Japan Storm - Columbia College - Columbia University

Piero Weiss ’50, ’70 GSAS
have Professor Weiss (who later joined
the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory)
as my instructor in the Music Humanities
survey course in the spring term of 1968,
when he was a teaching assistant and doctoral
candidate.
I was then a teenager whose knowledge
of music was confined to the rock
and pop genres, but Weiss opened up a
miraculously entertaining and incredibly
diverse world. Beginning with the aweinspiring
power and grace of massed, unaccompanied
human voices in Gregorian
chant, Weiss unveiled a panoply of Western
music ranging across the baroque
and romantic eras. His insistence that our
class avail itself of music venues in New
York City and report on our experiences
resulted in my first visit to Carnegie Hall
and a lifelong love of baroque orchestral
works.
Weiss’ class that semester was one of
the defining experiences of my time at Columbia,
and I greatly mourn his passing.
Peter H. Jacoby ’71
Bedminster, n.J.
Real Medicine
I was puzzled by a letter from Dr. Samuel
M. Salamon ’74 (Fall 2011). He returns to
the old “socialized medicine” as a club to
obscure the tragedy and crisis in the health
delivery system in the United States. He
repeats the philippic that this country is
the mecca of medicine.
Only the other day my medical student
class interviewed a 54-year-old woman
(the objective was to teach the students the
biopsychosocial model). Her leg had been
amputated. Why? Because her income was
above Medicaid and she wasn’t old enough
for Medicare. She had gone to a city hospital
where there was no continuity of care,
no education for diabetes. Her depression
was missed. She ate candy for lunch. Her
sugar (glucose) was 400mg (normal ought
to be 90–120). The consequences are amputation,
end-stage kidney disease, blindness.
She did not have insurance, as she couldn’t
afford it.
In Belgium, she would have been followed;
a nurse would have visited her repeatedly;
and her physician, called “doctor,”
not “provider,” would have been
engaged with a patient, not a “consumer.”
There would be no CEO of an HMO
getting $20 million a year and attempting
to stop physicians from treating patients
in order to save money for his salary and
investors.
As for new drugs, Salamon appears
mistaken. Insulin came from Canada.
Psychopharmacology medications (Thorazine)
came from France. Anti-depressants
came from the Swiss pharmaceutical industry,
along with dozens of drugs used
in cancer and so on. The cost of drugs in
the European single payer system is half
the amount we pay in this country. Salamon
needs a vacation in France, Germany
and/or Switzerland to experience real
medicine dedicated to the ill.
Dr. Jay Lefer ’51
larChmont, n.y.
Climate Change
I was dismayed to read Dr. Aaron Gleckman
’88’s letter (Fall 2011) attacking Michael
Gerrard ’72, subject of an earlier
profile in CCT, as both a “hypocrite”
and “enviro-statist” (whatever that is).
The science of climate change cannot
be dismissed by personal attacks, especially
when those attacks are launched
against someone such as Gerrard, who
is widely acknowledged within his professional
and academic community as a
true expert. While the letter-writer trumpets
his exposure to Plato in freshman
CC class, it’s unfortunate that he never
learned the value of supporting one’s argument
with facts and logic rather than
ad hominem.
Ed Scarvalone ’81
BrooKlyn, n.y.
WINTER 2011–12
5
Photo ID
Thanks for taking the time to send an
enlarged copy of the photo on page 4 of
the Fall 2011 issue. I now am quite certain
that the midshipman to the left is me and,
while the other midshipman and student
in civilian dress are harder to clearly
identify, I believe they are Joe Smotzer ’57
and Ken Skivington ’57, ’58E.
Paul Frommer ’57 was, I think, correct
in identifying Smotzer as the other midshipman.
I sent a copy of your enlarged print to
two classmates to see if they could corroborate
my identification. Dick Guiton,
my former roommate, and Kel Thomson
’57, who was a fellow midshipman, both
agreed that I was identifiable in the photo.
Neither had any difficulty identifying
Alexander Hamilton.
I would date this photo about November
1956 and am still trying to get my
mind around the concept of being in a
“historical photo.”
Richard A. Drever Jr. ’57, ’63 Arch.
seBastoPol, Calif.
CORRECTIONS
Frederick C. Stark Jr. ’51, whose letter was
published in the Fall 2011 issue, was listed
with an incorrect class year.
The island in the title of the book by Martin
Margulies ’61 listed in the Fall 2011
Bookshelf was incorrect. The correct title
is Mhòr and More: Hill Walks in Uist.
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