Regarding the April 27 Forum article "Pittsburgh's Giant Gender Gap": As executive director of a local nonprofit organization, I applaud the work of the Women and Girls Foundation of Western Pennsylvania in its efforts to bring attention to the issue of earnings equity for women. As a professional woman with a graduate degree and more than 30 years of experience in the social services field, I am gratified to see that my experiences striving to make a wage compensatory with my professional abilities are not unique.

I was struck by the statistic that women managers in the nonprofit field earned just 64 percent of the wages earned by men in 2000. I believe the reasons in the Pittsburgh area are more often the result of narrow and prejudiced viewpoints than the result of economic exigencies.

A few years ago, when I worked in a previous position as head of another local nonprofit, I requested a salary of $45,000. Several members of the board of directors met that request with anger. I was told that my request was inappropriate, that "women executive directors in Pittsburgh don't make that kind of money and they should not expect to." I was told that I should consider myself lucky to make $40,000.

Fortunately, I landed a position with a more enlightened board of directors who have tied my salary to my productivity and my ability to help my nonprofit meet its financial needs. Even so, I know that my earlier experience is not a unique one in the Pittsburgh area. Salaries for professional women will increase only when those who hold positions of power in the nonprofit field alter their outdated and prejudicial opinions or relinquish their roles of power.

VICTORIA RUSCITTO SIROCKMAN
Baldwin Borough

The writer is executive director of Lydia's Place.

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The specialty wine sales drop is not inexplicable ("Chairman's Selection, Specialty Wine Sales Drop Inexplicably," April 27).

The consistent drop in weekly revenues for wines in the Chairman's Selection program can be directly linked to the ouster of former Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board Chairman Jonathan Newman.

Last fall, Mr. Newman started his own specialty wine business serving more than 90 outlets in surrounding states. His expertise and reputation are undisputed, and he has diverted wines to his own business that might otherwise have been available for Pennsylvanians.

Face it, the Chairman's Selection is but a shell of what it was under his direction. By ousting Mr. Newman, the PLCB has created its own competition. A classic case of cause and effect. I hope Gov. Ed Rendell and crony Joe Conti are happy now.

ANDREW STUART
Squirrel Hill

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Wine from vending machines (oops, sorry, kiosks)? What marketing genius at the Liquor Control Board thought of this one ("New From the PLCB," April 27)? Maybe it was a 20-year-old summer intern who may be the child of some state legislator.

Clearly the board does not have a clue about how a real wine buyer goes about making a wine-buying decision. They don't understand that the potential buyer of a good wine spends significant time browsing through the racks and shelves, reading back labels and reviews and, where possible, sampling products before making a decision. I can only imagine the process that some bureaucratic committee will go through to reach a consensus on which products to stock in these kiosks. And then they say they plan to place these machines in a public place but somewhere where minors won't be able to see the product. How can that be possible and still be attractive to legal consumers?

On a related note, the LCB reported that sales of its Chairman's Selections and premium wines have "inexplicably" dropped. I don't see why they should be surprised. There has been virtually nothing new (at least in the stores I frequent) in these categories in several months. The few "Selections" left have been on the floor so long they're dusty and are pretty mediocre and/or overpriced. Essentially, there has been practically nothing worth buying in the Chairman's category. Seems to me that the LCB can't put two and two together without coming up with "inexplicable."

As for me, I will continue to purchase wine from professional merchants who understand and appreciate their product and their clientele. Life is too short to drink bad wine.

GEORGE YURGEC
South Park

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I swore off reading columnist Jack Kelly because of his predictable right-wing bias, but I had to read and respond to the claim in the subheadline that, "As voters learn more about Obama, the less they like him" ("The Man Behind the Curtain," April 27).

A more accurate assessment would be, "As voters continue to let themselves be manipulated by irrelevant distractions about Obama, the less they know about him."

If voters would actually make an attempt to learn meaningful information about the candidates on their own, rather than sitting back to be spoon-fed distortions and nonsense by partisan opposition, they might reach very different conclusions about the candidates and whom they favor.

For example, if everyone in this state had read Mr. Obama's impressive memoir, "Dreams From My Father," written when he was just 32 (before he got into politics), Mr. Obama would have won, not lost, Pennsylvania by 9 percent. Voters would have discovered Mr. Obama's real life story and values, including his years of organizing on behalf of poor and working people in Chicago. They would have realized that his message of "hope and change" is not a cynical campaign slogan (unlike George W. Bush's blatant lies about promising to be a "uniter, not a divider" or a "compassionate conservative") but rather one that has guided his life for decades.

KEN PERKINS
Squirrel Hill

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I take great issue with Jack Kelly's characterization of Sen. Barack Obama in his April 27 column, "The Man Behind the Curtain."

He writes that "Obama supporters who are upset with Mrs. Clinton are upset mostly because she is an obstacle in the path of the Anointed One." Anointed One? What Mr. Kelly (as well as many other commentators) seems to forget is that Sen. Clinton was all but named the nominee until just several months ago. Only after the Iowa caucuses did Sen. Obama emerge as a viable challenger in the eyes of the media.

Let us not forget that she was up in Pennsylvania by nearly 20 points several weeks before the primary, and Sen. Obama was able to nearly halve that lead. His supporters have every right to contend that Sen. Clinton should drop out to clear the way for Sen. Obama -- just as she and her supporters have every right to challenge this argument.

Additionally, interpreting her victory as "a near landslide" is misleading. With the support of Mayors Luke Ravenstahl and Michael Nutter, Gov. Ed Rendell and Allegheny County Chief Executive Dan Onorato, as well having significant name recognition and the Democratic machine behind her, Sen. Clinton saw her lead in Pennsylvania steadily shrink leading up to the primary. Why? It is because Sen. Obama led an unprecedented grass-roots campaign that mobilized thousands of voters and volunteers.

Employing such inaccurate phrases misleads readers and mischaracterizes the nature of the race for the Democratic nomination, adding more misunderstanding to an already complex campaign season.

JOHN JOYCE
Forest Hills

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I respectfully suggest it is an error for Bishop David A. Zubik to oppose love, agape, in any of its permutations ("Gay Marriage in Pennsylvania: We Must Protect Marriage Between a Man and a Woman as a Fundamental Institution of Society," April 27 Forum).

I understand it is easier to oppose gay marriage than to oppose what is genuinely the most destructive love-killing industry in America: the divorce and child custody industry. But perhaps our bishop might choose the more difficult path and help vastly more lives by working to eliminate the socially sanctioned suffering our children are caused by intergender fears and intergender hatred. Rather than attacking the easy, bright target gays make, perhaps Bishop Zubik might champion the cause of curing the misery that is now marriage in America.

Perhaps our bishop would help more were he to work harder to help heterosexuals learn to love each other, rather than targeting gay unions. Were our bishop to champion the cause of agape within marriage, we might finally begin to strangle off the child-consuming divorce industry, whose predatory packs of child psychologists, divorce lawyers, social workers and perfunctory judges create the overpowering incentives that lead to the steady demise of so many families and the despair of so many children.

So I urge Bishop Zubik to consider that it is a mistake to believe stopping same-sex civil unions will help the incurable pain in so many children's hearts and lives. Perhaps minister more forcefully to resolve the reality that men and women of flesh and bone are encouraged so strongly to loathe one another so severely, and less to pushing angels off the heads of pins.

JIM CARMINE
Penn Hills

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