Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor,

I am pleased to see the “Letters to the Editor” section is once again alive with debate over the level of political activity displayed by VCU students, as well as the living wage issue. These two subjects deal with two very important values in our society: civic engagement and social justice.

Michelle Owen is correct when she writes in her April 22 letter that VCU students have other things on their minds than responding to CT editorials, but taking an active role in issues that affect the university and surrounding community should be a part of every student’s agenda. I dare say that Michael Dickinson’s April 19 article, “Find Your Voice,” was the best editorial of the year in this regard. The Commonwealth Times may not be the most perfect publication when it comes to editorial discussion, but it is the only campus-wide publication VCU students have to show that they care more about just entertaining themselves between term papers and really make a difference.

One of the groups working to make this difference is the VCU Living Wage campaign. In another letter from the April 22 issue, the president of the Virginia Book Company naively suggests that we need only to look to Europe “to realize that our living standard far exceeds those which attempt to manipulate a free market society,” and he goes on to threaten that higher wages mean increased consumer costs, using his textbooks as an example. What Mr. Mooney may not realize, however, is that Europeans pay as much as 50 percent less for their college textbooks to begin with and benefit from free or nominal tuition at their universities. Healthcare, too, is provided for, and as long as we lack these social services the minimum wage just isn’t enough to work full time and raise a family. We need to find other ways to address this moral imperative.

Mooney is right that “wages are a commodity with a value,” but he needs to look beyond the economic model and see that peoples’ lives have value that isn’t traded on the New York Stock Exchange — value that can only be addressed with fair-minded and just policies like the living wage. I urge all VCU students to support the VCU Living Wage campaign in their effort to bring a better standard of living to VCU’s employees, especially to those who provide services that — while they may be low skilled — are nevertheless essential to the successful operation of this university.

Sincerely,
Omar Yacoubi