Human rights and pride sponsoring: In response to Elizabeth Bommarito’s “Support or Advertising? Corporate sponsorship at Pride weekend raises questions” (June 28):
I recently encountered a window display at the Portland, OR downtown Nike store in support of gay-pride which is exciting because it reflects the company willingness to publicly support the queer community in its fight for the same rights, recognition, and legal protections as straight couples.
Human rights and pride sponsoring
In response to Elizabeth Bommarito’s “Support or Advertising? Corporate sponsorship at Pride weekend raises questions” (June 28):
I recently encountered a window display at the Portland, OR downtown Nike store in support of gay-pride which is exciting because it reflects the company willingness to publicly support the queer community in its fight for the same rights, recognition, and legal protections as straight couples. However, the decision by certain members of the queer community to align with Nike, a multinational corporation that is notorious for its reliance on sweatshop labor may prove antithetical to the liberatory aims of the GLBT community at large: to construct a society in which every citizen is respected. Consequently, Nike’s endorsement of gay-pride primarily serves to expand their consumer base of goods produced within an environment of questionable working conditions which is not empowering for either GLBT people or for industrial production workers. Instead, members of the GLBT community should seek sponsorship and alignment with other companies that provide safe working conditions, and good wages and benefits for their workers.
Mark Abell
A question of Nobility
As a PSU mom, I’m disgusted with my tax dollars and tuition money going to create a special Latino center. The goal of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was to create a color blind country in which people were judged by their character instead of their race. But now, leftist apparatchiks have managed to hijack our public institutions to further the goal of ethnic separatism fueled by the dogma of victimhood. The goal is to create a centralized regime that intentionally promotes ethnic strife as an excuse to control all aspects of society, just as it was in balkanized Eastern Europe. But you won’t find this fact taught in the leftist school system that’s part of our problem.
The students who staged a sit in at Wim Wiewel’s office need a dose of reality more than special centers, “immersion” dorms or easy registration for illegal aliens. Students from different backgrounds have gotten through college without special treatment for years. There’s nothing handicapping these Latino students except for a massive case of ethnic narcissism. I have a message for them. Few people except for ethnic agitators care about your Latino pride. Society has too many of its own problems to give you the special treatment you think you deserve. This country’s motto is “e pluribus unum,” which means out of the many, one. But because our school system has suppressed the noblest aspirations of our own culture, you’re the predictable result.
Lyneil Vandermolen
