Letters to the Editor

Intolerant of Intolerance

I don’t even know what to say about "Grappling With Intolerance" (Oak Grove, Winter 2004). The saddest thing is that it doesn’t surprise me. And it doesn’t surprise me that these people were able to escape expulsion by making a statement full of the obligatory platitudes about embracing equality and diversity. That’s all it takes now to make up for this kind of behavior? And since when is "we were drunk" an excuse?

This episode illustrates what I’ve run into throughout my life: self-identified "leftists" are just as intolerant as the hate-filled individuals on the far right whom they love to attack. It’s disgusting. And it’s telling that an assumption was made that it was white, straight males. The cliche of white-male-bad sure got drilled into my head during the First Year Seminar I was required to take my freshman year at Wooster. Apparently that hasn’t changed much.

In my experience, the self-righteous liberal types are no better, because if you dare disagree with one of them, you immediately become a nonentity to them. Just like my right-wing friends who abandoned me when they found out I was gay – there’s no difference. When are people going to figure this out, and stop tolerating it simply because it’s dressed up in platitudes about "equality" and "diversity"?

Les Longino ’95

Tucson, Arizona

Two separate episodes of graffiti, vandalism, and willful destruction of property? The students involved are cowards, coming forward after some time and admitting they were "leftists" spewing out right-wing intolerance. Perhaps they are really "leftists" expressing their true intolerance to minorities. Alcohol is no excuse. Alcohol is no defense.

President Hales was wrong to modify the expulsions. These six students do not deserve a College of Wooster degree. I really don’t think that programs in the spring to discuss intolerance are of any value (actually I think they are a waste of time). If you are a student at Wooster, you should have already accepted the premise that intolerance is wrong and hateful.

My sympathy for any students who were affected by this trash. I thank Mr. Bornhuetter for his generous gift to the College, and I hope something like this never happens again.

Howard A. Leister ’55

Doylestown, Pennsylvania

In Goodfellow’s Path

I was surprised to learn that I am not the first Wooster graduate to provide health care to the residents of Tombstone, Arizona, "the town too tough to die" ("The Gunfighters’ Surgeon," Winter 2004). Having grown up on the streets of Wooster with the likes of Jerry Footlick, Scott Craig, and Jim Jolliff, all ’56s, I considered myself well qualified to practice medicine on the "mean streets" of Tombstone.

My wife, Melinda, and I travel to Tombstone and several other small communities in Cochise County (6,250 sq. miles) and provide care in a one-room mobile medical unit. Three years ago we came out of retirement to assist in the development of a series of federally qualified clinics in southeast Arizona. We mainly treat the migrant farm worker population; however, we provide care to anyone who enters our clinics.

By the way, the Crystal Palace Saloon (where Dr. Goodfellow had his office) is still open for business – we dance there occasionally. 

John Haun ’57

Sierra Vista, Arizona

Medicine’s Limitations

Complementary medicine is widely practiced and accepted in our state and has rescued me from "editor’s neck and shoulders" more than once.

While allopathic medicine has its place, its recent reversal on female hormone replacement therapy and the Vioxx flap clearly demonstrate one of its limitations (over-reliance on patent drugs). Thank you for covering the other side of the health maintenance story.

Sarah W. Spurrier ’72

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Tolerant, Accepting

I congratulate you on including the photo and note on the gay marriage of Christopher Myers ’93. Bravo! Wooster has always been in the avant garde of tolerance and acceptance. May it always be so.

Robert F. Mehl ’48

Grand Island, New York

Hold That Trophy!

Luann McClernan Duffus ’81 staked a claim as the first person to write an I.S. on a personal computer ("Sorry, I Was First," Mailbox, Winter 2005), in response to Jay Heiser ’82’s similar claim ("Pioneer in Print," Summer 2004). 

Luann and Jay, hold that trophy! In the spring of 1979 I did my I.S. for Professor E. Carl Zimmerman ’54 in computer science.

One day I stopped over at Professor Zimmerman’s house to give him an update on my thesis. He and his wife, Marlene Fray Zimmerman ’55, were feverishly working on this small computer set up in their house and talking about something called a word processing program. They explained to me that this program, given its ability to save information and allow for easy correction of typographical errors, would soon replace the typewriter. Marlene said that she was going to market her word processing services to students doing their I.S. projects. Given my aversion to typewriters, I responded, "Marlene, I’m your first customer."

So, while many of my classmates went to Florida for their final spring break, I wrote and Marlene word processed. We finished, I believe, in late March or early April 1979; almost two years prior to Luann’s claim to fame of March 2, 1981. So send that trophy (even if it is a "virtual" one) to Portland, Oregon!

Al Lave ‘79

Portland, OR