Blue Chip IBM

To the Editors:

IBM is American to its core, which is what helps make it so profitable and, possibly, unique [July 11]. When I attend company conferences, I feel as if I am in a meeting of the United Nations. I sit among Japanese, blacks, Chinese, Indians, Arabs, Hispanics and women. In confronting its competition, the company is fiercely tough and at the same time ethical.

Barry Polisuk San Jose, Calif.

IBM, the great sales colossus, is also great to sell to. We are a company that has provided IBM with services for ten years and have found it to be a model customer. It is fair, pays on time and cooperates completely when problems arise. Unlike many other large corporations, which have double standards for buying and selling, IBM practices what it preaches.

Robert M. Sherin, President

Southern Computing Service, Inc.

Miami

This graffito was seen in the University of Minnesota library: I compute, There I Be aM.

Michael Rabe Minneapolis

IBM may give good service to its large customers, but if you are running a small college bookstore, you will find the service is cursory.

Jean Marie Becker North brook, Ill.

Brief Booknapers

The current Washington ballyhoo over who took Jimmy Carter's briefing book [July 11] is nothing more than an attempt by Democrats to divert attention from the relevant issues. The Carter-Reagan debate did not determine who won or lost the presidency. The Democrat; are looking for something to damage Reagan's image and hurt his chances for reelection.

Mark E. Mitchell Doraville, Ga.

It does not matter whether President

Reagan had knowledge of what was going

on at the time of the debate. He knows

now and should speak out clearly about

the morality of what was allegedly done.

Georgia Janewicz

Wilmette, Ill.

Who took Carter's briefing book? Who gives a hoot?

Elisabeth F. Doyle Tucson

Challenging Arafat

The plight of the Palestinians [July 11] is deplorable. But let us not forget the inflexibility shown by the P.L.O. leaders, especially Yasser Arafat. They have refused any kind of compromise and have been the rudest of guests whenever an Arab country has extended hospitality to them. They have also allied themselves with villains like Libya's Muammar Gaddafi and Iran's Ayatullah Khomeini. Arafat is getting what he deserves.

Mir Fattah Rome

The Palestinians' needs come last even with their friends, Syria and the Soviet Union. With Arafat, the Palestinians rank first 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year.

Pat DeLaney St. Louis

Sticks and Stones

In your report on the hostilities that have broken out among various Jewish groups in Israel and the U.S. [June 27], you state that the Lubavitcher and Satmarer Hasidim have engaged in several rock-throwing street battles in Brooklyn. This leaves the impression that members of the Lubavitch community took part in the rock throwing. On the contrary, our people have been the victims. We have been attacked by the Satmarers, who hurled stones on us from rooftops and who recently beat and shaved off the beards of two of our rabbis.

Rabbi Yehuda Krinsky New York City

Funny Eddie

Your article on black Comedian Eddie Murphy [July 11] was a shallow, superficial puff piece. You would have served your readers far better if you had chosen to analyze the reasons behind Murphy's rise to stardom. Why is he, along with Richard Pryor, finding such enormous success while serious black dramatic actors and actresses rarely work?

Can it be that they are white America's latest court jesters?

Regina R. Patterson New York City

Profitable Hospitals

Your article on the increased number of U.S. hospitals that are owned or managed by profitmaking companies [July 4] raises a serious question: How will public facilities survive? Public hospitals are forced to accept Medicaid and indigent patients; private hospitals do so only to a nominal degree. Consequently, public hospitals need profits from well-to-do and well-insured patients to offset the large losses that Medicaid and nonpaying people generate. If these profits go instead to private hospitals, then a tax to support the public hospital is the only answer.

Russell M. Moses Sr., Chairman

Toombs County Hospital Authority

Vidalia, Ga.

Membership Count

Re your analysis of the Unitarian Universalist Church's attempt to reconsider its principles and purposes [June 27]: our decline in membership since 1975 has been 9%, not 31% as you reported, a figure that parallels the losses in other Protestant denominations.

The Rev. Eugene Pickett, President

Unitarian Universalist Association

Boston

Harsh Feelings

Reader David Hyun of the Korean American Coalition [July 11] complained that TIME'S report on Los Angeles, the new melting pot, was unfair to recent Korean immigrants. Perhaps Hyun should check into the practices of some Koreatown merchants. I lived and worked in that area for 20 years and continued to shop at the neighborhood market after it was bought by Koreans. One day I tried to pay for my groceries with a check.

"No checks," the clerk said.

I produced valid credentials.

"No checks," she insisted.

I pointed out that two customers ahead of me had paid with checks.

She agreed. "But they were Korean. We don't take checks from Americans." Edith Broughton Glendale, Calif.

Reader Ho Joung Ha [July 4] begins her letter saying, "As an American citizen, but first and last a Korean." That says it all.

Victor Koepfer Worcester, Mass. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.