Letters to the Editor

More than modest To the Editor: I was disappointed to see you call President Amy Gutmann's donation to the University for financial aid "modest" yesterday ("Gutmann chips in for student aid, DP, 11/14/06). While it is, indeed, less than George Weiss gave to the University, it is still notable and is a good percentage of Gutmann's income. As noted in an earlier issue of the DP, Gutmann makes a mere $675,000. $150,000 is a pretty good percentage of that income, and if every alumni or friend of the University gave a similar percentage, we would not whine and complain about not being able to keep up with the other top Ivies. Every gift and every donor truly counts, from George Weiss' to a recent graduate's to Gutmann's. I wish that your publication was not so discouraging about $150,000. I wish you luck in trying to raise similar funds for your class as it graduates.

Jen Moore The author was the gift chairwoman of the Class of 2002 Serving the nation To the Editor: I agree with Sarah Rothman that we as U.S. citizens have a moral obligation to volunteer our time to improve our communities ("Serve your country with service," DP, 11/13/06). I have no doubt that people volunteering 4,000 hours of their time would have a largely beneficial impact on their communities and the country at large. I do, however, strongly oppose the proposition of mandatory civil service. Forcing citizens into government labor against their will is a blatant violation of our fundamental individual rights. Whatever our individual beliefs of public service, our government cannot and should not attempt to oblige every citizen to conform to those beliefs. Not only does the government lack the authority to mandate service, but it lacks the effectiveness to execute such a program. The federal government has proven countless times that the government-as-a-provider model is ineffective and costly. Public service should be allocated by the private sector allowing individual choice to dictate volunteer efforts in a free market. Our public servants in the Congress must oppose such socialist propositions if we are to continue to call ourselves a beacon of freedom.

Chris Hoehn-Saric Wharton freshman

Terrible choice To the Editor: Henry Kissinger is a terrible choice of speaker ("Kissinger named SPEC fall speaker," DP, 10/16/06) By providing him a platform, student leaders appear to support impunity and the misuse of power, given that the record indicates that it is for these things that he will be most remembered. Granted, much of the "case against Kissinger" on the Internet amounts to infantile posturing. But Penn students have some powers of discernment as well as the library skills needed to look up committee proceedings in the congressional record and published collections of declassified documents. These make it clear why respected people around the world - from the Spanish jurist Baltasar Garzon to Kenneth Maxwell, formerly of Foreign Affairs and now at Harvard - are asking about Kissinger's involvement in the coup that brought Chile's Pinochet to power in 1973, the same year, irony of ironies, that Kissinger won the Nobel peace prize.

Ann Farnsworth-Alvear History professor

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