Short-sighted and demeaning
I was thoroughly disappointed to see Wayne Smith on the cover of
the April issue of your fine magazine
["Candid About Cuba"].
Having been a student of Mr. Smith while at Hopkins, and having
followed his career in political science, I have come to the
conclusion that he is a self-serving impersonator, whose
convictions regarding Cuba are short-sighted and demeaning to
American politics and the citizens of Cuba.
As even the most amateur political historian can explain, the
most prominent enemy of life in this century has not been war,
famine, or disease, but rather communism and communist
dictatorship. The numbers killed by Stalin, Pol Pot, and Chinese
communist regimes dwarf the tragedy of the Holocaust; and the
killing has been equally meaningless.
If you ask the people of Tibet and those worldwide who have
suffered at the hands of communism, perhaps you would be less
likely to gladhand a man who leans his success on the foundation
of the proliferation of communism.
While in Mr. Smith's class, The Cuban Revolution, Hopkins
students were required to purchase Mr. Smith's book, which
includes pictures of him barefoot enjoying a barbeque with
Castro. We endured canceled classes while Mr. Smith enjoyed
visiting Cuba, while boasting about his methods of aiding
individuals to circumvent American laws designed to prevent such
visits. Even on your cover, he is smoking a Partagas cigar made
in Havana, and contraband in the United States. Though once a
dedicated civil servant, Mr. Smith has found it more lucrative
to flout the laws of the United States and undermine our
government's policy decisions.
Mr. Smith, in your article, cited the Pope's visit and the
acceptance of religion in Cuba as a demonstration of the
people-friendly approach of the Castro regime. But, try as he
might, Mr. Smith cannot take credit for a newfound tolerance of
religion in Cuba. For over 30 years Castro's regime deplored
religion, and imprisoned religious leaders.
Any softening of those policies can be attributed in part to the
pressures of American embargos. The diplomatic policy of the
United States government regarding Cuba, though slow, is
effective. I can only hope, for the sake of the Cuban people,
that Mr. Smith changes his mind and retires with haste to some
mountain meadow.
Rakesh Sharma '95
New York, NY
Long waits for transplants
This is in reference to the article,
"All is not
equal for transplant patients" in the June 1998 issue of the
magazine. I believe the information concerning the days waited
for an organ transplant is very misleading and may discourage
some readers from becoming organ donors. People wait for years,
not days, for an organ transplant and many die while waiting.
This was not mentioned.
Patricia A. Lavenstein
Baltimore, MD
Hopkins researcher Ann Klassen
responds:
"The waiting times for liver transplants presented are
medians, the time at which half the patients in a given group
have received a liver. Some patients wait many fewer days, while
some wait longer. The reader is correct in stating that some
patients wait as long as several years for a transplant. However,
this is more common for patients on the kidney waiting list, who
can receive dialysis while waiting.
"In addition, the median waiting time for liver transplant has
increased by approximately threefold since 1992, the time of my
study. The most recent statistics on waiting time for all types
of organ transplants are available from the United Network for
Organ Sharing's website at UNOS.org."
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SEPTEMBER 1998 TABLE OF CONTENTS.