1941

The winter wears well when I have no need to report the passing of any classmates to the next dimension. So let the sun shine in, although the snow may fall, as we joyfully focus on the living. Backing up to begin, I want to catch up, courtesy of Steve Winship, with items from last fall's reunion: Gus Broberg, in the chair at the class meeting, made a plea for class unity in order to succeed with fundraising and preparations for 1991's 50th Reunion, for which $1,000 was voted to cover preliminary expenses. Head agent Art Hills observed that "We need to raise a million dollars for the 50th - what we don't need is divisiveness." Lesser needs are needs nonetheless, and Bob Feller came up with a logo. Bruce Friedlich is working on a motto and, those present voting affirmatively, there will be a class yearbook with its working group chaired by Don Stillman. Offers to help came from Don Brown and Win Watson.

Executive committee members at the meeting included Hotaling, Tepper, Hagen, Hanks, Unk Richardson, and Lou Young. Others about were Gray, Broer, White, Seabury, Flouton, Bjorklund, Hart, Van Wie, and Frank Simpson, who is moderator of the town of Sunapee. Later on, in other worlds, Steve saw Jack Devor in Bermuda, Bill Steel sent along an article on "The Dartmouth Wars" by Morton Kondracke '60 from The New Republic, Tom Littlefield wrote to question President Freedman's reference to Dartmouth as a "university," John Bowers noted his "hope to see you in 1991," Bruce Brown is mulling whether to move from San Fran to Seattle, and Fred Leopold sent me a copy of his letter to the President.

Apropos l'affaire Review, Kondracke ends his piece by citing "the difference between good journalism and character assassination." Leopold, writing from the vantage point of "a lawyer who has been practicing in the First Amendment and related fields for close to 40 years," said that "I can no longer refrain from expressing the utter disgust and contempt in which I hold the Dartmouth Review and its editors." For a contrasting perspective, there is William F. Buckley who refers, in a column appearing locally on January 6, to "the pretensions of Dartmouth justice." Based on a pretrial hearing that resulted in an injunction reinstating suspended Review editors, Buckley charges that "the entire Dartmouth establishment has been discredited," and he concludes by pointing to "the incandescent hypocrisy of so many people who, in the name of' free speech, persecute its practitioners—if their opinions are conservative." (The Bulletin of December 1988 notes that Buckley spoke at Dartmouth November 17.)

Supreme court decisions reflect the complexity of First Amendment cases involving the issue of freedom of speech: What is protected expression as distinguished from conduct that is unprotected under the concept embodied in the Constitution's provision prohibiting abridgment of freedom of speech? There is always room for differing opinions; what may be of utmost importance is process, i.e., trying to generate light, rather than heat, and thinking with the head instead of the blood. Such process cannot fail to benefit all of us, including our College on the Hill. Shalom.

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