To the Editor:

This past Tax Day (April 15th) we set up a table outside of the Oberlin Post Office on South Main Street to raise awareness about the way in which the United States government spends our federal income tax dollars. We were specifically concerned about the fact that almost half of the yearly income tax money goes toward paying for past and present military expenses, and were wondering if others were as concerned as we are.

To test our ideas and to raise others' awareness of the situation, we carried out a simple survey on the subject. We set out on, a card table nine large tin cans labeled with the various departments of our government that tax money goes toward: the Department of Justice; Education, Arts, and Culture; Health and Human Services; Public Lands and Services; the Departments of Commerce, Energy, and Agriculture, the Military, International Affairs; the Interest on the National Debt; and General Government Administration Costs. We then asked people walking in, out, or near the post office to participate. Each participant was given 10 pennies, and asked to divide up their pennies into the tin cans based on how they would like to see their income taxes spent. The pennies accumulated in the cans until the post office closed at 5 p.m. at which point we counted up the pennies and tabulated the results. Participants could afterwards take an informational flyer produced by the War Resisters League showing the reality of federal income tax spending.

From 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. a diverse group of two-hundred and thirty-nine (239) Oberlin residents participated in our survey. The general response was very positive; most people took their time doing the survey, seriously considering how they would divide up their tax dollars. Many also stuck around afterwards to talk with us about our intent and their opinions.

Despite the fact that our experiment was rather rough and not a perfect statistical model, the general idea is nonetheless obvious. The spending priorities of Oberlinians overwhelmingly lie in the arenas of Education, Arts, and Culture and Health and Human Services, while Military spending is not a strong concern at all. In fact, our results suggest that Oberlin is actually more concerned about paying off the national debt than it is with building more bombs and missiles (An interesting side note to this, is that about 80 percent of the current national debt is estimated to have come from excessive military spending in the 1980s). These results, however, starkly contrast with the actual spending habits of the federal government, in which nearly half of the budget goes toward past and present military expenditures, with only a third going toward education and human services.

We think that our survey demonstrated clearly that it is well past the time to drastically reduce the federal government's military spending. At a time when our public schools and social programs are begging for support and money, we need to tell our government that our spending priorities need to be redirected. If we really want to actualize peace, we must stop spending money on war.

-Jonathan Edmonds, College senior

-Laurel Paget-Seekins, College first-year

The campaign against hunger and homelessness was very successful

To the Editor:

The results are in from the 14th Annual Hunger Cleanup, sponsored by Ohio PIRG on April 4. The Cleanup raised over $1500 in the one-day service event, which included over 100 people, including 60 volunteers from Oberlin's Upward Bound program. The Cleanup mobilized over 200 schools across the country through the National Student Campaign against Hunger and Homelessness. Top faculty fund-raisers include T.S. McMillin of the English department and Deb McNish, both of whom also organized entire teams for the event. The highest contributions from student fund-raisers were Molly Benson and Sari Smolanoff, whose fundraising tactics included spirited door-to-door dorm storms. Prizes were awarded to the top volunteers in each category. 50 percent of the proceeds from the event will go to Haven, Lorain County's only shelter. The remainder of the funds will be sent to national non-profit organizations fighting hunger and homelessness. The event promises to be even better and bigger next year.

The event was a great success; it is unfortunate that the Review chose not to write a story about it.

-Jessica Kennedy, College first-year

Drag ball is not necessarily informed by sexual orientation

To the Editor:

I just finished reading your Drag Ball spread, and I thought it was really well done. Thank you.

I want to make one clarification: you quoted me as saying 'Drag Ball is not a queer thing, it's a gender bending thing." That quote is misleading. The Drag Ball is a queer thing (in the academic sense of the word queer) *because* it is a gender bending thing. Gender bending is queer. What I meant by "it's not queer" is that the Drag Ball and gender bending is not only for queer *people*. To be more clear, I should have said was that the Drag Ball, and gender bending, is not necessarily a sexual orientation thing. I see the Drag Ball as a time for everyone to experiment with gender expression. This is something that both LGBT and straight people can learn a lot from doing.

I have noticed, however, that LGBT people do drag better than straights.

Thank you for reprinting this clarification.

-Cara Wick, MRC intern