‘No Question About It’

When William F. Buckley Jr. addressed the Vatican ban on homosexual candidates to the priesthood, his focus was narrowly limited to the secondary question of whether homosexual tendencies are deeply rooted or transitory [“No Question About It,” Opinion, December 5, 2005].

The question of “universal concern” that he alludes to is our understanding and definition of human nature, this being something philosophers such as Thomas Aquinas have wrestled with, and, more recently, Edith Stein of Germany, who studied phenomenology under Edmund Husserl.

Stein focused especially on the nature and role of women in modern society and was extremely cautious in approaching this subject, while marshaling all the disciplines of anthropology, sociology, and the psychosomatic physiology that make women uniquely distinct from men.

Too many politicians, educators, judges, and ideologues have assigned themselves the task of defining human relationships and human nature, as if personal opinion, popular demand, majority vote, or judicial fiat determine what it means to be human, and it looks as if Mr. Buckley has joined them.

Just who has the final say, perhaps, is the real question facing all of us.

ROBERT J. BONSIGNORE
Brooklyn

‘N.Y. Rent Laws’

“N.Y. Rent Laws Enabling Out-of-Town Luxury” takes the cases of a minute number of individuals who may be abusing rent regulation and uses them as a reason to destroy a valuable program [David Lombino, Page 1, December 5, 2005].

The article claims, with no documentation except an unsubstantiated quote from a landlord, that “thousands” of New Yorkers are using the money they save on rent stabilized or rent-controlled apartments to buy vacation homes.

Even if, for the sake of argument, we agreed that this accurately described 2,000 or even 5,000 people, it would still represent an infinitesimal percentage of rent-regulated tenants. Two thousand, for example, would amount to less than half of one percent of all rent regulated tenants, and even 5,000 would only amount to slightly over half of one percent.

The article, especially combined with your editorial calling for an end to rent regulation [“Boomerang,” December 5], was clearly intended to be an assault on a program that is desperately needed by hundreds of thousands of New York tenants. Rent Regulation keeps New York City diverse and keeps low-income people from homelessness. Why would someone want to get rid of a program like that?

JUMAANE D. WILLIAMS
Executive Director
New York State Tenants & Neighbors
www.tandn.org
Manhattan

‘Something Old, Something Blue’

Contrary to the lead in your architecture column yesterday [“Something Old, Something Blue,” James Gardner, Arts & Letters, December 8,2005],all preservationists are not grumbling about plans to restore and reuse Eero Saarinen’s landmark TWA terminal. Preservationists are not monolithic.

The Landmarks Conservancy has always believed that adaptive reuse is the answer to an iconic building that can no longer serve as an airline terminal. We have consistently supported, and tried to be helpful to, the Port Authority’s efforts in this regard.

PEG BREEN
President
Landmarks Conservancy
www.nylandmarks.org
Manhattan

‘Unending Mystery’

My reply to Robert J. Samuel son is that we are on a gold standard. In fact, as long as gold is freely traded, it is impossible not to be on a gold standard [“Unending Mystery,” Opinion, December 7, 2005].

We are not on a fixed-rate gold standard, since we found, as in 1929, that a fixed-rate gold standard is too restrictive and causes depressions. However, we are on a floating-rate gold standard.

When people are happy with the dollar (and now the Euro too), gold goes nowhere. When gold rises, it says people skittish on the dollar.

ALAN GOULD
Brooklyn

‘Peru Demands Yale Artifacts’

In October, I visited the main archaeology museum and the national museum of art in Lima [“Peru Demands Yale Return Machu Picchu Artifacts,” Rich Vecchio, Foreign, December 1, 2005].

In both places, security was scanty and climate control nonexistent. Doors and windows in galleries were wide open to Lima’s filthy air, without even a screen to keep out insects.

Yale should not send the Machu Picchu artifacts to a country that will not take good care of them.

SAMUEL O.J. SPIVY
Manhattan

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