Thurmond and ‘Lovely Ladies’

Ellen Goodman’s column (“Insult, Thinly Cloaked in ‘Chivalry’,” Commentary, Sept. 28) deserves a response. The intent, rather than the perception, of Sen. Strom Thurmond’s greeting to the not-so- “lovely ladies” who appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee prompted Sen. Alan Simpson’s desire to clarify his colleague’s statement. The panelists included leaders and spokespersons for women’s rights and feminist organizations--women, in fact, who have little in common with, nor represent, the overwhelming majority of American females.

Our country was built and grew to greatness on a family value system. I believe in that system and I ask those panelists: “Are we (women) really better off now (since the liberation movement)?”

How many of their children, their neighbor’s children, or children across town are illiterate because many of our traditional values regarding family and child rearing have been cast aside in favor of contemporary life styles? For every woman who takes motherhood casually, there are at least 10 others who work and struggle to keep their family together.

Women and men are not equals. We are different. Our bodies do not look alike nor do they function alike. Achieving equality in government, the business and professional worlds, academia or before the courts does not mean that we should cast off the unique characteristics that distinguish our sex.

GERALDINE R. BASS, Rancho Mirage