Letters

Criticize, but don’t miss the big
picture

Both Ziv Kaufman and Scott Anderson have a point. Kaufman argues
that it’s absurd to criticize Israel when its record on human
rights, democracy, and the rule of law is superior to any state in
the region.

Anderson replies that it’s fair game to criticize any
government that does something wrong. He asks, “Do you mean
to insinuate that if a person supports Palestinian rights, they
therefore support Arab regime atrocities?” Well, I hope not.
And the government of Israel has done some things of which I highly
disapprove. But surely it’s a question of proportion? The
United States does oodles of business with Saudi Arabia, whose
human rights record is lousy. If we criticize Israel,
shouldn’t we criticize Saudi Arabia more? If you demand that
U.S. companies “divest” from Israel, what about the
rest of the region? And by the way, if we believe that the
Palestinians have a right to a state on the greater part of the
West Bank and Gaza, shouldn’t we criticize Arafat first,
since he was offered a state on all of Gaza and more than 95% of
the West Bank in a contiguous block of territory, with half of
Jerusalem too, and rejected it? Criticize Israel all you like–just
maintain a sense of proportion.

Allan Tulchin Clark Memorial Library

Forum critics should be informed

The article “Forums raise monitoring questions”
(Oct. 15) unjustly and unfairly portrayed the users of the forum
and has since sent our small “community” into outrage.
Just like any other community, the forum has built up its own
subculture and dialect with each board having its own
“˜personality.’ Yet Mignot seemed to only focus on a
single board: “The Social Corner,” where the main
purpose is to joke around and make friends, while totally
disregarding the other boards whose purposes are well-defined
academically and intellectually.

Furthermore, Mignot stated that: “Another post has one
forum user referring to a fellow user as “˜a
whore.'” Firstly, the fact that he referred to a thread
as a post shows that he had not researched his topic fully.
Secondly, if he had read at least three posts down on that thread
(a thread that consequently has roughly 290 posts currently), he
would have instantly understood that the word whore is a sign of
high regard within our community.

Finally, the issue of censorship concerns me greatly because if
we are given a forum to express ourselves, who is to judge to what
degree we are able to? Is this not a college campus? Is college not
about discovering, talking and debating about things that you
otherwise would not in the “real world?” To deny us our
rights to freedom of speech is to deny the foundations on which the
institution of the university was founded.

Heather Barahmand Third-year, women’s
studies

Infertile couples ask too much of egg
donors

This letter is meant to express how extremely tired and outraged
I am at the egg/sperm donor ads in the Daily Bruin. These
infertile, generally affluent, couples claim to be desperate to
have a child, but their self-admitted selectivity points to
anything but desperation. The context of these ads tells a story of
a couple who is willing to go to great lengths and pay any price to
have the “perfect” child.

As a human being my heart goes out to people cannot have
children of their own. After all, reproduction is part of our human
existence.

But there are enough orphaned children to satisfy any infertile
couple’s need for a child. What alarms me is that the
couple’s selectivity clearly points to the fact that it wants
the “perfect child.” The couple bases the value of a
potential child on such frivolous things as skin color, hair color,
and height. Therefore, an egg given to such a couple is already
under pressure to perform before it is even a zygote. Granted,
there is no such thing as a perfect parent. But any person who
wants to become a parent must understand that you cannot expect any
child to grow up into a healthy, happy and balanced individual if
its parents pressure it to be perfect. Such selectivity indicates
the couple’s reasons for parenting are superficial at best,
and superficial motivation leads to superficial parents who raise
unbalanced, superficial people, regardless of “how
good” the initial egg is.

If you say you are desperate for a child, go adopt one.
Don’t take advantage of my financial situation in college to
satisfy your Dr. Frankenstein-like need for a perfect child.
Because in doing so you become a predator, not a parent, to my eggs
and me.

Antonia Jordan Second-year, English

A pledge to students

Regarding Friday’s editorial (“Neal needs to focus
on local dilemmas”), as external vice president I do not look
for sympathy for the wonderful opportunities that I have to meet
students throughout the state, country, and now from all areas of
the globe. 

USAC represents all undergraduate students on this campus,
including those from abroad who have chosen the United States as
their place to study. Quite possibly when someone in politics
makes a campaign promise (as I did to expand my office to
international levels) and keeps it, it may seem odd to the general
public. With students aware and an endorsement last spring from the
Daily Bruin, I went forward with my plans to continue the advocacy
efforts I have engaged in for the last three years. 

If you reexamine this paper over the last few weeks you will see
the numerous efforts that I and the various coalitions I work with
have been engaged in to advance the needs of UCLA
students. More recently my office has been a serious
participant in the Get Out The Vote Efforts. I even went to
Washington, D.C., to be trained formally in the most effective ways
to get students registered and out to the polls.

In the future, I will take a trip to Ghana, and I will inform
students of the numerous things that I will, without a doubt, learn
there. It’s my privilege to represent not only UCLA students
but also all students who have taken increased interest in other
parts of the world.

Change is good. I look forward to finding more creative and
effective ways of reaching students. I hope this paper as well as
the larger student body will give me insight on how best to reach
my constituents.

Christopher R. Neal 2002-2003 USA EVP