Basa confuses Christianity with popular
culture
Irene Basa misses the mark in her column, “Mockery of
Christianity blasphemous” (Feb. 25) when she says people
don’t respect Christianity because they associate it with
popular American culture. People instead tend to associate it with
intrusive evangelism and threats of hellfire. While public
discussion is nice, evangelism and education have disparate methods
and goals. This behavior therefore makes many people jaded and
generates a backlash. Moreover, this behavior is the
domain of the religious right, which is in turn associated
with the restriction of social freedoms and the rejection of modern
science. Religious groups that don’t do these things
don’t get this backlash. Consider the mockery, then, more
against Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell than against Jesus
Christ.
Dan Fingal Fourth-year, cognitive science
Jones distorts membership numbers, funding
criteria
In response to Andrew Jones’ submission, “Torres,
Democrats distort truth in press release” (Feb. 26), I would
just like to say, on behalf of the Bruin Democrats, that our club
is hardly dead on campus. If we are basing membership on our e-mail
list alone ““ which seems to be what Jones is doing when he
claims that Bruin Republicans is 250 strong ““ then the Bruin
Democrats have the support of over 600 students on campus.
Most importantly, we object to Jones acting as a martyr in
claiming that he is being discriminated against because Bruin
Republicans do not get funding from USAC. The fact is that no
politically affiliated club receives school funds, including the
Bruin Democrats. Clubs like MEChA and the African Student Union
receive funding and office space not for being “racially
separatist” but for promoting cultural awareness and student
empowerment. Plus, these clubs are not exclusive; anyone is free to
join regardless of race or ethnicity.
Nice try Jones, on once again playing the victim and trying to
distort the truth, but you’re not fooling anybody.
Natasha Saggar Bruin Democrats
Census numbers prove Bruin Democrats wrong
Natasha Saggar’s and Kristina Meshelski’s piece on
behalf of Bruin Democrats, “Bruin Republicans’ sale
mocks equal opportunity” (Feb. 26) is simply
baffling.Â
They start out well enough, stating that the truly disadvantaged
students are those of lower socio-economic standing, those who
can’t afford “to attend a private school or pay upwards
of a thousand dollars for SAT tutoring.” But from there,
they make an erroneous leap claiming, “The majority of
lower-income families, especially in Southern California, are
racial and ethnic minorities, specifically African Americans and
Latinos.” This statement is incorrect, as anyone who
checked the last census could tell you.Â
While black and Latino populations have higher percentages of
people below the poverty line on the national level (22.7 percent
and 21.3 percent respectively), the number of whites below the
poverty line outnumber blacks and Latinos below the poverty line
put together (22.7 million white compared to 8.1 million blacks and
8.0 million Latinos). The truth of the matter is that most
people living below the poverty line (on the national level) are
white and nothing is being done to help them and to compensate for
their inability to go to private schools or receive SAT
tutoring.
By Saggar and Meshelski’s admission, affirmative action is
about righting socio-economic inequality; therefore it is baffling
to me that they support affirmative action in its current
form. Poverty is not a race issue; it is a socio-economic
issue. Special consideration should not be given to a
particular ethnicity, but to those who cannot afford the privileges
Saggar and Meshelski describe, regardless of their ethnicity.
Kevin Williams Graduate student, MIMG