Forum, Dec. 8, 1975

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.