Johns Hopkins Magazine
Johns Hopkins Magazine Current Issue Past Issues Search Get In Touch
   
O U R    R E A D E R S    W R I T E
Letters
 
[Send your letters via
email to cpierre@jhu.edu]
Pride in the profession
Wilson's role in Jim Crow
Major concern
Really, a kludge?
A real campus, even then
400 years, and counting
China has other priorities

Pride in the profession

I was very touched by Bryan Fultz's story ["After the Fire," September] and the fact that he plans to become a burn nurse. As an OB nurse, I am always grateful for the people who work in areas that I would consider difficult. By the same token, I know the ED nurses are always happy to get laboring women up to us because childbirth is not within their comfort level. Nurses all have to find the niche that they feel best in. Although Fultz had to go through hell to get healthy, I am glad he will use his experience to help others. This story reminded me of how proud I am to be a nurse.
Megan McIntyre, Nurs '97
Dover, New Hampshire


Wilson's role in Jim Crow

I was surprised that W. Barksdale Maynard's article "More Than a Mere Student" [September] failed to mention Woodrow Wilson's critical role in extending Jim Crow.

From the end of the Civil War through the term of Republican WilliamTaft, Washington, D.C., was relatively free of the "separate but equal" legislation that almost guaranteed that black Americans received education, accommodations, and working conditions inferior to those available to white Americans. This respect and sanctuary for black Americans in the South came to an end in 1913 when President Wilson extended segregation to the federal government.

It is tragic that a man who was "on fire with passion to lead men and achieve greatness" sought to achieve personal greatness by supporting a political compromise that crushed the lives of so many of his fellow citizens.
Frank R. Gunter, A&S '86 (PhD)
Associate Professor of Economics
Lehigh University


Major concern

In "The Maestra Tunes Up" [September], Dale Keiger states that in September Marin Alsop would "inaugurate her first season as the first woman ever appointed music director of a major American orchestra." Maestra Alsop was for 12 years music director of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. Is the CSO less a "major orchestra" than the BSO? Orchestra rankings are at best difficult, subjective, and fleeting. In a 1994 review of the top 100 orchestras in the world, there were but 19 from the United States. The BSO ranked 16th of 19. The CSO didn't make the list. But does ranking 16 of 19 qualify for title of major American orchestra? Hardly, especially, if by use of that term, the reader gets the impression that Maestra Alsop's previous assignments are to be dwarfed by her new position with the BSO.
Sidney Russak, Engr '54 (MSE)
Centennial, Colorado


Really, a kludge?

Like a man with a jar full of sand and water bragging that he has captured the essence of the sea and its mysteries, so is [David J.] Linden in his appraisal of the amazingly complex human brain ["Your Brain on Evolution," Wholly Hopkins, September].

Dr. Linden, have you come up with a better design model for the brain than God? Well then, you should be able, without great difficulty, to design, build, and bring to life a new and improved simple cell. Just for a warm-up, of course. Can you fabricate a cell that has its own mitochondrial power supply, Golgi complexes, ribosomes, and centromeres? Will your cell be able to protect itself, propel itself, heal itself, and communicate with billions of other cells under the master control of the brain?

No, Dr. Linden, you and all of the combined intellects of all scientists in the world can't even make a single cell, and yet you presume to tell us that undirected lifeless matter created this miraculous supercomputer you refer to as a "kludge."
Erik Dressel, A&S '84
Baltimore, Maryland


A real campus, even then

There were three buildings in the main quadrangle, but there were 15 on campus when I got there in October 1946 as a freshman ["Bon Voyage, Miss Minnie," September]. There were the Homewood House, the dormitory, the Faculty Club, Levering Hall (where Miss Minnie worked), the two engineering buildings, the power house, the gymnasium, two ROTC buildings behind the gym, and a high pressure laboratory in the old gate house. In addition, the Peabody Institute was on the Homewood grounds and the new Aeronautical Engineering building was in the woods behind the campus in Wyman Park. There are many more now, but the Homewood campus was a real entity in 1946.
Frank Huber, Engr '50
Estero, Florida


400 years, and counting

Solomon Golomb's column "Calendar Oddities" [September] is fun and interesting, as usual. However, I think there is an underlying error. The author assumes that the applicable period for determining periods of repetition of dates is 400 years. He then concludes that because 400 is not evenly divisible by 7, dates do not fall across the calendar equally. However, if a longer period of time is used, say 2,800 years, then we have a number that is evenly divisible by 7 and by 400 — so in the long run, the probability that Christmas falls on a Wednesday is in fact one-seventh. I think that the same logic will demonstrate that the 13th is, in the long run, equally likely to fall on any day of the week.
Edward J. Levin, A&S '73
Baltimore, Maryland


China has other priorities

In "20 Questions: China Edition" [June], you address the possibility of China becoming more democratic. I make no claim to being an expert, but as someone married to a Chinese woman for eight years, and having had the opportunity to travel there, it seems to me that the chances of China becoming more democratic in our lifetimes are very slim. Respect and deferral to authority are deeply ingrained in Chinese culture, and stem from Confucius.

My impression is that, although most Chinese would like more say in politics, the vast majority are not willing to take any personal risk to effect it; they're much more likely to take action if the government would take steps to hinder their personal prosperity. In the West, we very often make a mistake thinking that foreigners think the same as we do, and that everyone must want to live in a "free" and "democratic" society. For most people in the People's Republic, this is a very low priority; I think many of them see the fact that there is a separate Chinese government in Taiwan as a much more pressing issue.
Dr. Charles Demuynck,
Peab '91 (MM), '92 (GPD)
Toronto, Ontario

Return to November 2007 Table of Contents

  The Johns Hopkins Magazine | 901 S. Bond St. | Suite 540 | Baltimore, MD 21231
Phone 443-287-9900 | Fax 443-287-9898 | E-mail jhmagazine@jhu.edu