The untold story

To the Editor: Ronald Kim writes ("Remembering a hero of conviction," The Daily Pennsylvanian, 12/6/00) that he is "committed to life as a dissident intellectual." He should be committed to simple intellectual honesty. Kim might be able to ice skate over Robeson's decades-long apologetics for Stalin's terror, but Robeson's final decade of silence and isolation points to a more complicated story of belated doubt and shame. Robeson had direct personal knowledge of Stalin's crimes and, though he submerged that knowledge in an ocean of denial, it's possible that in the end that it surfaced. Of course, Robeson was not alone in his delusions and denial about the nature of the Soviet gulag state. He moved in a world where the lying and obfuscation on Stalin's behalf was endemic. Perhaps he is due some small reprieve as a prisoner of his sorry times. Kim lives in a time that has seen a pretty thorough examination of the Soviet record. Yet he is able, in these times, to write blithe phrases about Robeson being "welcomed by Stalin's Soviet Union" and to crank out absurd boilerplate leftisms in praise of Robeson. Finally, Kim characterizes Robeson's ignoble rationalizations and highly variable sense of outrage as a thrilling example of the courage, in a hopelessly trite and threadbare cliche, "to speak truth to power." It's almost funny. Almost.

Tom Brennan University City resident

To the Editor: I always hate reading the bitter letters to the editor from creaky alumni looking down on the current Penn students. They sound old, crusty and detached. With that said, please allow me a little finger waving. At last week's Penn men's basketball game against Maryland, I fully enjoyed myself and reveled in the Palestra madness. Like many, I enjoyed spewing a few epitaphs at Maryland players, the referees, even the Penn players and myself. It's part of the whole experience, along with cold pretzels and overpriced merchandise. However, I was disappointed at game's end to hear chants such as "overrated," "safety school" and "junior college" directed at the visiting team. It sounded idiotic. How is a team "overrated" when they, the nationally-ranked team, have just crushed a team that has no wins? As for the other well-thought chants, it sounded like a couple of thousand whiners who all went to the Ivy safety school -- Penn. But at least it's an Ivy school, right? Don't even think about listing all the fabulous reasons why Ivy schools are better than those regular schools. Save it for your resume. What transcended this stupidity was the superb physical effort by both teams as well as their palpable sportsmanship. If only the crowd could've appreciated that. If all those darn kids weren't fools, that is to say. Wow, it's easy being old, crusty and uppity.

Marcus Hswe College '93

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