As president of the New England Ferret Foster, Education and Recuse (NEFFER), I want to thank Ms. Young May Cha '04 for her upbeat feature on ferrets and the NEFFER organization in the Feb. 20 issue, "Dances with ferrets." I also want to gratefully acknowledge the volunteer efforts of the students (Lindsay Wishnick '03, Eric Osborne '04, Thomas Scott-Craig '04 and Maria Jones '05) who so generously gave of their time and labor on Saturday, Feb. 23, for our "Ferret Frolic in the Snow" fundraiser.
Their enthusiasm and willingness to assist with every aspect of the event (from setting up tables, to judging ferret costume competitions) was a major help to the program organizers. The ferrets benefitted, too, as they could be seen periodically romping on leashes after one student or another, or curling up in a convenient lap at other times throughout the day.
To witness the volunteer spirit in action as exemplified by these altruistic young people was extremely gratifying. It is a testimony to the quality of their generation when busy students like these can respond to an organization in need and donate their time and energies so unselfishly. We certainly appreciated their help and it was fun having them there!
Diane C. Wood
President NEFFER, Inc.
Column contains contradictions
Windy Booher, in her March 6 column "Giving the Feminist Movement a Bad Name," argues that Kate Stayman-London's '05 letter to the editor about "The Vagina Monologues" is objectively inaccurate and tainted with specious, subjective reasoning. Yet in the same column, she asserts that "The Vagina Monologues" cannot effectively spread awareness of sexual abuse and other female issues because it "preach[es] to the converted." In making such a sweeping, speculative statement, she falls into the same argumentative fallacy that she so vehemently condemns in Stayman-London's letter. She's also dead wrong. There were many guys (myself included) who expected the performance to be nothing more than a heavy dose of feminist ideology, but found it very mind-opening, entertaining and instructive.
William Greene '05