I was happy to see Noah Stahl quoting me in his recent column advocating the closing of the Maintenance Shop, (“Even in M-Shop debate, bottom line trumps all,” April 5).

I remember that when I was young, I read a lot of objectivist philosophy and espoused some of the same ideas he has about “destructive altruism.” Then I became a mother four times over, and in the process learned that altruism is alive and well. Not only that, but many animal scientists and anthropologists now recognize that altruism benefits entire groups as well as individuals. So Stahl’s objectivist ideas, ripped off from Ayn Rand, are a little outdated, to say the least.

Altruism is not the issue when it comes to the M-Shop, however. What is at stake is cultural capital. If the true cultural value of the M-Shop to the ISU community and the city of Ames were assigned a dollar amount and figured into the budget, it would be plain that it’s a resource we should hang on to. Narrow thinking like Stahl’s assumes that if a dollar value hasn’t been explicitly assigned to something, that makes it worthless. Go tell that to all the breast-feeding moms out there.

Nevertheless, the M-Shop issue isn’t about getting a free lunch, as Stahl implies. I’ve been paying for lunches for years at the M-Shop. By now I should have a stake in it. Oh wait — I do! Raise my lunch prices. I don’t care. I would pay the same price for lunch at the M-Shop as I do at any other great eatery. Why have the menu prices not been adjusted to reflect the M-Shop’s need to stay in business?

If you love the M-Shop, come to the forum at 4:30 p.m. next Tuesday in the M-Shop. The “powers that be” will explain to us how closing the M-Shop with its $8,000 deficit is going to fix ISU Dining’s $600,000 budget shortfall.

Di Boeckmann

Graduate Student

English