Letters to the Editor

Writer's opinion on Second Life is muddled

Regarding 'Ctrl+Alt+Lawnparties: The Backslash' (Friday, Sept. 21, 2007):

I can't tell from this column if "The Weather Guy" is disgruntled by the University's participation in Second Life or just making fun of it. In fact, this column makes me want to go to Second Life and see what the ruckus is about. So, this is actually advertising the existence of SecondLife while insinuating that you are offended by it. Julie Angarone Departmental Computing Support Specialist

Iranian president's visit keeps him on the defensive

Regarding 'Free exchange of ideas' (Monday, Sept. 24, 2007):

When people are ostracized, they tend to interpret that as a kind of perverse confirmation. Such people often think that "they are afraid to listen to my message because they know they can't refute it." Isn't it better to keep people like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad frequently on the defensive, rather than consigned to an isolation that only strengthens their sense of unjust persecution? Granted that an encounter with Columbia is unlikely to change his mind, would we rather he had no one to talk to but those who already agree with him?

And since Ahmadinejad is a master of evasive replies, there is at least one thing Columbians (and the rest of us) can learn from him: How to ask more pointed, searching, incisive questions that insist on straightforward, honest answers. Peter Jeffery GS '80 Scheide Professor of Music History

Seeing an enemy makes him human

Regarding 'Too controversial for comfort' and 'Free exchange of ideas' (Monday, Sept. 24, 2007):

The opposing editorials on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech at Columbia failed to mention one positive aspect of the leader's visit: Namely, the chance it gave students and others to see America's enemy in person. For as much as "read[ing] his vitriolic writings and voluble speeches, watch[ing] him on '60 Minutes' and ... hear[ing] him speak to the United Nations" is useful in trying to grasp Ahmadinejad's rhetoric or imagine what he must be like, it is the unscripted gestures, awkward interactions, the cloying familiarity or unabashed hostility that come along with seeing him in person that brings Ahmadinejad down to human size (five feet, six inches for that matter.) Covering one's ears and shrieking that someone is the manifestation of evil — the way many Americans reacted to Ahmadinejad's visit — not only inflates his ego, but also reduces our ability to think logically about solutions to the present crisis. Really, what can we do about "true evil" other than work to annihilate it at all costs?

Regrettably, "annihilation" cannot be a part of America's policy repertoire in the Middle East. It was of course a favorite tactic of the Cold War superpowers to try to appear more irrational than they actually were. To get around that, we have to demystify our enemies. More than relying on images and rhetoric, encountering an opponent face to face is an important step in realizing that he or she is human and fallible. Hopefully this was a lesson to the hundreds of Columbia students willing to "endorse" evil by seeing America's enemy in person.? Alex Balistreri GS

Students should appreciate Firestone's open-shelf policy

Regarding 'The Firestone lounge?' (Monday, Sept. 24, 2007):

I am very worried to hear that open access to Firestone's miles of shelving might be taken away for the sake of what classics professor Joshua Katz rightly calls a lounge. As an entering graduate student at a certain institution in Massachusetts that I shall not mention by name, I have found quickly that while most libraries here have open stacks, the few times I have had to submit requests for journal articles hidden away in depositories — typically older ones not available online — have been enough to make me long for the seemingly ubiquitous open shelves of Princeton's libraries. Research is not as easy when you must wait a day or two to read an article that might not be relevant in the first place, or you cannot browse around without knowing exactly what you need. I only hope that the current undergraduates find this possibility as worrisome as, say, the arrangement of tables in the Rocky-Mathey dining halls and put their voices against it. Jayson Paulose '07