Letters to the Editor
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‘Faculty Members Attack Bollinger Politics’
Thank you for your reportage and editorial on the Columbia faculty group’s attack letter to President Bollinger [New York, “Faculty Members Attack Bollinger Politics,” November 13, 2007].
The letter comes as no surprise, alas. I had the unfortunate pleasure of having seminars with three of the signatories when I was a graduate student at Columbia.
Two of them had no trouble keeping their opinions to themselves during class time. Professor Anderson once compared President Bush to Hitler when I asked him why it took the Jews so long to leave Nazi Germany. Professor Huyssen called Pope Benedict XVI a “bad man,” compared him to East German Marxists, railed against Fox News, and suggested September 11 is important also because it is Marxist philosopher Theodor Adorno’s birthday.
Perhaps Mr. Huyssen and his comrades could learn a thing or two from their distinguished colleague, Orhan Pamuk, who is currently teaching at Columbia. This man has been effectively exiled from his own country of Turkey for discussing the taboo subject of the Armenian genocide. His name does not appear on the list of signatories.
MARCUS PLIENINGER
Astoria, N.Y.
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