‘The Quiet Americans’

‘First it was the article about timid Republicans afraid to speak up on Bush-hating Manhattan’s Upper West Side; now it’s an article about timid Americans afraid to speak up in Bush-hating England [“The Quiet Americans,” Lauren Mechling, Page 1, November 15, 2004].

Enough whining. I teach at an overwhelmingly, but not monolithically, liberal, Bush-phobic institution in Manhattan and frequently discuss the reasons why I support some, not all, of the president’s policies with students and colleagues.

Most common results: polite indifference or lively, good-natured discussion, and debate.

My advice to conservative fish who feel themselves surrounded by liberal sharks: Start a conversation, encourage rational argumentation, and keep a sense of humor.

You might find out there are more “quiet Americans” who think roughly the way you do than you imagined, and, anyway, it’s more fun than keeping quiet.

MICHAEL LADNER
Brooklyn

‘Contrition Tour’

Newspapers should stop referring to the senior senator of Pennsylvania, one Arlen Specter, as a “moderate” [“Contrition Tour,” Andrew Ferguson, Opinion,” November 17, 2004].

There is nothing moderate about Mr. Specter. The adjective “moderate” is newspaper code for “blatantly liberal.”

ALICE LEMOS
Woodside, N.Y.

Columbia Abuzz Over Film

The latest disclosures about anti-Semitism at Columbia University are hardly a surprise. For more than a decade, Columbia has refused to address seriously issues of academic fraud, financial accountability, and behavior bordering on hate speech, but only when the subject was Jews and Israel [“Columbia Abuzz Over Underground Film,” Jacob Gershman, Page 1, October 20, 2004].

The Columbia I attended did not allow academic fraud. But, today’s Columbia gave full tenured status to Edward Said.

Said’s claim to legitimacy was a fabricated childhood that made him the victim of Israeli persecution and ethnic cleansing when the truth was that he grew up in Cairo and his family was dispossessing Jews in Jerusalem.

The Columbia I attended believed in academic accountability.

Today’s Columbia refused for years to divulge the source of funding for the Distinguished Edward Said Chair in Middle East Studies.

When forced to divulge the funding it was learned the money came from United Arab Emirates. Harvard returned such a pledge last year.

The current holder of the distinguished chair, Rashid Khalidi, told Arabic language television that Dennis Ross, the chief negotiator at Camp David, was a “Zionist” and should not be listened to.

But the most egregious decision was to hire Mary Robinson, the former United Nations director of human rights.

Ms. Robinson presided over the worst public anti-Semitic event since Kristallnacht, the Durban Conference on Racism, which turned into a festival of Holocaust denial and placards of Jews with big noses knifing Arabs.

Columbia’s decision to hire her was based on her “really being a good person” with no acknowledgement of Ms. Robinson’s role in organizing, excusing, and failing to deal with the most vile anti-Semitic event in half a century.

Ms. Robinson has still never apologized or even recognized what a horror she perpetuated on the world’s Jews.

No university would accept people like Mr. Khalidi or Ms. Robinson if their record was one of racism or sexism.

I no longer recognize Columbia and no longer consider it my alma mater. In such an environment it is not surprising that there is now anti-Semitism on its campus.

JONATHAN D. REICH, M.D., M.SC., FAAP, FACC
Columbia College, Class of 1985
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 1986
Assistant Clinical Professor University of Florida School of Medicine
Lakeland, Fla.

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