 Content
Interact
Receive
About Us
Advertise
|
|
Letters to the Editor Taking a Back Seat to CorporationsIn a recent accreditation article in The Daily Californian ("School Decides Not to Seek Approval," Dec. 3), Hawkins states, "We are geared more toward the corporate aspect of the field, to producing information managers and information technician people." Well, that says it all and rather sadly. UC Berkeley has surrendered whatever last attachment it had to the people in favor of fealty to the corporate state. No trace remains of the idea that knowledge or wisdom are the proper study of mankind. Information is king. The concepts of professional recognition and dignity give way to the profit motive as UC Berkeley strives to suck up to its corporate donors. Pity. Richard K. Moore Garden Grove, Calif. Moved to Tears Thanks to Ryan Tate for his latest column ("Upon the Gears, Upon the Levers," Dec. 3). It was something that I, now a senior in my last semester, had desperately hoped to read for the last three years. I am glad that, a few weeks before I say goodbye to Berkeley, I got the chance to read this. Although it might sound strange, I wept when I read the column. Those tears sprang from a wellspring of "naive idealism" that I thought had run dry. Those people that cry when their education is threatened by disruptive GSIs and supporters of affirmative action -- these people, who ostensibly value their education, are in fact those who no longer understand what education means. Thanks for a hearkening back to the 1960s and a critical spirit that is one of the most important pieces of our heritage, and whose fleeting memory is in danger of being lost. You are an eloquent writer and are not afraid of saying what you think: these are qualities I admire. I hope that you continue to make fruitful use of them in the future. Through tears both of happiness and anger I thought to myself, "How mighty is the pen, how mighty is the pen!" Peijin Chen UC Berkeley student Be Thankful for What You've Got A recent cartoon by artist Andy Singer is abominable even by the standards of Berkeley's own viciously reactionary brand of liberalism ("No Exit," Nov. 23). Accusing President Truman's decision to bomb Nagasaki of being tantamount to a crime against humanity is historical revisionism at its worst. The peace and prosperity we enjoy today are a direct result of the bravery displayed by President Truman and all Americans who fought to defeat fascism. It is the height of hypocrisy and cowardice to use the freedom of the press to deride President Truman for brutally, but decisively, doing what was necessary to save that freedom when it was most threatened. Singer also conveniently overlooks Japan's unprovoked surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, not to mention its torture and slaughter of untold millions of prisoners of war as well as civilian men, women and children. Forty-thousand lives is unequivocally preferable to adding millions more to World War II's staggering death toll in the months it would have taken to invade Japan using conventional methods. Or, perhaps Singer would have preferred to live in a world in which the totalitarian Japanese regime emerged victorious. It is a sad irony that the freedom of speech preserved in part by President Truman is now used to criticize that same man by an ignorant cartoonist who knows nothing of war or oppression. Instead of deriding the generation that did what was necessary -- unpleasant as it may have been -- to preserve democracy for us, Singer should be unconditionally thankful he doesn't live in a world in which fascism prevailed over freedom. Rani Sitty Berkeley resident Copyright 1998, The Daily Californian. All rights reserved.
|