Cultures not immune from judgment

Brooke McKean lays out an eloquent case in her editorial "Accepting cultural dichotomies" that ran April 6 but her conclusion — that she has no right to judge the appalling misogyny of the conservative subcultures of Africa or the Pashtun of Central Asia — is unsettling. The examples she gives, namely forced genital mutilation and the exchange of young girls as chattel, give us pause for good reason.

I appreciate McKean's respect for cultures that are distant and vulnerable, but culture does not have the power to alter the essential dignity of a human being. The cultural "structure" that says a woman is less worthy than her father or husband is grounded in tradition, but tradition is not its own justification. It must defend its claims to legitimacy by responding to criticism of its ideas and practices, if only so that we know precisely why traditionalists believe what they believe.

If McKean wishes to denounce clitoral circumcision as cruel and ridiculous, she has that right. Likewise, if the Pashtun believe that Western feminism is blasphemous and hypocritical, they too have the right to say so, and we have the responsibility to defend it.

Certainly, cultural background leads all of us to "register certain activities as wrong." But the faculty of reason is common to all human beings regardless of location or values, and reason must always guide the selective preservation of traditional practices. This is the common denominator that permits us, for instance, to determine that gender is an arbitrary distinction when we're talking about rights.

Chris Kaasa

Junior, political science

Art in Seattle gets more accessible

It's nice to see someone advocate the museum ("Hoping for SAM to bounce back," April 4). Toward the end of the article, you say, "For instance, wouldn't it be nice if Paul Allen would open up this rumored-legendary collection to the public for less than the $20 a head he charged for "Double-Take" at the EMP?"

As an art history minor, I had to go to this exhibit, and I found out that Paul Allen loaned the 28 pieces to the EMP. The curator told me that the museum declared the price and that Paul Allen wasn't getting the money. Of course, he is a businessman as well as philanthropist, so I'm sure there was an upside to his loan, but he did not set the ticket price, and the profits ultimately went elsewhere.

Camille Shawley

Senior, business administration

Water taken for granted at the UW

Water conservation is very important not only for fish and other aquatic organisms but for every living thing on the planet, including us. (America needs water awareness now," April 5). I'm taking CHEM 221 this quarter and had the painful experience of our first experiment, which involved running a faucet for 60 minutes. If you consider there are 186 students enrolled in that class and two students to an experiment, it was done at least 93 times. That seems a bit excessive, and I'm sure it happens all over campus: leaky faucets, water-inefficient toilets, broken toilets that continuously flush and sprinkler systems. Are we aware of how much water on campus is wasted? Is there anything we can do about it?

Students, faculty and staff at the UW should be aware of our water usage on campus. I know more can be done to conserve water at the UW. And in increasing awareness here we have the power to set an example for other organizations, universities and people to conserve this vital resource.

Amanda Thompson

Senior, Aquatic and Fishery Sciences

A misled decision to honor MLK with county name

The state's decision to amend history and "rename" King County in honor of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is a sad display of misguided appreciation.

Don't get me wrong. Yes, Dr. King was a fantastic visionary. Yes, King County should honor him with something more than an 8-mile slab of concrete. And yes, the county's original naming in honor of the 13th vice president, William Rufus deVane King, who spent his mere 45 days in office hacking up a lung on his deathbed, is a pretty pathetic story.

But to try to establish some kind of connection between our Northwest county and one of the world's greatest activists is meaningless. Was he born here? No. Did he have family here? Doubtful. Did this area have some profound influence on his morality and idealism? Not really. Pacific Northwesterners have to acknowledge the rich and textured, if not always perfect, events that have shaped our contemporary landscape and not continually redefine its already meager past.

If the state wanted to honor Dr. King, perhaps they should have used the half-million dollars it took to re-design the county logo on bettering our educational facilities, or at least something relevant to the Reverend's life-long fight for justice and equality. I do not believe that Dr. King's "dream" was to have his face plastered on every bus, construction and road sign in the greater Seattle area.

Josh Mahar

Senior, comparative religion and history