The Soul And Machine
Machinations
THE CENTRAL ISSUE RAISED BY the Berry bequest ["Rethinking the Stacks," Winter] is whether it will be used to enlarge or diminish the College as a paragon among liberal arts institutions. It seems to be taken for granted that Dartmouth will profit intellectually and in all relevant ways from the Berrys' generous gift.
This is not self-evident. I believe that the College is threatened by advancing technology, which puts the achievements of the so-called "information order" before all else. We learn that a committee of faculty, administrators, and students is to recommend the "best uses" of the addition. This is a most important development, for the committee is charged, in effect, with safeguarding the spirit of the College from the temptations of the machine. There are, I believe, decisive differences between the claims of a library centered on the liberal arts and those of a burgeoning information nexus whose concerns would only incidentally be those of liberal education.
My guess is that the committee will quickly recognize that its main responsibility is to keep the so-called Iron Law of Technology from dominating its conclusions. This is the law that states: If it can be done, it must be done.
Computer-based "new information centers" are already agents of dehumanization on many campuses, including Dartmouth, separating students from one another, from faculty, from human resources.
I regard the growing discussion of the new library's best use as one of the most stimulating developments in recent College history. We must all be grateful to the Berrys and Mr. Baker for this stimulus to re-examination of what the College is all about.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
Satan's Lesson
ANNE TRAVERS PRATT '78 is "outraged" that C. Everett Koop '37 has, from the hallowed plain of Hanover, spoken out against abortion ("Letters," November). Ms. Pratt calls Mr. Koop's philosophy "unenlightened and retrograde." Since when is condemning murder "unenlightened"? Is it truly "retrograde" to propose "values and ethics" which stand in defense of life, in support of basic morality?
Supporting life has nothing to do with humiliating and denigrating women, as Ms. Pratt intimates; it is simply believing in God. If you truly believe in His existence, you must believe that it is not for us to decide when and where life will be allowed that's His job. As intelligent, free-w willed women, we must realize that our "most personal and most important reproductive decisions," as she words it, are made before conception. After that, it is not our bodies we are making decisions about, but those of beings whose entire genetic makeup is determined upon conception.
I applaud and support Mr. Koop's position, and am proud to be collegiate kin to an important public voice willing to cry out against the sacrificing of sacred life for the expediency of women. I pray that Ms. Pratt and all of us will realize that it is dangerous to play God.
Ask Satan.
Fairlee, Vermont
I Would Like to Reassure Anne Travers Pratt. Four or five years ago I would also have been alarmed. But it would have been a knee-jerk reaction. Everett Koop turned out to be an outstanding Surgeon General. And his personal attitude toward abortion did not influence his performance at that post. He was asked by President Reagan to pull together "evidence of adverse health effects" (presumably mental) "of abortion on women." Although not enthusiastic about the worth of such a project, he began. But after a number of months it became apparent that there were no scientific data available that would confirm either side of that question. So he wrote a letter explaining that to Reagan and never heard from him again about it.
I think committed pro-abortionists like Anne Travers and myself should be happy to have had Koop where he was in Washington, and glad to have him where he is at Dartmouth.
East Thetford, Vermont
IT IS ABSURD TO SUGGEST AS Ms. Pratt does that our alma mater is "back to square one, or worse" regarding women at Dartmouth because there exists on campus a prominent voice interested in keeping alive the ethical debate regarding abortion.
The women of Dartmouth now have every opportunity to express their opinions without the fear of be- ing, in Ms. Pratt's words, "humiliated and denigrated to invade the male sanctum sanctorum that Dartmouth was." It sounds to me as if Ms. Pratt desires to invade the male "sanctum" by attempting to "denigrate" and silence those of us whose opinion on the issue of abortion differs from her view. I resent Ms. Pratt's implication that all well-educated and "enlightened" women agree with her "philosophy." I am proud that my view, and the view of many other Dartmouth women, is being espoused by Dr. Koop.
Abortion is one of the most important and widely debated ethical issues of our day. If dialogue on this issue cannot occur among the well-educated people on a university campus with both sides being represented then where can it occur? I wish Dr. Koop luck in keeping our future doctors struggling with vital issues which impact the humanism of the medical profession.
BRIGHTON, MASSACHUSETTS
Chladek Deserved More
OLYMPIC BRONZE MEDALIST Dana Chladek '85 merited better from the Alumni Magazine [October] than a few lines of introduction to the men who competed in Barcelona. I mean no injustice to Bob Kempainen and the other male Olympians, but outstanding women athletes deserve wider recognition. After all, Dana was not the only Dartmouth alumna to win a medal. She was the only Dartmouth medal winner.
MADRID, SPAIN
Granitic Legislators
DARTMOUTH MEN AND WOMEN should be relieved that the media paid so little attention to New Hampshire's shameful performance in becoming the last state to authorize a day honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.
It occurs to me that a slightly altered phrase from a great Dartmouth song could apply to the hidebound state legislators who were responsible for this unconscionable delay: "...and the granite of New Hampshire in their muscles and their brains."
CAMDEN, MAINE
