Letters to the Editor

Cigarettes affect more than the smoker

In his column (“Hey Mom, can I finally buy a smoke?” Feb. 28), Isaac Gonzalez implies that, as an overprotective parent, Associated Students UCLA is trying to prevent students from smoking by refusing to sell cigarettes on campus.

Well, Mr. Gonzalez, no offense to you, but you are not the only one affected when you smoke cigarettes.

According to the American Cancer Society, secondhand smoke accounts for “about 3,400 lung-cancer deaths in nonsmoking adults” in the United States.

The 2006 U.S. Surgeon General’s Report indicated that “exposure of adults to secondhand smoke has immediate adverse effects on the cardiovascular system and causes coronary heart disease and lung cancer.”

Comparing “copious amounts of unhealthy junk food” as having “negative repercussions on the physiques of young coeds” to cigarette smoke is therefore slightly disturbing.

Maybe you should realize that if you can’t make the walk down to Le Conte because of breathing problems, you shouldn’t be having that cigarette after all.

Brittany Maxwell

Third-year, Design | Media Arts

Speaker series fails to include all voices

Undergraduate Students Association Council General Representative Samer Araabi’s response (“Controversial debate is not anti-American,” March 6) to David Lazar’s column on the use of student fees to fund domestic terrorists (“Your money funds terror,” Feb. 27) sidesteps the issues that Lazar raised in his column.

By using our student fees to fund a woman who supports César Chávez and a man who supported a bomb-making Web site, Araabi is using our fees to fund people who are anti-American.

People who don’t support capitalism also spoke at the event but, ironically, didn’t mind accepting thousands of dollars for their speeches.

Being liberal doesn’t make you anti-American, and being anti-war doesn’t make you a liberal.

There are many liberals and conservatives alike who criticize our government but do not support its destruction.

If Araabi believes we benefit from dialogue from all sides of the political spectrum, then why has there been no conservative voice in the speaker series?

Lori Park

Third-year, history

Discrimination not an issue in Stanton case

Katie Strickland’s column (“Discrimination of any kind unacceptable,” March 7) makes an empty argument in her critique of discrimination.

Steve Stanton, the city manager of Largo, Fla., is not the subject of discrimination. Rather, he is doing much more than just “wearing a dress,” as Strickland euphemizes.

Stanton’s decision to undergo a sex-change operation marks a huge shift in his values. He is clearly not who the people of Largo voted into office.

The other representatives of Largo have a duty as representatives of their constituents to remove any office holder who has deceived his own people about who he is.

I am sure the people of Largo would not have voted for Steve Stanton if he had run as a transgendered individual. That is not discrimination; it is the result of people voting for individuals with their same core values. It’s the same reason why Democrats don’t usually vote for Republicans and vice versa.

Using the bigoted statements of Ann Coulter does not make this any less true.

David Montoya,

UCLA School of Law student

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