Forum should stop allowing intolerance seem superior

Dear Editor:

I am writing in response to the fact that Leslie Arntz still has a column in the Daily Kent Stater. I, as well as several others whom I speak with on a regular basis, feel that her ‘view’ is a large waste of time and space. She never has a positive viewpoint, and she always manages to make fun of a minority or two in all of her articles. So far, she has written that George Bush is wonderful (but his signs should be taken down out of modesty), that owning a gun is wonderful, that humanists (as well as homosexuals) are the downfall of society, that people should wash their hands constantly and that you should only dress like her if you were born on a farm. The point of the forum page is to show various viewpoints on issues in today’s world. It is not to try and make close-minded people who grew up on a farm and enjoy the scent of feces sound somehow superior to everyone else on the planet. Perhaps you should get a few journalists who are NOT freshman and who have actually taken a few journalism classes. Because if Leslie is going to actually get a job writing for a magazine, it will probably be for a gun or farming magazine, rather than a news or political magazine. Or maybe, if she is lucky, she can get a job writing those little pamphlets for the Church of Kent. Who knows, all that I do know is that I do not appreciate having a section of the paper devoted to her nonsense.

Shawn Szymecki

Sophomore biology major

Blaming women for dropping company profit is ludicrous

Dear Editor:

In response to Mr. White’s April 11 letter to the editor, “Women do earn less; it is for legitimate reasons” — as an adult student returning to college after working in the corporate world for almost a decade and as a mother, I was dismayed to read such drivel. I thought I was in 1975, not 2005. He claims his arguments are logical; they are anything but.

Some of his points are women take time off for doctor visits and sick children. Men also take time off, especially in the ever-increasing world of split parenting and double-working parents. A man is just as capable of picking up his sick child from school or taking him or her to the dentist. Most companies have paid-time-off benefits. Employees who use this are not costing the company anything that is not already budgeted.

He also states that maternity leave is a significant amount of lost work. Having gone through childbirth, I can guarantee that we would gladly allow men to trade off with us. Using maternity leave as an argument holds little water when it is something we cannot biologically change. Many companies do not give paid maternity leave. The Family Medical Leave Act ensures job protection for up to 12 weeks but does not guarantee paid leave. No argument is made if a man needed medically-related time off. Would we scoff at men who utilized their benefits packages? Women should just “pop the kid out” and rush back to work. Damn us for wanting to “live comfortable lives” by getting medical recuperation time after childbirth! Many companies also give paternity leave. Fathers are entitled to sharing in the experience of having a child.

The argument that for each woman hired, the expense for sexual harassment claims increases is ludicrous. We should be focusing on the illegal behavior of the harasser instead of the victim of harassment — regardless of their gender.

I would wager that the exorbitant amount of predominantly male CEO salaries’ takes up more company profit than that of women taking maternity leave. The only “tired old argument” I see is Mr. White’s sexist attitude and misinformed conclusions.

Heidi M. Bauer

Undergraduate student in English