Controversy Over Mensa

The biggest travesty of the latest Mensa dirt (“L.A. Mensa Chapter Votes to Oust Newsletter Editor,” Jan. 13) is that Nikki Frey is being scapegoated. I think that a society of the supposedly intellectually elite would know that ideas are not dangerous. But letting others make our decisions for us is dangerous. The way Mensa bent over to mass sentiment is as spineless as it gets.

As long as each idea is allowed to be judged on its own by each person, it can then be discarded or used as a launching board for new ideas. Ultimately the original author’s goals were for a better, more positive end. He was only postulating extending natural selection into the extremes of our social fringes. The real sticking point is that freedom and responsibility are double-edged swords. It is the individual’s responsibility to seek out those organizations which offer aid. The safety nets that line our society should have built-in dump mechanisms. Right now they allow people to fall in and never get out. Showing financial and emotional means before having children is not such a bad idea. These issues are of immediate concern. They need to be addressed and discussed by everyone.

The sooner we admit there really are only finite resources available at this time, the sooner rational answers can be enacted. These programs need not involve killing anyone. Stop letting the hysteria lead us around.

MIKE SUAREZ

Los Angeles

In response to “Newsletter Articles Stir Furor in High-IQ Group,” Jan. 10:

Lincoln Training Center is a private, nonprofit organization that employs people like Beatrice and Yolanda. It does, of course, take Beatrice a little longer to maneuver her wheelchair into her work space; however, Beatrice needs to work to help support her son who is completing his law degree. Yolanda, who must sign to her supervisor for instructions, has acquired the necessary skills to secure a job at a local corporation. Beatrice and Yolanda contribute to society, too; they are able to read, write and they pay taxes.

To think that Beatrice and Yolanda should be “done away with like abandoned kittens” shows a profound lack of understanding, experience, and wisdom.

While we understand that the recent articles published in Mensa’s newsletter do not speak for the majority of Mensa’s members, we feel it reflects a profound lack of judgment in choosing to publish them.

CARON NUNEZ, President

Lincoln Training Center

South El Monte

Nikki Frey may be smart but has no common sense or decency. Neo-Nazi and ultimate-solution sentiments expressed by Jason Brent and Jon Evans certainly do not belong in a Mensa newsletter. The job of an editor is to edit.

Frey is quoted as saying, “I don’t know what people are so excited about; it’s not like Evans or Brent have any influence over any laws.” Brent was a Kern County judge for a number of years until the voters wised up and voted him out of office.

MELISSA L. SUTTON

Los Angeles