TRUTH

lettersCOURAGE TO ACTIt is a sad commentary on the Americanpeople and our current culture that, asSean Barney '98 points out in “A Soldier'sTale” (December Bulletin), “the well educatedand the well-to-do are increasinglyabsent from the military's ranks.”With a tear in my eye and a lump in mythroat, I thank Sean Barney for the sacrificehe has made. He had the courage to acton his convictions when most of us turn ablind eye and look in the other direction.WILLIAM NORWOOD '50Spokane, Wash.FUNDAMENTAL TRUTHSThank God for Sean Barney. He sawthrough the trees and understood the fundamentaltruths of today: We are at war,freedom is not free, and democracy impliesresponsibility. The selective study of history—doesthe name Neville Chamberlainmean anything to anyone?—is dangerous.Paradoxical and tragic as it is, there aretimes when war is the only route to peace.I am still hopeful that my son-in-law'sdeath on 9/11 was not in vain.ROBERT ROWLEY '61Danbury, Conn.IF THERE MUST BE HEROIC ACTSSean Barney's devotion to his ideals isexemplary. The risk that he exposed himselfto in their name—not to mention theprice that he paid—makes his positionthat much more believable and persuasive.Thus, he has a great responsibility to whathe represents. Yet, although I can followthe thinking that led him to enlist andthen to volunteer for duty in Iraq, I am leftwith a nagging doubt.He writes about the loss of Americanlives and mentions that these often comeabout as a result of Iraqi suicide missions.How convinced or desperate must one beto resort to such a drastic measure?Although murder was part of SaddamHussein's politics, Iraqi men and womenwere not committing suicide on this scaleunder his regime. The great loss of civilianlives and the suffering of the rest of Iraq'spopulation is therefore a direct result ofthat war. This—and not the loss of Americanlives—is what is really wrong.I am not talking about differences ofopinion but about the wanton waste ofhuman life for a cause that was lost fromthe start because it was based on flawedthinking, false pretenses, and outright lies.How can it be right to serve ideals that arebeing trampled by President Bush himself?I live in Germany, and when Bush isirresponsibly compared to Hitler, it has adifferent ring here. With blind trust, theGerman people followed their democraticallyelected leader into a catastrophe,persuaded that they were doing the rightthing. If ever there was an example of aleader unscrupulously abusing the besttraits of his people, this was it. Viewedfrom this vantage point, making war onIraq seems nothing less than insane.With all due respect for Sean Barney'ssuffering, is there not a higher duty thanrisking your life and condoning the loss ofother lives—American and Iraqi? Would itnot have been better to mobilize with thesame devotion to duty every last moralfiber in America to prevent this sad waste?If there must be heroic acts, then whyaren't the Marines—with soldiers like SeanBarney at their head—marching on theWhite House?JEAN-MARIE CLARKE '74Staufen, GermanyTHE BEST TEACHERSHow wonderful to see a full-page pictureand a profile of Centennial ProfessorEmerita of Classics Helen North (“Q+A,”December Bulletin). My one regret, yearsafter graduating from Swarthmore, wasthat I never took a course with her. I was achemistry major—why would I need GreekLiterature in Translation? Yet everyone whotook that course worshipped ProfessorNorth. Going to her class was the highlightof their week.During the years that she was leadingAlumni College Abroad trips to theMediterranean, I had neither the time northe money to take them. Finally, when Ihad both, I managed to plug a giant hole inmy education by traveling with ProfessorNorth around Ireland, looking at Neolithicsites, learning about the Stone Age, theCelts, medieval times, and William ButlerYeats. At age 83, she ran circles around us.It was an honors seminar without havingto write the papers. I treasure every minuteI spent with that remarkable woman.It really is true that the best advice youcan give a young person starting college is:“Find out who the best teachers are, andtake their courses. It doesn't matter whatthey are teaching."ELIZABETH PROBASCO KUTCHAI '66Charlottesville, Va.REMEMBERING DOUG WEISSIt was with dismay and sadness that I readof Doug Weiss' death in September 2006(December Bulletin). Although some 30years have passed since I last saw Doug, Ihave recently been thinking of him whiletrying to make a rather unremarkablecomeback in the local weight room.Some time after I made Doug's acquaintancein the Swarthmore Field Houseweight room, he challenged me to a contest:the most dips on the parallel bars andthe most behind-the-neck pull-ups on theUniversal Gym bars. He easily won the firstcategory, and I won the second, but thecontest itself didn't matter. What reallymattered was that, whenever I saw him, hetook a personal interest in me and mytraining, reaching out a hand of friendshipin the process.God has a special place in his heart forthose who reach out to others as Doug did.ROGER KARNY '76DenverFOR THE RECORDNovelist Benjamin Kunkel was inadvertentlymisquoted in “The Writer's Writer”(Dec. Bulletin). Referring to Norman Rush's['56] award-winning novel, he actuallysaid: “For my money, Mating is the bestAmerican novel of the last 30 years.”march 2007 : 3