M.B.A. Craze

To the Editors:

The starting salaries enjoyed by Masters of Business Administration [May 4] reflect a need for their talents and a recognition of their potential contributions to the firm. The degree is a ticket. It says, "I'm highly motivated, hardworking, ambitious and knowledgeable." Just saying these things will open some doors, but once through those doors, the M.B.A. is on his own.

Alan W. Robertson Charlottesville, Va.

As long as companies think of M.B.A.s as all knowing, all seeing "superexecutives" who will push the firm toward the FORTUNE 500 top-ten list, an M.B.A. is the best degree to get.

Nestor A. Arreaza Babson Park, Mass.

Money is the long hair of the '80s.

Rick Brewer Tampa

The real problem with M.B.A.s is corporate management. Many able top managers lack a bachelor's degree, and, sadly, all seem to have a reverence for any degree. Consequently, M.B.A.s are allowed to run loose when they really need firm guidance and direction.

Claude Pate Hutchens Clearwater, Fla.

Ireland's Anguish Bobby Sands [May 4] had a choice to live or die--a choice his fellow militants didn't give the innocent people they killed and maimed.

Paul Kerslake London

As an Englishman, I say both the I.R.A. and the extreme Protestant factions are murderers and must be treated as such. If only Bobby Sands had struck for truce talks or had suggested a workable solution, he would have been a real hero. Northern Ireland does not need a Bobby Sands, whose hunger strike was planned provocation. It needs a new peace movement. It needs the majority of sensible Irish to tell the minority of senseless fanatics to stop.

Nicholas John Chambery, France

Bobby Sands spent most of his young Irish life under the inhuman conditions of a British prison, judged by British judges. His simple plea to be recognized as a political prisoner was the only way he could show his protest against British tyranny over Northern Ireland.

Elizabeth Minogue Franklin Lakes, N.J.

Helms' Clout

So Jesse Helms says that Ronald Reagan has "got to remember who took him to the dance" [May 4]. Such a crass demand shouldn't surprise anyone. That's what happens when you go out with that kind of guy.

Philip M. Willis Albany

Jesse Helms should have to look the poor of this country in the face, especially the children, and explain why Government support of the poor is being drastically curtailed while subsidies to the tobacco industry, which is causing cancer in many Americans, are not touched. Larry G. Patton Houston

What a shame that we conservatives who worked to elect Ronald Reagan in 1980 will possibly not repeat that in 1984 because of a right-wing radical, "never compromising, out to reshape the world in his image." Don't coddle this redneck, Mr. President. He'll undo us all.

Kenneth B. Larkin Punta Gorda, Fla.

Schlafly and the Temptress

Phyllis Schlafly's comment that women who have been sexually harassed on the job have asked for it [May 4] reflects not a new, but an old view of woman: that by her virtue she can control the actions of others. It is as sensible as saying that a good child will never be intimidated by a bully, or that an honest man will never be mugged.

Nita Sue Kent Waco, Texas

All right, you trollops, up against the wall! This is Phyllis ("Never Met a Man Who Was a Cad") Schlafly speaking. Stop your lascivious behavior at the copy machine, cease your sultry coffee service, and no more sexually explicit typing. Don't you know that virtue is its own reward? On-the-job harassment: Hah! That's what you get for unchaining yourselves from your kitchen stoves and trying to pretend you have something other than chitlins and children to give the world.

Maren J. Wryn Honolulu

Phyllis Schlafly--what a wicked old witch! The young women in the typing pool are embarrassed enough trying to duck the known feelers and gropers without being blamed for the equipment God gave them. It's also rough on the file clerk, trying to keep her arms close to her body while she handles the heavy drawers. Few of these young people can summon the bravado to yell "Cut that out!" or "Go pat your dog!" as this 66-year-old woman has sometimes suggested.

Elizabeth O. Rodgers Arlington, Mass.

It's true that virtuous women are seldom accosted--by virtuous men. It's the other kind who give a girl a hard time.

Carolyn Rice Taylors, S.C.

Even "temptresses" have the right to say no to their bosses and keep their jobs.

Carolyn Parker Birmingham Praise Jesus for women like Phyllis Schlafly who are speaking the truth and searing the consciences of women today!

I pray for the day when women will take pride in being good homemakers and once again will earn the respect of their husbands and families.

Mrs. Roger Arndt Madison, Wis.

A Little Flogging

I read with much disgust your article "Stomping and Whomping Galore" [May 4]. So the sadomasochists are coming out of the closet. Who's next? What are we going to do when the cannibals and necrophiles start demanding access to dead bodies? It is time that the overwhelming majority of Americans who oppose this type of behavior realize that these so-called closets are not closets at all. They are Pandora's boxes that should remain firmly and forever closed.

Martin R. Truitt Los Angeles

For those of us who work in a crisis center that serves victims of sexual and domestic violence, some of our saddest clients are wives who are victims of their husbands' S-M sexual activity. They are invariably middle-aged and middle-class women. Our experience is that S-M is frequently not "consensual activity that pleases both partners," but rather the exploitation of sensitive, dependent women by angry, inadequate men.

Ann Richards Fort Thomas, Ky.

I would not like your readers to get the impression that I or any other responsible writer about sex commends sitting on an electric frypan, or putting someone else there, as a variation of foreplay.

You grossly confuse aggressive-looking behavior, which is playful and appears to please "one couple in three," with genuinely hostile routines that are compulsive or vicious. That confusion could be dangerous for many people today whose zeal for experimentation exceeds their common sense.

Alex Comfort, M.D., Associate Professor

Neuropsychiatric Institute, U.C.L.A.

Santa Barbara, Calif.

Ending the Embargo

President Reagan has lifted the grain embargo on the Soviet Union [May 4]. Never let it be said that America allowed a single Soviet soldier in Afghanistan to go hungry, or deprived the Soviet army on the Polish border of its daily bread.

Leon E. Soniat Jr. Metairie, La.

The President was right in lifting the gram embargo. It was insignificant as long as other wheat-producing countries did not rally behind the U.S. The embargo only increased the grain sales of other nations and drove down the price of U.S. wheat. Lifting the embargo showed that Reagan lives up to his word.

Jean Y. Chiotti Emporia, Va.

German Jets in Britain

With your story "A Conditional Reprieve" [April 20], you published a picture of Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger sitting in a Tornado jet at a British airbase. Would you explain how a plane with German air force markings, accompanied by air force officers in German uniforms, was at a British airbase?

Tomasz Ostrowski San Diego

Three nations--Italy, West Germany and the United Kingdom--are participating in the development and production of the Tornado jet. Pilots from these nations are receiving their initial training in the use of the plane at Britain's Cottesmore Royal Air Force Base. The German officers had their own planes flown in from West Germany for the program.

Saudi AWACS

The Reagan Administration says that we must arm "moderate" Saudi Arabia because of the threat to the Middle East from the Soviet Union. No, say the Saudis, the threat is Israel, not the Soviet Union [May 4]. So the U.S. supplies the most modern advanced weapons and planes to satisfy the Saudis--even at the mortal peril of Israel.

Henry S. Smull Miami

President Reagan has decided to sell special fuel tanks to Saudi Arabia for its F-15 fighter planes, which will enable it to reach and bomb our towns. During his recent visit, Secretary of State Alexander Haig called Israel "our permanent ally." I shudder to think what foreign statesmen who don't think of Israel as a permanent ally might do to us.

Josef Sryck Tel Aviv

According to our Congressmen, it's O.K. to sell the latest offensive aircraft, the F-15s and F-16s, to Israel. But selling defensive aircraft like AWACS to Saudi Arabia is wrong. This country couldn't ask for a better friend in the Middle East than Saudi Arabia. Yet Congress continues to insist on treating the Saudis as if they were lepers.

Mike Hergenhan Newburgh, N. Y.

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