Students should vote on fee referendum

Brett Berry yet again shows that he is a fool. In his section of the "Issue of the Week," he encourages students to protest the activity fee election by not voting. Mr. Berry, by not voting you are putting yourself in the same category as those who don't vote because they don't care. No matter your reason, not voting is just saying "I'm going to let other people decide for me." Although I'm personally against the activity fee, I can still respect someone who votes for it, but I don't want to hear one word of complaint out of anyone who did not vote in this election, or any other for that matter, regardless of the reason.

Jereme Bintz
political science junior

Attraction a wholly subjective matter

In her April 5 column, Ms. Bonicillo ponders questions of sexuality and attraction. Throughout her introspection, she refers to external standards of attraction dictated by society at large and seems to wonder where she fits in. In response, I would argue that patterns of attraction are individually unique phenomena that may often defy classification. If one tries to wedge oneself squarely under labels such as "hetero," "homo" or "bi," he or she is deferring to the judgment of society at large and away from his or her own natural reactions or internal gut feelings (metrics much more likely to lead to happiness and contentment, if you ask me).

People are attracted to each other for a myriad of different reasons. Some people find belonging to a certain social class an attractive quality. For others, gender. Hell, maybe someone wants in your pants because your aunt was from Borneo and you wear purple clown shoes. Certain people may think others "shallow" or "narrow-minded," but desiring one trait more than another does not make that trait any better or worse for someone else. Attraction is an individual and largely subconscious thing; it's not something that can be dictated or enforced. And anyone (even yourself) who is trying to impose standards on you of who to be attracted to (or why) is out of line.

"Shouldn't attraction be more metaphysical, transcendent of the body? And shouldn't its only consideration be for the essence of the person? Shouldn't the quest for finding Îthe one' be blind not only to race, age and socio-economic status, but also to gender?" Attraction shouldn't be "should"-ed on so much. Attraction is what you feel inside, and whatever that may be at any given point in time is what's right for you.

Kevin Fisher
electrical and computer engineering graduate student

Fee would be good for student body

Upon looking at the front page of the April 6 Daily Wildcat, I found a few headlines blatantly against the activity fee. Then, on the opinions page, six out of six writers opposed the activity fee. Do I smell a bias? I think so. To my fellow students: Do not let this sway your opinion. Remember, most other schools have had activity fees in place long before us. For example, Westminster College charges a $240 activity fee for undergraduates. A small, $15 per semester charge would raise a large amount of money from the large number of students at the UA. As for "minority groups" feeling left out ÷ please. Heaven forbid that the money taken from everyone be meant for everyone. So if you like big-name concerts and want to get in free; would like to hear well-known, intelligent speakers and would like to catch some inexpensive movies, vote for the activity fee. But if you don't like any of those and $15 per semester is honestly going to throw you into debt, vote "yes" and have your part refunded. It's that simple. Don't let the Daily Wildcat's ever-present stance of "let's be as controversial as possible" discourage you from seeing something beneficial for us.

Scott Cooper
materials science and engineering and German studies freshman

Drag queens not the same as transvestites

This is in regards to Susan Bonicillo's column about the Pride Alliance's Gender Bender Ball. In the column, she referred to the drag queens as "transvestites." A transvestite is a man, usually heterosexual, who dresses in women's clothing in private for the purpose of sexual pleasure. Drag queens generally dress in women's clothing occasionally for the purpose of entertainment. They are not transvestites, and most would take great offense to being so called.

Jakob Schanzer
chemistry senior

Students must learn to live with greek system

Regarding the column by Sabrina Noble last Friday: Along with bashing every college student stereotype within her senioritis grasp, she concluded by skewering the greeks. I'm not singling Ms. Noble out. I've seen this contempt time and again in the Wildcat ÷ in the comics, the classmen-on-the-street interviews and the rails against Campus Magazine in these same letters to the editor.

Let me state for the record that I am not nor have I ever been a member of any fraternal organization ÷ and that these digs are nothing new at the UA. I was a resident of Cochise Hall in the early '80s, when I stumbled out of my room one morning to find a Hollywood crew filming a scene from "Revenge of the Nerds," an anti-greek morality play some 20 years ago.

My point is that the members this ostensibly elite group of silver-spooners and wannabes won't change because of anyone's criticism, and they won't have an epiphany after graduation. But they will be your supervisors in the workforce, less qualified and less passionate but better connected, the trophy wives and soccer moms who live next door in the suburbs, the shameless exhibitionists on your reality TV shows, the pilots behind the wheels of the SUVs that cut you off on the expressway.

Do yourself a favor and learn to live with them, now, when they're relatively innocuous in their larval stage. And in the meantime, spend your energies on things you might actually create a difference in, like the environment, politics, health care, welfare, racism, etc.

Doug Dusik
UA alumnus