This is in response to Liz King’s article, “Working hard for

this money,” printed in the Monday edition of The Collegian. I

first must commend Ms. King on the basis of her article; raising

awareness of the gender gap that, while it is slowly decreasing,

still exists today. Obviously more citizens, men and women, in this

patriarchic society need to be educated on this very important

issue since it still exists.

However, your credibility as a journalist quickly diminished

when at the conclusion of your article you wrote, “She would take

75.6 cents an hour if she could work for ESPN The Magazine.” As

humorous as I am sure you were attempting to be, the fact is that

you wrote on a serious societal problem then made a mockery of it

in the end.

Furthermore, if your credibility had not been eliminated by your

attempt at humor, it certainly was when stating in your article

that women earn 76.5 cents compared to men, yet in the conclusion

stating it as 75.6 cents. As a journalist, it is your

responsibility to your readers to get the facts straight.

It is no wonder that the gender gap still exists today when such

instances as an “ethical” journalist makes a mockery of the issue,

and a newspaper actually prints such an article.

Amanda Belles

Political Science

Senior

In Michelle Sackett Ellis’ letter she says “…the treatment

Monica Owens is receiving from the Collegian is a travesty.” I’m

confused here, I may have it wrong but the article in the Denver

paper stated Ms. Owens was asked to identify herself as Gov. Owens’

daughter. Rather than do this; she chose not to write any more

columns.

The words here are “she chose,” so I don’t see what treatment

Ms. Ellis is talking about. In this same article it was stated the

editor had asked others to not write for The Collegian because she

felt they had a conflict of interest. Does Ms. Owens feel these

rules don’t apply to her? If she was truly concerned about what she

had to say to that “silent majority” Ms. Ellis writes about, she

would identify herself and have her message heard.

Conni Succo

Morgan Library Staff

Thank you for running the Article on Monday about PKD. I am 22

years old and have known that I have Polycystic Kidney Disease

since I was 16. I feel that it is important that more people learn

about this disease. Everybody that I have ever talked to had no

idea what it is. I am grateful you wrote the article, but I feel

that you treated the subject a little too lightly.

As you said PKD affects more people than cystic fibrosis,

muscular dystrophy, hemophilia, Huntington’s disease, Down’s

syndrome and sickle cell anemia. What you didn’t say is that you

have a 50 percent chance of inheriting it if one of your parents

have it, and 50 percent of the people who inherit PKD will have

kidney failure. With kidney failure comes dialysis and then

transplantation. Eventually the transplant is rejected and patient

may or may not be eligible for another transplant. If they are not

eligible this could eventually lead to death. This raises strong

ethical issues about whether or not people with PKD should have

children. Many people choose to adopt and others choose to inflict

this disease on their offspring.

People with PKD have to deal with many more issues than the

symptoms of the disease. The fact that most people have never heard

of this disease doesn’t make many of these issues any easier. Many

people ask me how they can help me. I tell them that if they want

to help they should become an organ donor. As many people as this

article may have reached I hope many more people become aware of

this disease, which afflicts so many.

Brian Petersen

Senior, wildlife biology