Her discussion of sexual selection is equally inane. Males employ numerous strategies to attract females, and females choose their mates based on various criteria, not just one or two traits. It is also important to understand that the female does not choose the male that has the best genes; the female chooses the male that she thinks has the best genes and will produce offspring that will survive and reproduce. The difference is subtle, but significant.
Evolutionary theory does not say that homosexuality is wrong or unnatural. Homosexuality, on its own, is just not a good strategy for continuation of the species, and it is in this context that it is sometimes referred to as a biological dead end. On the other hand, diversity tends to make a species stronger, and it is quite possible that homosexuality does have a role in society. I hope Ms. Roughgarden continues to look for answers to the important questions she is asking; I just feel that these answers will be found within the context of natural selection. I don’t believe it is time to throw Darwin in the dumpster.
—Bob Wieder Silver Lake
HEALTH-CARE SCARE
Rick Kennedy’s article [“Demands of Independence,” April 16–22] perfectly states the health-care crisis, as our current generation of spoiled, indolent, over-indulged baby boomers ages. The health problems of baby boomers will be exacerbated by their addiction to gas-guzzling Hummers and SUVs whose pollutants will cause baby boomers to need health care sooner, not later. Furthermore, in the face of rising medical costs caused by increased pollution, private medical insurance companies are likely to either jack up rates to prohibitive levels or simply cancel all California policies.
If baby boomers expect the next generation to subsidize their medical care, they had better guess again. The next generation will be too busy paying off education loans resulting from Schwarzenegger’s relentless cuts on higher education, medical bills, health insurance (if they can get any) and private school tuition (assuming that the public education system has tanked). They won’t be able to spare a dime to help aging baby boomers who should have known better to begin with, and who should have made the appropriate investments and sacrifices when there was time to do so rather than electing a brainless bodybuilder to lead them.
—William Joseph Miller Los Angeles
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