Letters to the editor
ROTC protects those who criticize program
To the author of last week's letter regarding ROTC: Have you ever risked your life to protect this country?
To protect freedom, democracy and human rights?
Have you ever watched your friend give his life to protect these ideals and your way of life? I have. And the men and women in the ROTC program will soon be joining me in the ranks of the Army, to fight and possibly die, to protect the freedoms you and the author of a previous week's letter so easily use to vilify the U.S. and the Armed Forces. Calling the Army "an organization that has been credited with some of the most brutal human rights abuses" is very offensive.
I'm sure you meant to say Pol Pot, Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Slobodan Milosevic and Saddam Hussein were at the top of this list, right?
The U.S. Armed Forces have lost over 1.4 million people in the various wars America has fought.
No other country has laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.
Yet you speak of "American tyranny and oppression" and the "imperialistic and ethnocentric military institution," claims that I very seriously doubt you have the life experience to make. The Three C's are part of the core values that the Army lives by. And when people violate these values, they go to Fort Leavenworth Military Prison.
The truth is that you, and people like you, are the sheep. And we are the sheep dogs. We live to protect you and confront the wolf who feeds without mercy on the sheep. Your hate-filled remarks are shameful and hurtful, and you should both apologize.
Sergeant Clint Maples
Iraq War Veteran Bronze Star Recipient
Finance '08
Time for TSC to take more sustainable actions
While I see their point about sustainability, the editorial board's sudden concern for saving paper surprises me.
The Santa Clara has a history of printing off way too many copies of the paper. If they were serious about saving paper, they would take the lead and move their own publication completely online.
Unlike the wildly popular plastic forks in Benson or the paper course schedules, the hardcopy of the newspaper is a great example of something that could be sacrificed to achieve sustainability, especially when there is an award-winning Web site conveniently available.
Anybody interested in doing the sudoku or hunting for those persistent grammatical errors could print it off at home and mark it up "to their heart's content."
Bobby Philbrook
Associated Students Vice President
History '08
Anonymous reporting dangerous to reputations
To the author of last week's opinion article, "Anonymous reporting jeopardizes validity," thank you for pointing this out. Unfortunately (at this point in time), this type of feedback mechanism is warmly embraced in other areas of Santa Clara, too.
For instance, there are certain classes at Santa Clara that determine up to 10 percent of a student's grade according to anonymous, end-of-the-quarter, peer evaluation, without providing for any peer accountability or individual recourse.
Even if a student has honestly done the lion's share of the work for the quarter, there is nothing stopping a few people on the team from turning "Survivor" on the student and voting him or her off of the group evaluation island.
So instead of embracing feedback mechanisms like this that promote "Survivor-like" environments in which students and people of the Santa Clara community can freely accuse others without having to take responsibility for their accusations, the Santa Clara community should encourage open and honest feedback.
Hammurabi's Code from ancient Mesopotamia certainly had a solution to this problem: Don't accuse somebody if you can't verify your accusations against him or her -- your life depends on it.
If open and honest feedback isn't required, especially in highly charged areas such as bias, discrimination and harassment, sadly, I can guarantee you that someone, someday, is going to take this irresponsible and unaccountable feedback mechanism to the extreme and cause our community potentially irreparable and undue harm.
Devin C. Holloway
Marketing '07