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Illuminating Shining Path
There are key misconceptions about Peru in M. Elaine Mar's article "Shining
Path Women" (May-June, page 20), concerning the book of essays Robin
Kirk is writing about her experiences there. Mar accepts at face value all
of Kirk's assumptions and fails to question even her most inaccurate assessments.
The terrorist group Shining Path did not garner any kind of significant
political or popular support to unleash its terrorist campaign in 1980.
As a matter of fact, it grew increasingly isolated within fringe ultraradical
Maoist circles, wholly distancing itself from the political process that
actually led that same year to the return of democracy in Peru. Moreover,
the successful struggle against the Shining Path's uncommonly violent terrorism
was carried out by freely elected democratic governments, not under military
rule as the article claims. The strategic defeat of the Shining Path ultimately
was possible as a result of its isolation and the social vacuum created
by the incorporation of rural and urban civilian organizations into counterterrorist
efforts carried out by security forces.
Kirk's woolly views about the role of women in the Shining Path probably
will provide a welcome approach to an issue that needs further exploring.
But her preconceptions of women "revolutionaries" as people who
fought "defending their homes and their families if necessary,"
does appear to provide a rather naive outlook on the issue. Likewise, imaginative
speculations linking Lori Berenson's public statements in support of the
murderous activities of the MRTA terrorist group with Orwellian prison techniques
or mystical bitch-goddesses seem to derive more from the realm of fiction
than from objective analysis.
Finally, I can assure you that the Peruvian government has not reached the
state of paranoia required to claim Kirk was a spy for Shining Path.
Ricardo V. Luna, Ambassador
Embassy of Peru
Washington, D.C.
Deficit Dissents
It is not surprising that Francis Bator's article on "deficit cutting"
(May-June) ignores logic. It is a bit disconcerting, however, that it also
ignores the history of the twentieth century. If governments had the capability
of micromanaging a nation's economic system, and if government investment
was as efficient as private investment, the Evil Empire would not have been
consigned to the dustbin of history, capitalism would not now be reigning
triumphant around the globe, and recessions would be an ancient relic. While
substantial amounts of government investment are necessary, it is ridiculous
to believe that it is anywhere near as efficient on average as private investment.
Of course, private bureaucracies can be inflexible. This is where recessions
come in. Not only is it impossible for governments to avoid recessions,
it is not even desirable. Only recessions force the necessary changes that
all bureaucracies find unpleasant, and only the threat of recession prevents
private entities from becoming financially overextended despite the powerful
tax incentives that our government, in its infinite wisdom, has seen fit
to include in our tax system. As long as we avoid a 1930s-style trade war
and maintain economic flexibility, Bator need not fear that the economy
will have difficulty recovering from recession and fall into depression.
Thank goodness, our Federal Reserve, after its two decades of failures during
the 1960s and 1970s, no longer believes that it can "force" interest
rates down fast enough to prevent recessions.
Balanced budgets may not bring on Utopia, but they will provide the best
financial posture that we, as a practical matter, can expect from government.
Dan Blatt, LL.B. '62
Loomis, Cal.
Harvard's motto is Veritas: truth. a way to pervert truth is to take
that little part of it which is simple and make it look complex. The word
for this process is "obfuscation." It is a modern talent of government
and it appears to me that Harvard is colluding with it.
Bator's article is my particular case in point. I've never written a letter
to the editor of the magazine before, after roughly two decades of subscription,
but I find myself now compelled, despite my upbringing of good taste, to
categorize that article as "horse manure" and proclaim my embarrassment
at my alma mater's connection with its publication.
M. Scott Peck '58, M.D.
New Preston, Conn.
Pizza Slices
It was only through the coincidence of my family's July 4 visit to a classmate
in Maine that I happened to see a copy of the New England regional edition
of the July-August issue with its story, "The New Emma's Pizza".
It was a sad part of my twenty-fifth reunion two years ago to stop by the
original Emma's for a slice-and find the pizza place of my dreams apparently
closed forever. The press of business and family obligations means that
I don't get to Cambridge very often, but I wish Wendy Saver and David Rockwood
good fortune in their endeavor. And I look forward to having a slice when
I'm in the neighborhood.
Steve Potter '69
Freehold, N.J.
"C.R.'s" review of Emma's Pizza epitomizes the term "gratuitous."
In an entirely unnecessary, condescending, and offensive aside, the author,
whose ethnicity is neatly disguised by initials, states that "traditionalists
allege that the blankety-blank Greeks use cheddar in their pizzas,"
then apparently lauds the old owners for their declaration "that under
no circumstances would they sell the place to the Greeks."
I would suggest to Mr. or Ms. C.R. that he or she substitute "blankety-blank
Jews" for the disparaging reference the article actually contains,
and then try to imagine the response that would provoke. I'm sure that the
thousands of proud, successful, and sophisticated (a Greek word) Hellenic
graduates of Harvard are presently letting you and C.R. know just how stupid
and offensive that comment was. Not to mention its absurd contrast to the
cover story, which details the hospitality and support given to Harvardians
at the first Olympics by their hosts-these selfsame Greeks.
Better to eat cheddar than to be an elitist swine, I say.
Patrick B. Marren '82
North Granby, Conn.
Editor's note: "C.R." is managing editor Christopher Reed,
as noted on the magazine's masthead. He was quoting, not endorsing, others'
views, in what seemed a humorous context. No offense intended. Reed, incidentally,
has eaten many pizzas made by Greeks and found them lip-smacking good.
"O Little Town"
In her fine tribute to Phillips Brooks ("Vita," May-June), Kay
Peterson Hall repeats the popular fancy that Brooks wrote "O Little
Town of Bethlehem" in "the Holy Land." Brooks attended midnight
services at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve 1865,
but not until 1868 did he pen the hymn for the Church School Christmas program
of Holy Trinity Church in Philadelphia. The church organist, Lewis H. Redner,
had barely enough time to compose the tune that usually accompanies the
text. Or did Hall assume that Philadelphia is part of the holy land, as,
indeed, is all the earth?
Allen Happe, S.T.B. '65
Cambridge
Expos Exposé
I wanted to clarify my opinion about the expository writing program ("The
Expos Problem," by Thinh Nguyen, July-August) as I am afraid
the quotations taken from my original e-mail present me as rather flippantly
negative about it.
The context of my comments was that teaching students to write papers without
subject matter may not be the best way to improve their writing skills.
Although my preceptor, Patricia Kain, is one of the best writing teachers
I have had, I think her talents were used inefficiently in our Expos class.
The real struggle of writing in college comes not in organizing shallow
knowledge of the sort gained from reading a few articles about a subject,
as done in Expos class, but in articulating ideas that evolve after extensive
reading and thought.
Obviously, extensive coverage of a subject is beyond the scope of the current
writing program. Pairing Expos with selected Core classes, however, could
provide material for paper assignments in addition to improving the quality
of the eventual papers.
Janet Rosenbaum
Cambridge
Conflict of Interest
I am troubled deeply by the ironic parallel of conflict of interests between
the U.S. government's support of the tobacco industry (see "The Fall
of the House of Ashes?" July-August) and Harvard Magazine's advertisement
for a "Smoke Box" on page 23 of the September-October 1995 issue.
The advertisement stated, "Each humidor carries an authentic, elegantly
engraved Harvard plaque." My question is, How can a magazine published
at a University that boasts of the accomplishments of its Nobel laureates,
has established the finest medical school, dental school, and school of
public health, and challenges its students to "Enter to Grow in Wisdom,"
accept advertising for a humidor with an "elegantly engraved Harvard
plaque"? Allow me to assure your readers, as a health-care professional
and educator, that there is nothing "elegant" about lung cancer,
emphysema, or the multitude of oral-pharyngeal carcinomas that smoking cigarettes,
cigars, or pipes or chewing tobacco invites.
Robert G. Denmark, M.P. H. '92, D.M.D.
Havertown, Pa.
Editor's note: The magazine does not now accept cigarette advertising.
For a perspective on the past, see "The College Pump".
The Tides Test
Celebrating "the generation of curiosity and creativity [as] what is
important" long-term from a Harvard education, Jeremy Knowles ("A
Dean's Half-Decade," May-June) speculates that a fine arts
concentrator might "want to buy Scientific American at the age of 55
and worry about why we have two tides a day." At just about that age,
in reaction to a perceived sense of general scientific ignorance (my own
included), I redesigned my course on Victorian literature, "Monkeys,
Cats, and Black Holes," wherein a noncredit "pop quiz" on
the first day includes that very question among 20 similar ones. To date,
in classes of 45 or so, I have not received a single, coherently correct
answer to that question. Do Harvard A.B.s in the humanities want to give
it a shot? I offer 50 to 1 odds to all similarly "educated" alumni/ae
55 years old or younger.
Robert W. Hill Jr. '56, Ph.D. '66
Hudson professor of English
Middlebury College
Vox Populi
Iwas sickened, saddened, and disgusted upon reading the poem "Villanelle
for a Lesbian Mom" in your July-August issue. If you continue printing
material that presents homosexuality in a favorable light, I will withdraw
my support for your publication.
Don Harting '78
Syracuse, N.Y.
Louise Marie Wills ("Letters," July-August) finds it "curious"
that Harvard Magazine would actually "choose to publish" a viewpoint
different from hers! My goodness-how could you do such a thing?
David M. Bloom, Ph.D. '63
Levittown, N.Y.
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