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A matter of sacrifice and a matter of service
To the Editor:
I was saddened by Kate Mason's recent editorial [Learn and love to kill for
the U.S.A., 11/20/97, YH); I feel it does a disservice to
servicemembers and many of her fellow classmates and alums.
She berates, by comparison, a childhood friend's father for serving his
country while claiming that her father was learning to save lives (I
think of the multitudes of Army medics, serving not only America's troops, but
civilians in Rwanda, Bosnia, Somalia, Central America--soldiers who have
pioneered field medical clinics, who provide dental and eye care to people who
have often never seen a doctor in their lives).
She speaks of a friend of a friend, and denigrates her decision to serve her
country. She talks about "basic rights." Yet she fails to realize what these
people are doing.
Unlike most countries, the U.S. does not have a draft process. The people she
ridicules, those above whom she places herself, have volunteered their own
careers to serve in order that she doesn't have to do so herself. They have
given up the protection afforded in the U.S. Constitution in order that she
won't lose hers. That she was able to write and publish her editorial without
any fear of censorship or retribution is testimony to the conviction and
sacrifice of U.S. military personnel, who, by the way, only perform those tasks
ordered by their duly elected civilian leaders.
As you walk through Woolsey Hall (the inspiration for Maya Lin's Vietnam War
Memorial), as you pass the memorial to fallen Yalies on Beinecke plaza, Yalies
who died so she could write her editorial, I hope that you are able to feel,
just a bit, what sacrifices were made in order that you would not be forced
into battle.
As for her self-righteous "self-respect," I take it she has not observed how
military service can really transform people. How youths who might have
otherwise been trapped by a lack of education or opportunity have earned their
"self-respect" through hard work and challenge.
I once thought as she did, thought that the military was a sort of amorphous
serum to be injected into global hotspots. When I graduated from Yale College
in 1989, I could not imagine a more odious, foreign culture. I enlisted in
1990. In order that you won't think that all Yale's liberal arts education went
to waste, I will tell you that I graduated from Yale again, in 1997, with an MA
in International Relations. My comrades are scattered about the country:
Columbia, Georgetown, Indiana University, Berkeley, and more. Two of my Army
Reserve friends, one a graduate student, one a successful entrepreneur, are now
serving uncomplainingly--at the behest of their duly elected civilian
leaders--a nine-month tour in Bosnia. At Yale I found other service-members,
Foreign Area Officers, G.I. Bill recipients, and the like. They are truly some
of the brightest, hardest-working scholars I have ever known, all working, all
serving, just for you.
I write with all sincerity. I write with tears in my eyes, most of
frustration, and some of happiness. A frustration that comes because many at
Yale can so cavalierly discard the sacrifices of others, sacrifices that have
allowed others their freedoms, and happiness that no government agency can or
will impinge on your freedom to hold or express your opinion.
I urge you to get to know some of your servicemembers.
--David A. Jones, SM '89, GRD '97
Leave Weld enough alone
To the Editor:
I am writing to express my disappointment at your negative depiction of
William Weld, former governor of Massachusetts [Harvard Ready to Sweep 1997
Under the Rug, 11/20/97, YH].
In Jennifer Supernaw's article, Weld is criticized as an ambassadorial
candidate blocked by Jesse Helms because he was "weak on weed." Weld, a
Republican, supports the medical use of marijuana, a progressive stance of
which he should not be ashamed. Jesse Helms' dictatorial refusal to hold a
confirmation hearing was an embarrassment to our political system.
That Weld fought Helms, an antediluvian isolationist, is a testament to his
fortitude and perseverance. His efforts should not be criticized but on the
contrary, applauded, despite his alma mater.
There are many things to criticize Harvard about. William Weld is not one of
them.
--David Sher, MC '98
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