Letters to the Editor

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To the Editor:

Ladies and gentlemen, you are all chickens. Or pigs if you prefer. At least according to PETA's newest animal rights campaign, which compares livestock in slaughterhouses to concentration camp victims and claims that "to animals, all people are Nazis."

On Tuesday, in a grand scale display of bad taste (pun not intended), the group draped Perelman Quad in multiple wall-sized banners displaying the emaciated corpses of Nazi victims side-by-side with slaughtered animals. By using images of the Holocaust as a reminder of the atrocities inflicted upon millions of people during World War II, PETA hoped to bring to light the "similar" treatment of pigs, chickens and other livestock bred for consumption.

Without question, PETA has been outspoken in its well-known extremist position on animal rights. That kind of recognition has gained the group access to the tools of power, namely media and publicity. However, Tuesday's display demonstrated PETA's failure to effectively deliver its message. Surely, the group did not cause anyone to decide to become come vegetarian, but the radicalization of its position was able to make faculty and students cry in anguish.

I have a hard time believing PETA's passion and zeal to be sincere: why waste such recognition and publicity in eliciting outrage, upset and tears? As an observant Jew following the laws of kashrut, which call for the strictest adherence to the most humane means of slaughter, I do not disagree with PETA's underlying advocacy for animal rights. In fact, I believe it to be totally reasonable.

But any message taken to its hyperbolic extreme, any message trivializing the systematic, senseless and inhumane murder of millions of people solely because of their race, religion or sexual orientation by comparing them to animals bred for consumption is offensive, atrocious, nauseating and morally abhorrent.

This was not effective or passionate lobbying on behalf of a cause, nor was it a demonstration meant to breed pity for the voiceless. This was sensationalism and nothing more. Not only did the PETA demonstrators fail to have their message heard, they turned many people off to the undisputed legitimacy of animal rights.

About the only thing they elicited yesterday was indignation. That, and my sudden desire for a hamburger.

Melanie Mund College '04

Groupthink mentality

To the Editor:

Rather than remaining "troubled," Yewande Fapohunda should compare the academic qualifications of the incoming legacies to that of incoming affirmative action students ("Students see legacy as aff. action," DP, 4/9/03). She would discover that the legacy students are overwhelmingly more academically qualified. Counter to the goals of Fapohunda, things like grades and SATs are still used in deciding which candidates to admit.

Julia Lee says that "race-based affirmative action promotes diversity." I will afford Lee the benefit of the doubt and suggest that she was deceived by the ongoing debate over Michigan's admission policies. I do not blame her for getting deceived by Michigan's policies regarding admission; they are purposefully deceiving. Michigan claims not to use racial quotas (which are specifically outlawed by the Constitution), while a careful review of its system reveals a concretized quota-mentality.

At the center of this mentality is the belief that the most telling characteristic about an applicant is his race. Michigan does not believe in admitting individuals but rather, searches for racial representatives. This policy gives credence to the ugly, racist mantra that all members of particular racial groups think identically -- that a person's race determines what that person thinks.

Michigan alibis this quota-based policy by claiming to seek a diversity of opinion. But I have news for Michigan: A quota for Jewish or black students does not translate into a representation of Jewish or black ideas.

Andrew Geier Yale University '03

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