. Hence thank God for small blessings and Henry.

Helga Marshall

San Diego

The President has sacked our Bismark and kept our Metternich.

William R. Davidson

Alamosa, Colo.

James Schlesinger was the most astute, perceptive, capable and pragmatic Defense Secretary this country has had in 25 years. His dismissal is a sign of weakness.

Ford should spit out the gum.

Alan McLemore

Austin, Texas

If Ford wants to "field his own team," he'd better bench Kissinger or work out a trade.

Naomi Newell

Toledo, Ohio

So Donald Rumsfeld has to "brown-bag" it, and his wife works in a dress shop to "help with the family finances" on his salary of $42,500. I certainly hope he is more competent at running the Defense Department than he is at managing his family budget. Just think, on his new salary of $60,000 he might find that he is able to eat out once or twice a month.

Georgene Rirnkus

Madison, Wis.

Crazy, Illogical, Cowardly

If it is true that the convoluted arguments against the Equal Rights Amendment were major contributors to ERA's defeat [Nov. 17], then the women against ERA confirmed the worst suspicions about women--that they are emotional, illogical, cowardly and incapable of distinguishing that which is real from what is fantasy.

Ms. Diana Sardihas

Waldwick, N.J.

Any woman for the ERA must be crazy. Think of all the things she will lose!

Mary Cann

Carmel, N. Y.

Don't call those in favor of ERA feminists. They lost their femininity a long time ago.

The truly feminine woman enjoys being a woman and the protection that goes with it.

Shirley A. Ruoff

Lincroft, N.J.

Who do you think feminists are? I am a feminist, a mother, a homemaker and a woman. I work because I need the money and because I refused to throw away a college education. I sit with my children at 2 a.m. when they are ill, fix dinner, garden, pay taxes, stand by that sink.

The ERA was defeated by women who want protection, who want to be treated like children.

Judith Maxwell Barrett

Hastings-on-Hudson, N. Y.

I am not alone in being utterly weary of the feminists who insist that textbooks must be rewritten to eliminate such dirty, sexist words as "mankind," insist that one of the more important things in life is that they be addressed as "Ms." and are uptight about anyone over. 18 being called a "girl."

Mrs. Mark Randall

Hamilton, N. Y.

Women's fear of accepting responsibilities was the major cause of the defeat.

Ina Kacani

Redondo Beach, Calif.

In 1836, when the "Married Woman's Property Act" was introduced in the New York legislature, opponents used the same argument stated by Annette Stern in 1975. Nineteenth century New Yorkers believed that giving young married women control of their own property would destroy the institution of marriage and weaken morality. The least these closed-minded Yankees could do is come up with new arguments.

Patricia Arnold Martin

Glade Valley, N.C.

Franco's Mold

It is quixotic rubbish to suggest that Juan Carlos [Nov. 3] may "break the mold cast by Franco." Years of political indoctrination under Franco have equipped him to perpetuate the intellectual repression and moral paralysis of the Spanish people.

Douglas R. McKay

University of Colorado

Colorado Springs, Colo.

That Zionism Vote

The United Nations' vote to approve a resolution that labels Zionism "a form of racism and racial discrimination" [Nov. 17] shows that the U.N. has become an instrument to demonstrate the power of the bully.

Dr. and Mrs. Charles M. Coffey

Pittsburgh

I am black, and I am aroused and appalled by the Third World's ugly racist stand on Zionism. You would think that by now we would have had a belly full of the hideousness of racism.

(Mrs.) Alice Reid

Oakland, Calif.

So Zionism (Israel) is racist and all those nations in the U.N. that voted for this statement are lovers of humanity, eh? It is funny that in Israel's Parliament you find Arabs, you find Communists. How many Jews or Christians do you find in the government of Syria? How many whites in Mr. Amin's Cabinet? How many capitalists in Russia's or in China's governing bodies?

Dave Carver

San Jose, Calif.

Off the Beame?

At this moment, I do not take pride in being an American citizen. It is a sad day for our country when the mayor of New York refuses to meet Sadat [Nov. 10], and a further shame when he is given the keys to Tel Aviv for this act of "bravery." This is a clear illustration of Jewish hypocrisy.

Charles M. Saghi

Tehran

Surviving in the F-104

Why did the German Luftwaffe lose so many F-104 aircraft [Nov. 10] with their pilots?

The Puerto Rico Air National Guard operated the F-104s for many years without a fatality. What makes the Luftwaffe look really bad is that we flew as part-time weekend airmen operating old U.S.A.F.-and Viet Nam War-rejected aircraft.

Orlando Llenza, Colonel

Puerto Rico Air National Guard

San Juan

As a U.S.A.F. pilot with 2,850 hours of accident-free F-104 time, I must take issue with your article. I, along with the large majority of Starfighter pilots throughout the world who fly the F-104, find it a responsive, smooth-handling, true fighter pilot's aircraft.

Gary R. Blake, Lieut. Colonel

U.S.A.F.

APO New York

Christian Scientists Next

Regarding the ruling in the Karen Anne Quinlan case [Nov. 24], the next "logical" step would be for the New Jersey prosecutor to bring charges against Christian Scientists and any others who have had a relative die because they did not attempt to use all available mechanical and artificial means to keep the patient alive.

Howard F. Bowles Jr.

Trumbull, Conn.

A Little Bowl of Diamonds

Much as I love my wife, the $118,335,000 for Sakowitz of Houston's diamond-filled "up to the neck" bathtub [Nov. 17] is a little beyond my means this Christmas. Anybody offering an "up to the first knuckle" finger bowl for the less fortunate?

Daryl G. Mitton

San Diego

I Nominate

New York Governor Hugh Carey deserves the Man of the Year award for his masterful job in marshaling support for the salvation of New York City.

Bernard Scharfstein

New York City

The man who I believe has made the greatest contribution to the whole of humanity this past year is the Russian physicist Andrei Sakharov.

Alberto Dorfzaun Boston

Eternal Heartburn

Any informed individual knows that the home of the one-and-only World Championship Chili Cook-Off [Nov. 17] is Terlingua, Texas. To mention the Terlingua Cook-Off next to a flimsy California copy is a gross injustice. May the robbers suffer eternal heartburn.

Jeanne M. Schoenlank

Fort Worth

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