Letters to the editor

Supporting intifada doesn’t support
justice

Though the college campus functions as a marketplace for ideas,
when it comes to Justice for Palestine Week, I’m not buying
it. Hearing students from a prestigious university yell “long
live the intifada” is a disturbing trend. Though it
technically means “uprising,” the word intifada
undeniably connotes the justification of terrorist attacks
targeting civilian populations through suicide bombings.

While students have the right to say whatever they want, if a
group seeks justice they should support only legitimate means of
resistance. Perhaps, if we’re interested in justice,
Palestinian sympathizers should call for an end to Israeli
occupation or U.S. foreign aid, instead of glorifying unrestrained
brutality.

Eric Nusinow Third-year, political science

Promoting anal sex crosses the line

By encouraging Daily Bruin readers to explore anal sex
(“Find pleasure in exploring anal sex,” April 18), Lara
Loewenstein has completely crossed the line of decency and any
healthy sexual exploration. What’s next ““ get high on
ecstasy or meth and have sex? Go to sex clubs or houses for sex?
Have orgies to explore sex? What exactly is she trying to
accomplish with these articles?

Rachel Lathy Campus Human Resources

Honors Program offers unique opportunities

As a recent graduate of UCLA’s College Honors Program, I
would like to respond to Daniel Miller’s latest column
(“Honors Program isn’t all it’s cracked up to
be,” April 18), which does not paint an accurate picture of a
very valuable and rich program at UCLA.

I can recall distinctly every Honors Collegium class I took and
every Honors Contract I completed. The Honors Program, by allowing
me to take classes I would normally overlook, expanded my views and
my intellect at a crucial time in my personal development. By
taking courses outside of my discipline, I was forced to view the
world through different lenses, an experience that is not easily
duplicated outside of the program.

Miller opines that “being in the College Honors Program
doesn’t help you get into graduate school or a job,”
but this could not be further from the truth. Having gone through
several job interviews for nonacademic fields, I can attest that
having College Honors on one’s diploma is valuable, and does
not require further explanation to most people.

What is noteworthy about Miller’s article is his seeming
inability to find students who are positive about the Honors
Program. I can only credit this to his lack of initiative, as many
enthusiastic, driven students walked with me at the Honors
Graduation in 2003, and I am confident that UCLA is still graced by
many who see the value in this little gem.

Howard I. Chernin UCLA alumnus

Views of left severely misguided,
disturbing

Arthur Lechtholz-Zey’s submission in April 12’s
Viewpoint section, “Leftist ideas counter free state,”
was quite disturbing. Lechtholz-Zey describes the left as demanding
“control over private, consensual behavior.” Yup,
that’s us ““ always limiting women’s right to
choose, people’s choice of euthanasia, and homosexuals’
right to get married.

Lechtholz-Zey goes on to say that “freedom requires
individual autonomy, not edicts from a majority or a
dictator.” First of all, trivially clumping democracy and
dictatorship into the same class is not the basis of a sound
argument. Secondly, what form of government would Lechtholz-Zey
support? Anarchism?

The submission also suggests opening up a history book, but
perhaps I should suggest opening up a philosophy book. One must
learn the distinction between positive and negative liberty before
writing about the left limiting freedom. Lechtholz-Zey’s view
of freedom, negative liberty, is one in which people are free to
act as they please with no external forces (government) to either
hinder or help them.

As good as this idea of freedom sounds, especially compared to a
totalitarian regime, there is a second school of thought that
proposes another form of freedom ““ positive liberty. Under
positive liberty, people are provided with what are called
“positive rights” ““ things such as education,
pension, health care or the means to attain them.

Lechtholz-Zey would have you believe that such a form of
government has totalitarian undertones, when in fact there is a
great difference between a government providing positive rights to
its citizens and a government presuming to make their decisions for
them.

The article ends with Lechtholz-Zey ordering the left to
“earn the title “˜liberal'” before
suggesting “its own solutions to social ills.” Sorry,
but the left does not need to earn any title from someone with a
limited view of liberty before suggesting solutions to social,
economic or political ills.

Tom Berger Fifth-year, aerospace
engineering