Regarding ‘Letters to the Editor,' (Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2008):
I am from Charleston, S.C. and have lived seven blocks from The Citadel all my life. Its presence shaped many of my childhood experiences.
The Citadel is part of the Old South, a culture that venerates Charleston as the founding city of the Confederacy. Citadel cadets display many of the positives of that legacy: They are polite, reliable and honorable, but only if you are conservative, polite, reliable and respectful of The Citadel.
Citadel cadets get away with murder because they are Charleston's golden boys. All cadets look forward to an alumni network much stronger than Princeton's and much more respected in the South.
Therefore, none of this was surprising. The cadets' sacred, honorable institution was invaded by "long-haired liberals" banging on flamingos, so the cadets lashed out. I don't blame the Princeton University Band for what happened because it would have been impossible for it to understand The Citadel.
That is not the PUB's job, though. It is the job of The Citadel's administration to consider carefully what it lets on to campus and what its cadets will think of it. In this case, it failed. And that failure demonstrated that the Citadel is a place where discipline is subordinate to tradition, and not the other way around, as it should be.
Michael van Landingham '08
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