News organizations struggle to capture our feeble attentions when yet another suicide attack occurs in Iraq. Let me take you back to a particularly horrific moment in the science of terror to refresh your emotions. On Aug. 31, 2005, as one million Shia Muslims passed over Baghdad’s Al-Aaimmah bridge, someone pointed to a man claiming he had explosives strapped to him. The ensuing stampede claimed nearly 1,000 lives as pilgrims were trampled, their blood spattered on the pavement, and as a section of railing collapsed, sending hordes 90 feet into the Tigris to drown. When the costs and benefits to the cause of terrorism are weighed, we must gruesomely assess it as an exceptionally inspired attack. So what makes human beings use their profound intelligence, such lucid analysis, to do such evil?
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To the Editor:
Nathan Bruschi ‘10 shows he has led a sheltered life with little exposure to real prejudice (“Affirmative Action Too Skin Deep?” Feb. 13). I am one of the people that he believes shouldn’t be entitled to affirmative action. I’m a member of the Delaware Nation, but I’m sure he would think I look “white.”
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To the Editor:
Nathan Bruschi ‘10 presented a carefully-articulated argument (“Affirmative Action Too Skin Deep?” Feb. 13). While it may have its flaws and be subject to criticism, it certainly does provoke thought on an important and timely issue. The Dartmouth must have concurred in making its publishing decision. Native American Studies professor Dale Turner terms Bruschi’s remarks “inflammable” and calls on us to “resist the so-called theories of race espoused by people like Bruschi” (“The wrong argument at the wrong time,” Feb. 16). All this reader found were Bruschi’s thoughts on complex issues related to affirmative action, but no “theory of race.”
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To the Editor:
In response to the letter by Dylan Kane ‘09 with regards to printing “unpleasant” material (“Unpleasant news is also fit to print,” Feb. 15), I think Kane is missing the point. Music professor Jon Appleton’s response to The Dartmouth printing shoplifting allegations against French professor Vivian Kogan does not seek to advocate a suppression of information, but rather a more delicate handling of the facts of the story (“Keep the personal matter of a professor private,” Feb. 13). It is irrelevant, in my opinion, whether the person in question is Kogan, an administrator, a student, or a member of the maintenance staff. Privacy is something that should be respected, and to publish the name of the suspect before any sort of verdict has been rendered is not only a form of public embarrassment, but unfairly biases the opinions of all who read the article into thinking that Kogan is in fact guilty of shoplifting.
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