The Humane Society of the United States is pleased to hear that the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center is improving their reporting of animal pain and distress (The Daily Cardinal, \UW-Madison alters policies on primate cruelty in research,"" Nov. 12). After years of pressure by The HSUS, Stop Animal Exploitation Now!, Alliance for Animals and others, UW has finally come to recognize that animal suffering in research is of public concern. But what about the other thousands of animals, such as cats, dogs and guinea pigs used in research at UW-Madison? This improved reporting should be applied to all animal research labs on campus.
I'd like to say thanks for writing your article, ""Primate center faces investigation for deaths."" I wish there were more people like Budkie who were willing to stand up for the animals. Also, I wish there were more papers like yours who were willing to write on controversial subjects like this. I hope to see more. So, thanks.
I agree that something has to be done about the enormous amounts of apathy regarding homelessness in this country and on this campus, but I do not think that camping out with high-end sleeping bags and Chex Mix is the way to go.
I respect the work done by WisPIRG and Habitat For Humanity very much, but demonstrations like this draw more attention to the folks demonstrating than the actual issues at hand. It also seems to reveal the massive ignorance surrounding such issues. Sleeping on the street is only part of being ""homeless"" in this country. The campers on Library Mall did not have to deal with the discrimination and prejudice-both verbal and non-verbal-that the homeless population faces every day.
I also find it disrespectful to claim that spending one night on the street (with luxuries unknown to many homeless people) gives one ""an appreciation for the situations homeless people face."" I doubt that students camping out for basketball tickets in front of the Kohl Center reached such an enlightened state, and I seriously reject the claim that the Library Mall campers did so either. As a white female, I could use makeup to darken my skin and wander through the streets of Madison undoubtedly attracting attention, but in no way would I actually be able to appreciate what it is to be a woman of color.
It is always very tempting to be captured by the glamour of demonstrating for a cause we believe in, but we should always carefully examine the messages we are sending.
I am a UW alumni and I returned to Madison to go to the UW and Purdue Homecoming game. I did not sit in the student section, and I wish I had because it would have been much better, I believe. My boyfriend and I sat in front of a group of very drunk, very rowdy, middle aged, non-student UW fans. They were cursing and swearing the whole game, heckling two Purdue fans seated near them, drinking from small liquor bottles and dropping their drinks on the people in front of them, including me.
They were finally escorted out by security in the third quarter, but not before they ruined the game for me and all the people around them. It was an experience no one should have to sit through, and it was not because of the students.
I was a student at UW-Madison, and I sat in the student section for four years of football games. I saw the occasional heckling of the visiting team by students, but more often than not it is the older crowd, men, very drunk, in their 30s or older, trying to relive their youth. Of course, people will always blame the students, but I don't think it's fair in this case. I think that whatever steps are taken to create a new fan policy, it must be a ""fan"" policy, and not just targeted at students. The students of UW-Madison, overall, take great pride in their school. It is the visiting people who often give the students a bad rap.
I want to praise the Governor for vetoing the ""Defense of Marriage Act,"" and am grateful that the Assembly did not override it. I am currently a social work student at the UW-Madison and was against the bill that attempts to limit Wisconsin marriage to only male/female couples. Furthermore, I believe it is time that Wisconsin go a step further in its progressive tradition of politics and be a leader in the United States in making same-sex marriages legal.
Not only was Bill AB 475 (SB 233) redundant to our current state law of marriage, it was a divisive bill that targets a certain population: LGBTs by virtue of exclusion. A foundational value of the National Association of Social Workers is that of social justice. Currently, the 8,000-plus same-sex couples in Wisconsin who admitted living together on the last census are unjustly discriminated against, on the basis of sexual orientation, by being denied the same rights as their heterosexual counterparts. Members of our human family here in Wisconsin do not have equal access to all internationally recognized human rights, such as: the right to be next-of-kin, share/enjoy housing in peace, equitable tax and benefit treatment, child custody, and matters of personal health, finance and civic life. Contrast this with our state's northern European roots where several countries there have legalized marriage and guarantee economic benefits to couples both with and without children.
Our children are another reason why same-sex marriage needs to be legalized. Over the last two decades, researchers have published a host of studies which have concluded that ""No important differences exist between children raised by homosexual parents and children raised by heterosexual parents (NY Times, July 17, 2001)."" However, children remain vulnerable if their parents-who want to marry and provide that stability-are not afforded joint parenting rights that other committed couples enjoy.
Finally, it is worth pointing out that maturity, love and commitment-foundations of marriage-are blind to sexual orientation. If supporters of the ""Defense of Marriage Act"" were serious about what they say they are-defending the sanctity of marriage-then wouldn't we see a bill that addressed true threats to marriage such as the high divorce rate in this country, or the appalling incidence of domestic violence? I hope with the defeat of AB 475, ignorance and prejudice has also been defeated in this current Wisconsin legislature. I would like to see a return to our progressive political tradition and see Wisconsin as a national leader in championing equal human rights to all its citizens.
