Letters to the Editor

Sunday, June 8, 2003

The Intolerant Left

Sirs,

Greetings.I am not one of the alumni of Dartmouth.I did not graduate from Dartmouth or any other university or college. I have kept up with the nonsense going on at Dartmouth over the past 20 years via the Review.

Short of a student/alumni revolt,I know of nothing that is going to effectively stop the communistic/Nazi/socialist liberal nonsense going on at that revered old school.God help this country if that nonsense should spread to the political arena on a larger scale than it already has. Why the community has allowed the Nazi tactics togo on unchecked for so long just amazes me.I must say that the area where I live in is in the same sad shape,and I frequently ask the same questions of the people here.

When did the word tolerance change to mean all encompassing thoughts are good and acceptable unless they rock the status quo? Why is it that those who teach tolerance and scream for freedom of speech and 1st amendment rights and preach against banning books are the first ones to ban materials with which they disagree, silence those who speak in disfavor of the tolerant,deny 1st amendment rights to those who publish the real truth,and scream that all who disagree with them are intolerant and judgemental?

I am not a wealthy man.I barely made enough to raise my own three kids and try hard to help them when they need it to raise their own children. I donate to the Review when I have a little extra,and I am grateful to receive the Review and be kept up to date on the rantings and ravings of the fanatical, fundamentalist left. Please keep up the good work. It will likely never be easy for you,but you are doing an admirable job. Thank you for allowing an older, uneducated man to vent his frustrations a little. Keep publishing a great paper.

Terry D. Marx

Fight the Good Fight

Sirs,

As an alumnus, I'm disturbed to hear of the harassment you receive from the Administration; for example,restricting your ability to circulate your paper in the dorms. And the like...

Is this not an infringement of First Amendment rights? Have you ever discussed this with the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education?

Would it make any sense to appeal to the Manchester Guardian to do a series on how the First Amendment is being trampled upon by New England Colleges? Or the Boston Globe?

I say fight.

You'd weep tears if you knew of the openness of dissent in my day.

Keep Your Ground. Liberty or death, is as true, or truer, now as it was in Mr. Henry's time.

David Cudlip '55

The Truth About College

Sirs,

I read Joseph Rago's article "Dartmouth Bankrolls Promiscuous 'Queers'" in PoliticallyRight.com and failed to understand his point [When published in the April 24 issue of the Review, the article was entitled 'Get yo' QUEER on: QuEER bAr NiGHt']. Is he opposed to student fees supporting sexually charged parties or is he just opposed to sexually charged parties? As a former college student, I don't know of too many college parties that are NOT sexually charged. And as diverse as college is, student fees go to 'bankroll' many activities and groups that are 'offensive' to some but not to others. A good way to rectify that controversy would be to do away with student fees all together. Besides, it's about time that college students learn sooner than later just how the real America works. Once you graduate college, no one is going to be 'bankrolling' any group activities. If you want to have a wild drinking party sex orgy (and who doesn't?), then get a job and pay for it!

Mario Santorelli

Robust Sense of Humor

Sirs,

The Dartmouth Review is not an organization I almost ever agree with. However, free speech is free speech and of course, that must stand.

With that said, I think the Review undermines its political clout and reputation as a 'newspaper' when it resorts to the blatant, mean-spirited name-calling written all over its most recent issue.It seems to me that your only agenda was to hurt the feelings of well-intentioned individuals. Your abuse of Donald Jolly, the organizer and artists of the Girl Show, and Odetta[!] are couched in self-effacing comments that are in reality sarcastic and immature blows at people you don't know.

I don't understand how Donald Jolly's 'concern for his peers' can really be debated.And it was so petty to stoop to 'fat jokes' in your article about Odetta[!] as well as the Girl Show—I really and truly just don't understand what your point was other than sheer cruelty when you wrote about 'pie wagons' at the art show and said odetta looked like a 'high end beanbag chair.'

I don't know what to say in this letter—the Review and the aforementioned writers have been downright cruel.I don't have anything articulate or forceful enough to express the disappointment and anger I felt reading your paper tonight.I hope anyone who writes for the Review will think twice about be associated with people that have so little empathy.I know that I am ashamed that the Review carries my college's namesake.
Catherine Roberts '05

Someone Else is Mad

In the May 29 edition of the Review, I found it somewhat callous to make such a mocking debacle of the spelling and grammatical errors in what was obviously an informal blitz concerning the controversial Native American mascot sent in by Jesse Sixkiller.I feel that Mr. Sixkiller's commentary and discourse over the issue was undeniably genuine, heartfelt and merely an attempt to show his personal sentiment regarding the issue to your editors, but not necessarily to the entire campus as a published article per se.In reading the contents of his blitz, I realized that he has some interesting and valid points supporting his viewpoint, and if given the chance to edit what I feel was already quite articulate, with capitalization corrections (obviously these errors are frequent phenomena in the e-mail format) and the omission of some colloquial speech usage, I think his commentary would not only rival but overshadow much of the banal and repetitive editorials your paper offers on a regular basis.

Kristen A. Fiore '05

The Editor Responds: Mr. Sixkiller's e-mail was incomprehensible. His discourse in the past has been anything but genuine. On numerous occasions he has physically threatened members of The Dartmouth Review staff.

Letters to the Editor

Article Tools

Related Articles