February 1996

Letters to the Editor

Minorities need support to access higher education

I enjoyed reading "A Near Miss," the story of Maurice Foley '82 in the November Bulletin. His statement, "... I was not prepared for college-academically, socially, mentally, nor spiritually. I was not disciplined enough to deal with the rigorous academic environment," describes many of the students I am working with today at the Foundation for a College Education (FACE), a new organization that supports qualified minority young people as they prepare for and succeed in college.
In the ghetto where I went to school before attending Swarthmore, I always hid my report card, refusing to show it to other students because I made good grades. Many of my friends, even those who excelled academically, did not go on to college. Some had no idea that they could apply; others were afraid that they could not meet the challenges that would await them.
It wasn't the academic challenge that worried my friends. They simply didn't have a clue about how the system of higher education worked and whether they could fit in. Even today when I interview a steady stream of college hopefuls for Swarthmore, I rarely see black or Hispanic youngsters, though I know there are many in the community who are qualified.
The vision of FACE is to form a partnership with students and their families, starting as early in high school as possible, and then to follow the student all the way through entrance into college. Students will commit to achieving their highest potential, families will commit to encouraging them, and the foundation will provide support services and opportunities that help young people see the range of possibilities before them.
This kind of help doesn't start arguments about quotas or debates on the merits of affirmative action. It just opens doors for talented young people.
Sarita Smith Berry '55
Palo Alto, Calif.

No mention of remorse

Observation: Of all the (sometimes startling) poems by prisoners on death row ("Trapped Under Ice," November 1995), not one mentions regret or concern for the victims of capital crimes, or awareness of the families of the victims.
David Bamberger '62
Lakewood, Ohio

The poetry was most revealing, filled with self-pity and cries for mercy, yet strikingly absent of any remorse. I eagerly await a companion anthology written by family and friends of their murder victims, perhaps illustrated with photographs of their funerals and burial sites.
Mary Lou Jones Toal '56
Haverford, Pa.

How easily we could have crossed the line

For those of us fortunate to have been born into safe passage, we can only imagine what we would be if circumstances had been unkind. Still, we congratulate ourselves on our self-control, our accomplishments, our sense of right. We forget our lucky circumstance of a randomly conferred life of safe passage, which the unlucky can only dream of.
How easily we could have crossed that invisible line, how easily we could have been broken, twisted, reviled. Those of us who've had better should know better. We have a responsibility to listen and pay attention, especially to those whose random lot has been deprivation, chaos, rage. Always we should be humbled by the fact that our safe passage is as inexplicable as their downward spiral, their horrific beginnings.
Our putative superiority should never let us forget who we are, nor how little we have to do with who we are.
Louise Petrilla
Upper Darby, Pa.

Harming wrongdoers can't prevent wrongdoing

The ills of punishment are well described in "Trapped Under Ice." The trouble with punishment is that it is used in the mistaken belief that harm to wrongdoers will prevent wrongdoing. That belief is endemic among those supporting President Clinton in his use of force to stop the forcefulness of war.

But nowhere in the article was there mention of a solution. The solution I offer is easy to state but hard to effect: Get the world to understand the iniquity of its insistence on punishment, and get the authorities to admit that they have been and are continuing to make mistakes.
Bill Jones '42
Orlando, Fla.

Zimmerman's book "irresponsible" because it lacks context of crimes

Like Julie Biddle Zimmerman '68, I do not support capital punishment. I too believe that "killing is wrong" and that the death penalty is neither equitable nor an effective premise for a criminal justice system. However, and despite the fact that Zimmerman asserts that her endeavor is not an attempt to minimize crime or glorify criminals (I should hope not), it is both uninformative and irresponsible to print poetry written by death row inmates without any attempt at contextualization-without naming the crimes committed by these men, providing a full account of the present debate surrounding capital punishment, or proposing structural alternatives to present practice. I say irresponsible because Zimmerman draws attention away from those marginalized voices we should be listening to-children and young adults at risk, for instance-and fails to address the ways in which social and political change can help people prior to the need for such poetry. Why not cultivate "creativity and caring" by spending time making sure programs such as Head Start continue to receive federal funding?
I am disappointed that Zimmerman, and the Swarthmore College Bulletin, did not use this occasion to offer the reader an intelligent and multisided discussion of a difficult issue and instead proffered a partial and patently sensationalized version of what ought to be a much more complete and complex account. Those individuals Zimmerman would most like to reach will dismiss her assertions with ease. The Swarthmore College Bulletin is not the place for this sort of journalism, and a convicted killer (?) holding a picture of himself as a Cub Scout does not belong on its cover. Zimmerman has not convinced me that I should want to "meet" this man, "as a person" or otherwise.
Rachael Ziady DeLue '93
Baltimore

What the Bible tells us-two religious views

I wholeheartedly sympathize with your view of capital punishment ("Parlor Talk," November 1995) as organized, revengeful murder. The Roman Catholic Church-to which I belong-claims a consistent pro-life ethic, but it belies its claim to that ethic by failing to condemn capital punishment. As a Christian and a graduate student in theology, I look to the Bible for my inspiration and guidance. Some of the passages that have helped form my conscience on this issue are: Exodus 20:13, Matthew 18:21-22 and 23:37-40, and John 8:1-11. I am cautious about relying solely on specific Biblical passages in settling large issues because isolated verses have been used to defend such evils as slavery and sexism. But in a comprehensive reading of the stories of Jesus' life, I could never imagine a point at which he would condone the lust for revenge that seems to underlie capital punishment.
Jennifer Hayes '90
Scranton, Pa.

For Quakers to oppose the death penalty is strange. Quakerism's founder, George Fox, indicated that we should "quake at the word of the Lord," and it is the height of hypocrisy for a religion to claim the Scriptures as its parentage and then disagree with them on a social issue such as capital punishment.
It is patently clear that God required the death penalty before giving the Law (Genesis 9:6), that it was required as a part of Moses' Law (Numbers 35:31-33) and in the New Testament (Romans 1:32 and 13:1-4).
Leonard Willinger '58
Jacksonville, Fla.

Declaration of Life

Thanks for your editorial on your feelings about capital punishment. I heartily concur. Where can I get a copy of the Declaration of Life document? I want to sign one too.
Robert Freedman '58
New York

The Declaration of Life directs that should you die as the result of a violent crime, the person or persons found responsible for your death not be subjected to the death penalty. It is available from: Cherish Life Circle, Convent of Mercy, 273 Willoughby Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11205.

Ponies-and butter?

I enjoyed Helen Stabler Grinstead's Our Back Pages tale, "The Cow that Went to College" (November 1995). My father, Harry Lewis Lundy '26, told a similar story about a pony in Wharton. Does anyone have information on the adventures of this intellectually aspiring pony?
Vera Lundy Jones '58
Bay Head, N.J.

The back pages of November 1995's Bulletin were intriguing-especially as I had been brought up on an expanded cow episode as told by my father, Harper V. Bressler '14. His version had Miss Bossy greeting the math professor in his classroom in the dome and having to be removed by block and tackle rigged up through the stairwell. I always howled at the thought of Miss Bossy being lowered the five flights to freedom. I've told my version of the story often to my children and grandchildren, who took great delight in the "bad boys" who performed such antics. Now I'll have to set the story straight-too bad!
Now that we're remembering Swarthmore bad boys, do you have any account of the episode by one of the fraternities (during 1942-43?) who greased the train tracks with butter back to the trestle?
Elizabeth Bressler Bunting '45
Malvern, Pa.
ebunting@omni.voicenet.com

One more mailbox dream


More on the mailbox dream: In my variation the anxious trip to check the mail was a prelude to taking a final in a course I'd never cracked a book for. I say "was" because one night I had a dream that I got an A in the course-and I've never had the mailbox dream again.
Mary Sweeten '76
Philadelphia

The Bulletin welcomes letters from readers concerning the contents of the magazine or issues relating to the College. All letters must be signed and may be edited for clarity and space. Address your letters to Editor, Swarthmore College Bulletin, 500 College Avenue, Swarthmore PA 19081-1397, or send by electronic mail to bulletin@ swarthmore.edu.

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