Letters

Bravo for your salute to American ingenuity and entrepreneurial skill that your story "Now Hiring" so convincingly demonstrates [Nov. 24]! Reading about the unemployed who are successfully taking risks and adapting to career changes is such a contrast to listening to the noisy strikers and whining demonstrators who seem to be everywhere these days. Your article showed people unafraid of a radical career change supported in part by American self-confidence as well as our sense of mobility. Seeing new jobs, even if temporary or minimum-wage work, as a challenge is an American answer to dreary job entrenchment and shows our ability to begin again.
PATRICIA K. RYAN
Ardmore, Pa.

You presented a skewed version of what it is truly like out here. You said, "Jobs are coming back," but whom were you talking to? If you really want to know how the economy is, why don't you ask the maids cleaning hotel rooms, waitresses, cooks and grocery-store clerks? Or maybe folks like us really don't count. After all, we don't have college educations. We're not very stylish. We often look older than we are because it takes a lot out of you to live in an impossible situation. Many of us had our own dreams, but now we just have the jobs that help other people's dreams come true.
PAMELA BOWEN
Oak Harbor, Wash.

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Even with an ivy league degree, AN M.B.A. and 15 years of successful marketing experience, I have found employers in the hot areas you profiled (including health care and professional services) unwilling to consider management candidates from outside those fields, even when they meet or exceed all other job requirements. I'll continue to hope for a more robust economic turnaround while mulling over the ups and downs of opening a gourmet shop.
JEROME FUNARO
Baltimore, Md.

You described a rosy picture of the resurgence of jobs, but too many of them are in the service sector and have poor pay. Newly created jobs will not be enough to counterbalance the large number of old ones that have taken a one-way trip to Asia. Unless the hemorrhage of well-paid work to foreign countries is stopped, the U.S. is heading toward Third World status.
EDWARD J. MASON
El Lago, Texas

I wish you could experience what it is like to be laid off and unemployed for an extended period. You should endure the ordeal that I and thousands of others have undergone, one that strips you of not only any financial security but also your dignity and self-esteem. If you did, then you would be qualified to write a realistic article on the job market instead of the upbeat, sappy story you published.
SUSAN SCHNEIDER
Suffern, N.Y.

The number of months I've persistently looked for a job after college graduation: nine. The number of job openings I've applied for: 263. The number of times I've been called back: six. The number of offers I received: one for a temporary position. I'm tired of hearing everyone, from friends to President Bush, tell me that the economy is getting better every day and that more jobs are available. Words don't mean anything unless there is actual improvement.
HUE MA
San Luis Obispo, Calif.

Shifting Gears in Iraq

L. Paul Bremer, the American proconsul in Iraq, is being directed to change policy there as the political winds blow [Nov. 24]. One has to wonder if the timetable for transferring governance to the Iraqis was accelerated because it is in the best interests of that country or because President Bush's primary concern is his re-election bid.
MICHAEL ROBERTSON
Frisco, Texas

Responding to recent suicide-bombing attacks in Turkey, Bush said terrorists "hate freedom. They hate free countries." Are we to believe that people who blow themselves up do so to bring democracy to its knees? Somehow that sounds farfetched and not unlike the motives attributed to the enemy in Vietnam. Moreover, our response of attacking violence with more violence is as illogical as fighting fire with gasoline. War is like a fire in the human community, fueled by living beings. Let's put the fire out.
DENNIS KOSTECKI
Holladay, Utah

Al-Qaeda Targets Arabs

You reported on al-Qaeda's new strategy of launching terrorist attacks directed at other Arabs [Nov. 24]. While it was comforting to kid ourselves that al-Qaeda was on the run, the terrorists are proving to be much more resilient and intelligent than anyone imagined. They have now taken aim at pro-Western allies like Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Meanwhile, in Iraq the bombings are becoming more focused. It is time for the U.S. to stop playing the kingmaker in a country about which it knows very little.
SRINIVASAN SADAGOPAN
Coimbatore, India

I'm puzzled by the insistence that there is a fully organized al-Qaeda type organization behind the Muslim fanatics who are bent on purging the Middle East of Western influence. Why credit al-Qaeda for every fanatic's act? The facts are simple: there are many disenfranchised Muslim males who see the U.S., Britain and their allies as intruding on sacred Muslim ground. Those Muslims have a holy cause. They want Westerners out at all costs. There is no need for a terrorist, insurgent or al-Qaeda organization to direct the attacks when religious fanaticism is at work.
KEN ALLISON
Claremont, Calif.