The article “Meet Captain Freedom” (March 4) did not include commentary opposing the presence of the so-called “Captain Freedom” at the Yale Whale. While Tim Handlon ’10, like other cheerleaders, deserves ample recognition for the entertainment provided to children and adults alike, the choice of mascot now seems inappropriate for a University that prides itself in its increasingly global outreach.

Demanding we “Take it or leave it” — in no uncertain terms — “Captain Freedom” is curtailing the very freedom (of association) for which he claims to stand, imposing himself not only on the substantial foreigner community at Yale — who by definition have not pledged or been pledged allegiance to the United States of America — but on all of us who do not have 6-foot flags plastered on our walls and are skeptical about intensely following the dogma of a notion as temporally feeble and morally ambiguous as the nation-state.

Gerardo Giacoman Colyer

March 23

The writer is a senior in Morse College.