Male athletes should get equal opportunity

Weak arguments regarding Title IX, by Alissa Schneider (Letters, March 15), are misleading and irrelevant.

Her first argument claims that football teams "soak" up a large amount of school funds (by the way, I never mentioned football in my original letter). She goes on to plea, "Do not discount female athletes and the contributions they make to university sports." Nationally, football makes enough money to cover all women's sports, which in general lose money. In many colleges, the proceeds from football pay for women's athletics. This significant contribution is overlooked by Schnieder, and it also doesn't include men's basketball and baseball, which are also large revenue generators.

She goes on to say that Title IX "means everything to the participating women." I never mentioned that it wasn't important. I completely agree that women deserve the same opportunities as men, but Schneider fails to recognize a very important fact: More males are interested in competitive sports than females, almost 4-to-1, so allocating positions based on gender equity is unfair to men.

Simply put: If a college allocates positions for 40 male and 40 female swimmers, but only 10 female swimmers show interest, then it would be unfair to eliminate the 30 male positions, and how do eliminating positions for men help women gain interest in competing?

Women are not equal to men, and men are not equal to women. We are different in general as we are as individuals. It is impossible that there will ever be universal equality, but there is room for fairness. Giving equal opportunity to both men and women based on interest would be fair.

Philippine veterans don't deserve benefits

I take exception to your April 9 editorial "Philippine veterans deserve U.S. benefits." Their cry is "I fought for your country." Are they telling me that they would not have fought the Japanese for invading their country if the United States had not been there? As a former Department of Veterans Affairs employee, here are some facts:

After World War II, Congress gave the Philippine government millions of dollars to care for Philippine veterans. If a veteran of the Philippines received an injury or illness related to service in the U.S. Army, he is compensated and can receive medical treatment for this injury or illness. What they want is medical treatment because of age and pension benefits and medical treatment at VA medical facilities when they arrive in the United States.

There are millions of American veterans who do not receive medical treatment or pension benefits from the VA because of income and no service-connected disabilities. The VA is pushed to limits just to provide medical treatment to service-connected disabled veterans of the U.S forces at the present.

Do you think that the Japanese government is paying those Philippine veterans who fought for their side or providing healthcare? I think not.

'Nation within nation' is the wrong way to go

All of my 65 years I have wondered what the "nation within a nation" is all about. The only thing that has become apparent is that it is another welfare system for a group of people who are not willing to become a real citizen participant of the U.S.A. All land was stolen from someone. Our history is one of conqueror.

Any legislation that separates citizens into classes or groups is counterproductive. We only continue to marginalize our society.

We should put our energies into providing better education, healthcare, property rights, etc., to all our citizens, not continue to create classes of citizenship.

I would encourage you to work to eliminate the Bureau of Indian Affairs, give the reservation lands to the people who currently occupy them, and get on with being One Nation Under God.

Sen. Kanno did good to help out little guy

I am wondering about the ado made with reference to Sen. Brian Kanno. I am befuddled by the concern.

If a person is terminated from his job, shouldn't he know the allegation and who made it? That would give him the opportunity to confront the accusation. Isn't that what we would want? Trial by hearsay sounds un-American. Also, why wouldn't Norwegian Cruise Line pay for his transport back to Hawai'i? His presence in California was a result of his employment, so it would seem logical and fair that the cruise line return him to his domicile.

I applaud Mr. Kanno's concern for the little people. So often our representatives are there for the power brokers and we have no one to express our concerns. Thank you, Mr. Kanno.

Cell phones hazardous

A law is needed to control cell phone use in cars. I observed a young man driving a manual transmission car with a cell phone stuck in his right ear being held with his right hand shifting, signaling, steering and talking at the same time. His traffic awareness was minimal and definitely a road hazard.