‘Amorous Busboys’

Re: “Amorous Busboys,” Andrew Wolf, Opinion, July 29, 2005. I, too, was baffled by the disinterest of today’s teenagers to take “menial” summer jobs. The day I turned 16 in 1976, I jumped in the car and put in an application at McDonald’s, where I got a job as the “lot and lobby” man. This meant emptying waste receptacles, wiping tables, and patrolling the parking lot for trash. At $2.65 an hour, plus a free meal, I was happy to get the job.

Now the father of two teenagers, I can tell Mr. Wolf why teens have changed: college credentialing. No longer is it enough to have good grades and to have spent your summers out of trouble if you want to get into a “good” college.

Today, parents spend thousands of dollars to send their children to Guatemala and Borneo to help the locals build huts and learn English, which looks much better to a college admissions officer than “busboy on the SS Brilliance of the Seas.”

And to get into an Ivy League school? A teenager must not only have near perfect grades, but have taken summer college courses, served the poor in Africa, done an internship with their local U.S. senator – in short, done everything except rule a small Third-World nation.

JAMES VESCOVI
Manhattan

‘Moral Equivalence’

Regarding John P. Avlon’s article on Private First Class Stephen Tschiderer [“No Evidence of Moral Equivalence,” Opinion, July 19, 2005]: I know other countries have compassionate fighting men and women. As Mr. Avlon states, not all our soldiers are saints. But I believe the American military holds a monopoly on that virtue, and I thank your paper and Mr. Avlon for reminding us of that, for I want to believe it reflects the real heart of our country.

May God keep His hand on our troops and the innocent ones they protect.

MANUEL CHAVARRIA
Seabrook, Texas

‘Emergency Exit’

Re: “Emergency Exit,” Abigail Thernstrom, Opinion, July 29, 2005. As counsel to the New York State Assembly speaker and later to the New York City Council Redistricting Committee, I helped guide the 1992 state congressional and the 2003 City Council plan through the Justice Department approval process for Queens, New York, and Bronx counties. The Justice Department, under the first and second Bush administrations, never once interfered with the line-drawing processes. In fact, the Justice Department approved both plans without a question raised.

The Justice Department never “demanded” that New York create “racially gerrymandered” congressional or City Council districts. Both plans were a product of local deliberations. Moreover, Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act remains today an effective enforcement tool for the protection of minority voting rights. Section 5’s mandate goes no further than to prevent the retrogression, or weakening, of effective minority voting strength when new plans are required by decennial census data.

JEFFREY M. WICE
Adjunct professor
Touro Law School
Huntington, N.Y.

‘The Religious Test’

We strongly share the Sun’s view that questioning a nominee on the basis of religion is inappropriate and unconstitutional [“The Religious Test,” Opinion, July 27, 2005]. Historically, Jews have been principal beneficiaries of this vital, unambiguous constitutional command.

While caution against a “religious test” in the upcoming confirmation hearings for Judge John Roberts is appropriate, it is wrong to allege that there has been a “track record” of such attacks in the Senate recently – or that Judge William Pryor’s Catholicism “disqualified him” in the eyes of some senators.

We are not aware of any senator who attacked Judge Pryor – or any other recent nominee – for his religious beliefs. In the case of Judge Pryor, it was his well-documented views regarding judicial philosophy, as expressed in his prolific and forceful legal writings and speeches, and his answers to questions at his Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings, that rightly prompted close scrutiny by the Senate.

ADL does not, as a practice, endorse or oppose nominees to the bench. But we firmly believe in a robust advise-and-consent role for senators. As the Senate thoroughly reviews Judge Roberts’s record and qualifications, no one should try to shut down debate or limit the range of legitimate inquiries regarding his appointment based on the inflammatory and misleading charge of an improper religious test.

DANIEL S. ALTER
Civil rights director
Anti-Defamation League
Manhattan

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