Letters

QUOTE/UNQUOTE "The recent football teams record is not the fault of this year's team nor is it the fault of Buddy Teevens '79. The fault lies with a Dartmouth aclministration that just doesn't seem to care." -SAM BARTLETT '57

Cutting Edge

RELATIVE TO DARTMOUTH'S Announcement of budget cuts ["Campus," Jan/Feb], I recommend cutting the salaries of the top 10 administrators by 10 percent and, sad to say, eliminating the football program. The recent year's record has been abysmal. Student attendance has been minimal. If Dartmouth shorts the resources to recruit and the students don't care, why continue?

To save more the College should reduce the number of classes offered by 5 percent and let up a little on being all things to all people. It should also cease all plans for expansion, which will help the budget and moderate Dartmouth's image as one big parking lot.

I further urge the College to make its budget, in readable form and detail, a matter of public record.

North Stonington, Connecticut

Missing the Point

MY ASSESSMENT OF THE JAN/FEB issue? A comic-book-like cover and zero athletic team pages. What wonderful innovations may we anticipate in future issues?

Palm Beach, Florida

THE FASTING ADVICE OFFERED IN your “25 Amazing Alums, 25 Amazing Ideas” [Jan/Feb], headlined “How to Fast as a Means of Protest and Survive,” was misguided.

Fasting is an ancient healing process. Peruse Upton Sinclair's The FastingCure (free at books.google.com). With sufficient fat stores, a 30-day fast will cure you, not "starve" you. Fasting is not a mere political gambit. We evolved to go long periods without food (what do you suppose fat is meant for?). Our daily eating is harming us. Almost everyone's body and soul would benefit from a good long fast.

Temecula, California

Living Free

CHARLIE WHEELAN '88 ["LIVE FREE or Die?" Jan/Feb] asks, "Where is the outrage over torture and unlimited detention" at Guantanamo? It is my understanding that Amnesty International is considering recommending that persons released from Guantanamo and from rendition should be compensated by the U.S. government.

It's my feeling that Congress should provide for this and establish a system to administer a program of compensation.

New York City

WHEELAN'S FACULTY OPINION Suggests that government's role is to protect us from cancer-causing chemicals in cleaners while it looks the other way when someone smokes a plant. Ironically, in order to enjoy pot, you have to draw carcinogen-laden smoke into your lungs and hold it there, assuring that the drug dissolves in your fatty tissue.

Taking it a step further, let's say, hypothetically, a college professor smokes pot in his house. His son finds him smoking and pretty soon it seems hypocritical for Dad to say no. The professor earns a decent salary and can afford to live close to his son's high school, and before long his house becomes a hangout. His son and his friends are bright and pleasant, allowing them to earn offcampus privileges, so during study hall they wear a path to their friend's house to get high. Thus Wheelan and the rest of us can rest assured that our government keeps our children safe from cancer-causing cleaners, allowing for a longer, higher life sucking in unregulated marijuana smoke—during school—in the safety of our own homes while we toil away at work.

Thetford Center, Vermont

WHENEVER HE IS FINISHED WITH his musings on stoplights, visiting economics professor Wheelan will profit immensely from a close study of Eric Hoffer's The Ordeal of Change (1963)—particularly Hoffer's elaboration on these thoughts: "The intellectual goes to the masses in search ofweightiness and a role of leadership. Unlike the man of action, the man of words needs the sanction of ideals and the incantation of words in order to act forcefully. There is considerable evidence that when the militant intellectual succeeds in establishing a social order in which his craving for superior status and social usefulness is fully satisfied, his view of the masses darkens."

Cincinnati, Ohio

Armchair Quarterbacks

THE RECENT FOOTBALL TEAM'S record ["Campus," Jan/Feb] is not the fault of this year's team nor is it the fault of Buddy Teevens '79. The fault lies, it seems to me, with a Dartmouth administration that just doesn't seem to care much for the old tradition of competitive Dartmouth football teams.

I've had the chance to look over the shoulder of a friend involved with Harvard football, and have noticed that its successful program is a combination of fine coaching staff, alumni support, serious attention to recruiting and, not the least, strong support from the Harvard administration. This doesn't mean that Harvard has adopted the M.O. of Miami nor does it mean that Ivy League standards have been twisted or broken. It means that all elements of Harvard really care about the football team and the young men who do so well on that team. The same can be said for most other Ivy League schools, as recent win/ loss records make clear.

In discussing the situation with a Dartmouth graduate friend I mentioned I was planning to write a letter suggesting that Dartmouth either start caring about the sad state of the football program or give up the sport a la the University of Chicago decades ago. He cautioned me that "they" might just decide to give it up! Consequently, let me close by urging "them" only to start caring more about this fine tradition.

Plymouth, Massachusetts

WHILE ENJOYING THE WEEKEND of the Holy Cross game in Hanover (though not the results of the game) it occurred to classmates and me that the revered Dartmouth Night tradition appears in jeopardy. Sure, the president and athletic team captains speak from the steps of Dartmouth Hall and the bonfire eventually rages, but if you read the literature it's under the rubric of "homecoming." I thought homecoming was for Ohio State, Virginia Tech or USC and Dartmouth Night was for Dartmouth. Am I wrong?

Redwood City, California

Write to Us We welcome letters. The editor reserves the right to determine the suitability of letters for publication and to edit them for accuracy and length. We regret that not all letters can be published, nor can they be returned. Letters should run no more than 200 words in length, refer to material published in the magazine and include the writer's full name, address and telephone number. Write: Letters, Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, 7 Allen Street, Suite 201, Hanover, NH 03755 E-mail: DAMIetters@dartmouth.edu Fax: (603) 646-1209