Letters to the editor

Anger and sadness warrants retaliation\n"I will not go to war. I cannot kill anyone, and I don't wish to try." -- Jack M. Silverstein ("Making the right decision," Oct. 3).\nDon't worry, you will not have to go to war. You can stay in the dorm room that your parents so kindly provide for you and continue to write columns agonizing about what "we" should do concerning the heinous attack of Sept. 11. \nYou can do this while our servicemen bravely and diligently attempt to prevent such attacks from happening again. After class, you can also feel free to attend protest meetings and criticize the "excessive patriotism" which you find so irritating. \nAlso feel free to make fun of our president and write chalk messages on the sidewalk explaining to all of your less informed fellow students that the attack was justified by American arrogant foreign policy and that we should try to understand the followers of radical militant Islam -- after all, maybe the attack wouldn't have happened with a little more understanding. Maybe the worlds' diverse assortment of misunderstood third-world dictators, religious fanatics, drug traffickers, mass-murderers and extortionists wouldn't be such bad guys if we would only try to understand their points of view and initiate some positive dialogue about what America can do for them. \nI don't quite think that the families of the more than 7,000 murdered innocents would agree with you, but you can say and think what you like in this country -- freedom of speech is just one of the benefits of being an American.\nMatt Cohen\nJunior\nInsensitive advertising\nI am writing in regards to your Oct. 3 issue. Hypocritical is the only word that comes to my mind. You support the Take Back the Night event, praise its purpose, and then place large advertisements in the same issue portraying the idea that women, are only objects. The terms across the girls in the ads state, "Use Me; Share Me; Enter Me." The smaller type in one ad states, "Watch me. Catch me. Play me. Use me anytime you like" (page 3). Is this an ad for a Walkman? Screen saver? I cannot figure it out! I do not see anything that looks like it plays music! The only thing these advertisements do are reinforce the idea that women are sex figures and comparable to the object the advertisement is selling. \nTake Back the Night is a time to remember those women who have been victims of violence. The event has many supporters such as Middle Way House, Planned Parenthood, Bloomington's National Organization for Women, IUSA, IU's Office for Women's Affairs, Campus for Choice, Women's Student Association and Sexual Assault Crisis Services. I am sure these organizations would not support an ad that has a picture of a woman stating, "Use Me." \nThe IDS owes all the supporters of Take Back the Night and females at this University an apology, an apology for supporting sexist advertising. \nI am aware that these ads probably brought in a few thousand dollars that will pay many salaries at the IDS for the week. I am aware that the major people in charge of approving ads for publication at the IDS are all women. \nBut, is the IDS aware of the negative message of these advertisements? In the future, to avoid blatant hypocrisy, the paper needs to make a unanimous decision of what they support -- protesting violence against women or portraying women as sex objects? \nRebecca Goldstein\nSenior\nEvents sponsored by University should be balanced\nThe recent meetings on campus entitled "Jerusalem Women Speak" raises some serious questions as to the propriety of publicly funded university departments to sponsor meetings that present a very biased and unbalanced political message to the student body.\nThis is what precisely happened when the Religious Studies, Near East Languages and Cultures and Philosophy departments became local sponsors of these meetings, of which two were held on campus.\nThe Committee for Peace in the Middle East, another local sponsor, is well-known for its anti-Israel bias going back many years. The national organization, Partners for Peace, was unknown to me until I visited its Web site (www.partnersforpeace.org), and my visit confirmed the anti-Israel bias replete on their site.\nOrganizations like this have a perfect right to spend their money and speak their piece; but to do so with the endorsement and sponsorship of University departments that I would assume allocated some of their discretionary funds for this purpose, is just plain wrong. There was no objectivity or balance to these meetings, and by sponsoring such meetings the named academic departments are giving a message of bias to the public that does not belong in a university environment.\nRobert R. Goldstein\nAlumnus