Letters to the Editor

Wrongly associated

To the Editor:

I've followed with increasing distress your coverage of the Halloween party photographs with your president, Amy Gutmann ("Critics demand Gutmann atone," DP, 11/9/06).

My distress has nothing to do with the photographs, offensive though they are, but rather with the continuing suggestion and innuendo that President Gutmann is sympathetic to terrorism or to Muslim extremism. Nothing could be further from the truth, and this is obvious to any person who gives the matter just one second of thought.

Amy Gutmann's scholarly work and Amy Gutmann's personal character sit in direct opposition to extremism of all stripes, and most especially to terrorism.

It was but six months ago at Stanford University that President Gutmann delivered a lecture on the topic of extremism, and it was plain for anyone to see that she would find offensive and unjust any suggestion that terrorism could be excusable. For The Daily Pennsylvanian to perpetuate such scurrilous ideas is irresponsible journalism.

Rob Reich

Political-science professor,

Stanford University

Overreactions

To the Editor:

Thursday's article about the Halloween costume controversy ("Critics demand Gutmann atone," DP, 11/9/06) is the most recent example of multiculturalist politics in action, casting those who do not adhere to the ideology as merely ignorant and malicious.

I did indeed find Saadi's costume to be in poor taste, yet the notion that President Gutmann should institute a dress code for her Halloween party or create classes on the history of suicide bombers are preposterous overreactions by those who believe it their sacred duty to be the moral conscience of America.

The University must uphold all students' rights to act freely and peaceably. Those who demand outrageous responses from President Gutmann and the University dictate, on presumptuous terms, what constitutes an "ethical and peaceable society." This intolerant ideology functions by railroading individuals into massive guilt trips by way of oppressive, "politically correct" rhetoric.

They are also laughably shortsighted: Innumerable humans go to sleep each night unsure of waking up in the morning, yet these multiculturalists react to every potentially offensive incident as though it is the most unconscionable act in human history. They should realize there are more important issues than obsessing over the evidently ultra-delicate sensibilities of the American public.

Richard Lee

College junior

A larger shift

To the Editor:

In the context of the recent suicide bomber costume controversy ("Controversy erupts over student in terror garb," DP, 11/3/06), I believe there is something larger happening - a sociological shift.

Although Halloween is America's day for jokes and revelry, certain cultural taboos are kept off-limits.

Nobody, for instance, would support dressing up as a Columbine school murderer, and I doubt that it would elicit many laughs. But the fact that some in my generation think that it is OK to parody suicide bombing points to a frightening complacency with this scourge.

Not only are they beginning to accept that the blind murder of innocents has a place in this world, but they are also humanizing it. That is a downright shame.

Jonathan Friedman

College sophomore

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.