Letters to the Editor
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
‘Columbia Capitulates to Hunger Strikers’
I read the article “Columbia Capitulates to Hunger Strikers” with a feeling of dismay [New York, November 16, 2007].
The reaction of the administration at Columbia reminded me of a group of overindulgent, confused parents trying to deal with their children’s willful behavior.
The students staged a hunger strike because they felt that changes needed to be made to the “Eurocentric core curriculum” with increased funding and staff for “ethnic studies.”
My response to these students would be to explain clearly that in order to understand our country as a “people” we need to understand our roots. As it happens, America is rooted in the culture and ideals of Western civilization. That is the reason why it is highlighted in the curriculum.
KAREN POMERANTZ
Short Hills, N.J.
‘Politicians Against Progress’
The reason that even giving the apartments in the projects away to the tenants will be viewed as being “bad for poor people” is that the projects, like much of public policy nowadays, are a kind of gerrymander, a built-in constituency for the politicians who support the social welfare state [Oped, “Politicians Against Progress,” November 20, 2007]. If they are given away, the people may sell them, move away, and replaced by others who will be bad for re-election demographics. It appears sometimes that engineering the next election becomes the sole purpose of government policy.
ALAN GOLDMAN
Lawrence, N.Y.
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