DEFINITIONS

Patrick James (April 5) protests too much when he is offended by connecting the subservience of women to men in Africa with the AIDS pandemic there (“Africa’s Death Sentence,” by Scott Kraft, March 1).

I can think of no better definition of guilty than someone who has unprotected extramarital sex with suspected AIDS carriers, then, by virtue of his country’s laws and customs, can demand unprotected sex from his wife, knowing he can infect her and any unborn children. No better definition of innocent than a woman who knows her husband has been exposed to AIDS and still is forced by law to submit to his sexual advances, even though he refuses to wear a condom. No better definition of victim than a child born with AIDS, gotten from its mother, via his father. No greater obscenity than an AIDS-infected woman, exposed to AIDS by her husband, standing at the graveside of her AIDS-infected child, being told by her husband’s family that it’s all her fault.

Being a woman, I obviously cannot understand the male mentality that is either unable or unwilling to control a sexual appetite that not only puts his own life at risk, but condemns his wife and children to horrendous pain, suffering and death. Perhaps James can explain the male sex drive to me and also why he seems to have a problem with the definition of “taking responsibility for your own actions.”

ANNIE CAROLINE SCHULER

West Hollywood