‘Sex Toy Workshop at SUNY’

In your coverage of the featuring of pornography and sex devices at the forthcoming “Herstory” events at the State University of New York at Oswego, a student correctly observes that “if students don’t want to attend, they don’t have to …” [“SUNY to Feature Sex Toy Workshop at Feminist Event,” Bradley Hope, New York, February 24, 2006].

However, the $7,000 allocated for these antics, which many students may prefer not to subsidize, comes out of a forced student activity fee. Thus, students who don’t wish to participate do have to pay, whether they like it or not.

This coercive system should be replaced by an opt-out arrangement: Students who opted out of paying the student activity fee could be required to pay a fee to attend events of their choice; students who opted to pay the fee could attend all events without paying “at the door.”

In this way students could choose to participate in an Asian-American, College Republicans or Greens discussion group – or even to waste their time with Herstory blather. In short, the market should be allowed to work its way in student government and activities.

CANDACE DE RUSSY
Bronxville, N.Y.
Ms. de Russy, a State University of New York trustee and Hudson Institute fellow, writes on educational and cultural issues.

‘The Inner Lizard’

The New York Sun has been quick to present a more in-depth and well-rounded consideration of the Dubai Ports issue (including such articles as Amity Shlaes’s “The Inner Lizard”) than the knee-jerk reaction that first brought it to the fore, and that is indeed positive [Opinion, February 24, 2006].

It is important to question such things as the actual terms of the contract, and the role of the company vs. the role of the Coast Guard, and all this has been enlightening to learn about. But to the same extent, you must also question the United Arab Emirates’ record and not simply take for granted President Bush’s facile pronouncement that it has been a terrific “ally” in the war on terrorism.

The fact is, the UAE has for years been a strong supporter of such terrorist organizations as Hamas (if you take Hamas’s word for it), and UAE president’s father, Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan, on the eve of the 1991 Gulf War, labeled the U.S. the “greatest enemy” after Israel.

Moreover, I have read that he was an early proponent of waging economic war against the United States, back in the days of the post-Yom Kippur War oil embargo. So, before we entertain too quickly a backlash against those who might be making political hay from the uproar, let’s use this opportunity to ask all the right questions and see what we can learn about this important issue in its entirety.

DAVID A. KRONFELD
Manhattan

‘Shani Davis Showdown’

I would like to applaud another Olympian who won a gold medal at Turin, Italy, and that is Shani Davis, the first African-American man to win the individual winter gold [“Italy’s Fabris Spoils Hedrick-Davis Showdown in 1,500 Meters,” Sports, February 22, 2006].

Here is a man who as a child of 11 living in a suburb of Chicago would tell friends he would capture the gold in the Olympics someday, and that dream was finally realized. Yet he had a person in his life who pushed him at an early age: his mother Cherie Davis, a single mom, who started him at age 2 with roller-skating and, as he got older, made him run a mile before school.

He now has made his mother proud and has made America proud of his great achievement. My fellow Americans salute you as I do for a job well done.

FREDERICK R. BEDELL JR.
Bellerose, N.Y.