Letters to the Editor

Defector

TO THE EDITOR:

In reference to the "Manifest Destiny" note on page 19 of the June issue and the aberrant member of the Class of '73 government majors: 1) I was the individual; 2) the avalanche control work was done in Montana (California is the situs of my permanent residence); 3) life only comes around once - better to have enjoyed and learned from a variety of experiences than to look back years later and regret opportunities missed; 4) avalanche control and research is still a fledgling, exciting science with open doors for those interested; 5) I have "defected" at any rate, and am now in my second year at Boalt Hall Law School (UC Berkeley).

Berkeley, Calif.

(For more on law school, see the Vox column inthis issue. Ed.)

Professor Mirsky

TO THE EDITOR:

In your June issue, I noticed two letters in defense and praise of Professor Jonathan Mirsky by two dormmates of mine at Bisselt Hall - David Kelley '70 and Thomas Peisch '70.

Professor Mirsky never taught me and I doubt he even knew me. But after I graduated from Dartmouth in 1968 and returned home, Professor Mirsky sent me a generous donation which enabled me to purchase a mimeograph machine and thus commence publication of Amandala, a newspaper which has worked towards the education and information of black people here in Belize, formerly British Honduras. Professor Mirsky's donation came through the soliciting of Wally Ford '70.

I can only hope that wherever Professor Mirsky is today, he is being richly blessed. Amandala, incidentally, is still being published; we have graduated to an old letterpress.

Through this medium I wish to extend greetings of peace to David Kelley, Tom Peisch, Wally Ford, and my old Dartmouth and Zeta Psi friends.

Belize City, Belize

TO THE EDITOR:

I'd like to add some thoughts to the reaction to Jonathan Mirsky's "excommunication" from Dartmouth. I agreed with the praises of Jonathan's persistently inquiring intellect and his commitment to putting his values into concrete acts. I would add that his determination to study Asia "for its own sake, not merely as an appendage of the West" had a deep effect on most of his students and on me. The respect for one of the world's great cultures glowed steadily in lectures or discussions he was in. Dartmouth will be worse off without that glow.

Another loss to Dartmouth will be the departure of Rhona Mirsky from the Medical School As one of the rare and often abused lecturers who sought to connect the abstractions of biochemical formulae to real human problems Rhona will be missed in another corner of the community. And both Jonathan's and Rhona's impact on the communities around Hanover by talking at high schools, sending letters to the local papers and showing us how to talk about Vietnam and the war in Southeast Asia during Vietnam Summer '67, all that, too, will be missed. (I remember an account of a talk Jonathan gave at Hartland High School where he tried to get them to imagine planes dropping bombs on the hills to the west of the Connecticut River because they might be harboring communists. Those students got a perspective on the war in Southeast Asia that few rural groups in this country ever got.)

But rather than dwell on Hanover's losses or the moral dry rot of this or that academic committee, I'd like to pay homage to Jonathan and Rhona on their departure. I hope those of us who listened to them and learned from them will keep up the work. I'm sure Jonathan and Rhona will, and we'll be in touch again.

Somerville, Mass.

Wishful Thinking

TO THE EDITOR:

On the eve of another football season I wish two things: a successful season for the Big Green football team ... and a change of format for halftime entertainment at the games.

I'd like to see the Dartmouth College Marching Band do more marching and play more band-type music.

In recent years the trend has been to let the musicians sort of mill around during halftime while a narrator unfolds a string of doubleentendres and inside jokes, with occasional musical jests tossed in.

It all started at Harvard, I guess. It wouldn't bother me if it all stopped at Dartmouth. It just doesn't strike me as being very entertaining.

Longmeadow, Mass.

Once a Rugger...

TO THE EDITOR:

On page 43 of the June issue, I finally found something relating to the Dartmouth Rugby Football Club.

Although I'm certain there has been no malice or negligence intended, I do believe that in order to sustain the interest of former players and other alumni - and to have their consciousness raised - that more advertising and exposure and more alumni support, both in attendance and donations, should be an immediate objective.

Although I rowed for three years, I became a rugger in the fall of 1961, just prior to graduation. The game has markedly altered my outlook, lifestyle, and future plans. Since 1961, I've participated as physician, player, and player-coach in the East, Hawaii, and California. I can readily vouch for increasing spectator interest by parents, students, townfolk, and alumni.

Although the Dartmouth R.F.C. is a private club and is, at last word, ineligible for athletic funding, I believe that the College owes the D.R.F.C. an enormous vote of respect and gratitude to all players and managers - Past, present, and future. Although the club may not have been an income-producer for the College the rare goodwill and the raising of awareness or consciousness on campus and about the College in general, both in U.S. matches and on tour overseas, is a bit overwhelming. In the British Isles, our Pacific Northwest, British Columbia, Hawaii, Samoa, Fiji and Hong Kong, the D.R.F.C. is widely known and highly respected

I strongly recommend that this is an area wherein, even with a limited budget, the "per-dollar" return in terms of public relations alone will speak well of our College. Please let us see and hear more about the D.R.F.C.

Los Angeles, Calif.

ROTC

TO THE EDITOR:

Bringing ROTC back to Dartmouth would be wrong no matter how many people supported it because ROTC is part of a military system that exploits people both in the United States and overseas in the interest of a small minority of industrialists, businessmen, government officials and military personnel.

The U.S. government will use about 60 cents out of every tax dollar for military spending this year - a total of close to $100 billion. Nowhere near this sum is needed to guarantee the security of this nation. The U.S. military is not a defensive system; it actively supports repressive governments controlling countries whose resources and markets keep American business growing.

The people of the countries we "support" suffer directly from U.S. militarism. And the people of our own country suffer, too. Military spending creates inflation and an unstable economy. It drains off tax money that could be used for human purposes. The argument that it creates needed jobs tells only half the story; the money for a military contract that creates 190,000 jobs at Rockwell International would create 220,000 jobs if diverted into low-cost housing.

The truth is that only a small number of businessmen and military officials really profit from U.S. militarism. It is not that American business could not keep busy producing worthwhile goods for Americans; it is simply that it would not make as much profit, and profit is the only criterion. The fact that millions of people around the world are exploited by this country is of no count; nor the fact that public education is crumbling; that many Americans have no decent housing; or that some Americans are actually starving. Profit is the only "reason," and it is, of course, no real reason at all. Human needs have been sacrificed to the demands of profit.

That the Trustees think that it is in their interest to bring ROTC back and strengthen Dartmouth's ties with the military is understandable. Dartmouth as an institution has large sums of money invested in the very companies that profit most from U.S. militarism. And the Trustees as individuals are linked to these same companies. For the Trustees, contact with the military is a matter of personal and political advantage. But for the large majority of students, faculty, and alumni there is not such an overwhelming contradiction between material interest and a principled stand.

The Dartmouth community as a matter of principle should stand together in opposition to ROTC and all other Dartmouth connections with the military.

Piermont, N.H.

Madison Ave. Approach

TO THE EDITOR:

Recently, my wife, who is a painter and printmaker, nationally exhibited (Hopkins Center in 1969), received an announcement for The Friends of Hopkins Center Third Annual Regional Art Exhibition. I can't remember seeing a worse rip-off. First, artists must pick up and deliver their own work, which, though not terribly unreasonable, is at least at their expense. Second, the show is unjuried, depriving the art and the artist of critical exposure that is worth something to them, considering that art in America is not especially salable. Third, the work that is professional and aesthetically of worth will be shown with bad work, because all submissions will be displayed. And, last and worst of all, the artists must pay a $4 entry fee for the privilege of being demeaned.

I'd almost like to meet the con-man who thought this up. It is so sleazy to work over usually poor, hopeful, and in most cases, hopeless artists of the region, all of whom will write on their resumes "Exhibited: Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College." The idea suggests Dartmouth's generally "slick" Madison Ave. approach to the arts, the school's devotion to marketing and bourgeois values. I guarantee the show will be a financial success, and fine art further abused. The insult to the artist is incredible because entry fees usually pay for functions that benefit the artist: jurors honorariums, prepaid postage for accepted work, and the cherished prizes and awards. I won't mention the 25 per cent that Hopkins will take from sales. Very low-down deal, this.

Plainfleld, Vt.

(The Friends of Hopkins Center, a communitybased volunteer organization, sponsors the showfor all artists of the region - professional andamateur alike. The proceeds from the "slick"approach of the Friends are used to underwritevarious Hopkins Center projects, among themvisiting artists, art purchases, and ticket subsidies for area school children. Ed.)

The Symbol (cont.)

TO THE EDITOR:

I wonder how many other alumni were struck by an article in the New York Times Magazine for last June 29 about Bicentennial exhibits being planned by museums across the country.

It stated: "The iconography of patriotism represents one of the largest and most impressive segments of the nation's decorative-arts heritage. The American Indian warrior, the bald eagle, Old Glory - all have symbolized the United States and its people . ... Throughout the Colonial period, the red man reigned supreme as the emblem of North America and its 'new man.'"

One of the illustrations for the article was a gilded copper figure with feathered headdress and drawn bow, made around 1720 by one Shem Drowne as a weather vane for the residence of the governor of Massachusetts.

One can perhaps excuse Drowne on grounds of the general insensitivity of his time. But how excuse the Massachusetts Historical Society which is lending the figure to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts for display in the enlightened 1970s?

One must suppose that neither the historical society nor the museum is fortunate enough to have a Dartmouth man among its trustees or executives.

Lakeville, Conn.