Letters to the Editor

Tuesday, June 1, 2004

Stalin the Environmentalist

After the last issue of The Dartmouth Review fell at the doorsteps of dorm rooms across campus, Christopher Bateman '05 sent forth another delightful e-mail to the entire campus. As before, he offered to recycle students' newspapers, saving them the effort of having to "deal" with this publication while nominally helping the "environment."

His e-mail prompted several angry replies from both sides of the spectrum. Some choice messages are reprinted below.

Sir,

Do I want to do some good for the environment?

Who doesn't? Every year I burn old rubber tires, so that the ashes might mingle with the wind and be scattered as fertilizer for the plants and trees in my neighborhood. Being of an artistic persuasion, I also take the leftover tire chunks that didn't burn and make a collage of them on a piece of non-biodegradable Styrofoam, affixing them with plenty of CFC-heavy aerosol adhesive, which I make sure to spray outside. Then, to preserve my art for future generations, I like to put it in my local landfill, where it will sit for ages before turning up at the surface again.

Andrew Eastman '07

Sir,

I heard that Stalin also had a newspaper with a lot of subscribers. Apparently, like writers for the Review, it seems, he too enjoyed reading his own work more than any of them.

Hemant Joshi '04

Dull Scientist Calls Immelt Dull

Sir,

In the editorial of the May 10th, 2004 issue of The Dartmouth Review, you made mention that Jeffrey R. Immelt made a much better choice for a Commencement speaker than Fred "Mr." Rogers. I beg to disagree, depending on one's field of interest and career choice, this may not be true. I myself would much rather have had Mr. Rogers at my commencement address then Mr. Immelt.

Before you dismiss me as fanciful and irrelevant, ask yourself this: did you ever see his show when you were little? It was awesome! Plus, if you are not interested in business, or a cut-throat career venture, then Mr. Immelt's success is about as relevant as pants are to Bugs Bunny. I'm looking into the sciences, and frankly I find Mr. Immelt's experiences to be mostly useless and dull. I will concede that if I were interested in going into business I would be interested in what Mr. Immelt had to say, but don't be so quick to judge Mr. Rogers. Both are successes by any stretch, and just because you find one person's success informative doesn't mean others will.

By your standards Conan O'Brian shouldn't have given Harvard's commencement address because he's only a comedian; it was one of the funniest speeches ever given.

If your comments was based on the fact that the Mr. Rogers' commencement speech was just awful, then I apologize, but your writing seemed to indicate that you felt that they began on unequal footing in terms as [sic] being most proper for giving a commencement address.

Matthew Garner '07

Feel-Good Free-Thinking Cultists?

Sir,

In light of Kevin Hudak's May 10 article "Hippies for Jesus," I thought it appropriate to add some information. The Twelve Tribes community receives much praise for their environmentally conscious and low-cost lifestyles, no doubt appealing to many a savvy liberal. However, despite claims to an enlightened existence, the Twelve Tribes has been anything but a model community. Having faced allegations of child labor, child abuse and neglect, as well as sexual abuse, notably in New York and Vermont, as well as well-founded accusations of racism, the Twelve Tribes fly in the face of human decency, let alone "hippie" or Christian values. This feel-good band of free-thinking, post-consumer-age guitar players should be recognized for what they really are—a dangerous and seductive cult.

Julia Keane '04

Empty Whining

After History Professor Craig Wilder published an attack on T. J. Rodgers in which he called him a "bigot" and "Social Darwinist," California Superior Court Judge and Dartmouth Alumni For Open Governance (DAOG) founder Quentin L. Kopp '49 sent him the following riposte. A copy was forwarded to The Dartmouth Review.

Professor Wilder,

I was sent last week a copy of your published remarks in the April 13th, 2004 edition of The Daily Dartmouth and read those remarks with revulsion.

I do not know your background or training but I am able to recognize bias, prejudice, and ulterior motive. Your wordy diatribe and personal attack upon a Dartmouth alumnus offends the entire concept of Dartmouth College as a "family," the favorite word of Parkhurst Hall and Office of Alumni Relations bureaucrats.

You appear emblematic of the reason so many Dartmouth alumni refuse to contribute money to the care and upkeep of an agenda-driven faculty and administration, which is replete with bloat. (Particularly obnoxious is the position created for an "Associate Dean of Pluralism"—whatever that may be—whose compensation remains undisclosed despite my continuing efforts to extract it).

While you may enjoy the princely benefits of inculcating young minds with your selective judgment about the admissions process for the very student body your vapid view of society affects, alumni participation in trustee voting, local club membership dues payment, and the Alumni Fund declines. You do, of course, have willing leaders and confederates, beginning with the College president, but you should be proud of your own contribution to misshaping Dartmouth into a university lacking the distinction of singularity that convinced a young high school athlete and scholar from Oshkosh, Wisconsin by the name of T. J. Rodgers to attend.

I condemn your insidious writings and their empty whining.

Quentin L. Kopp '49

Student Elections Coverage Prompts Indignation

Sir,

Noah Riner was last years student body vice president. Todd Rabkin-Golden won. It was wrong in the article [see "Student Assembly Elections: By a Nose," TDR 5/10/04].

Colleen Platt '06

Sir,

Though you are entitled to editorialize however you see fit, I take issue with your statement, "It was heartening to note that barely half of the student body voted. Elections at Dartmouth are far from the superheated affairs at other schools" [see "Do Nothing," TDR 5/10/04].

Dartmouth, in fact, has consistently had the highest voter turnout in the Ivy League, with most of our peer schools struggling to break forty percent participation. With 2655 Dartmouth students voting, over sixty percent, this year saw the highest participation rate ever. I commend the student body for their active participation in the election process; one of the keys to a strong student government is an informed student body that can keep its leaders accountable.

Janos Marton '04

The Editor Responds:

Ms. Platt, you are indeed correct: Mr. Riner did not even run for office. The mistake is entirely my own.

As for Mr. Marton, I must also take issue. While it was a stretch to call a sixty percent turnout "barely half," Dartmouth elections are clearly dissimilar from those at other schools. The cut-throat sensibilities simply aren't there. One of the "serious election problems" in this past cycle, for instance, concerned a few posters torn from the wall.

And I am convinced that most students simply don't care, despite Mr. Marton's protestations to the contrary. Who can blame them? SA's most recent initiative is called "Rides Across Dartmouth," which consists of ten cut-rate bicycles spray-painted green and left about campus for students to use at their convenience. That translates into one bike for roughly every four-hundred students. Please, continue making a difference.

For Mr. Marton to discuss accountability is even more ludicrous. His Moving Train came out of the station promising increased student wages, drastically-improved student-administration relations, and the repeal of the keg policy. He accomplished virtually none of it, instead doing his best to dress like an unwashed vagrant and alienating most top administrators.

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