Salon | Letters to the editor

_______________MAIL ROOM DISPATCH ...

Salon's new national correspondent, Debra Dickerson, is either an abominable human being or a courageous soul, depending on whom you ask. Salon received a barrage of mail conveying both views after publishing Dickerson's provocative essay, "No Apologies," in which she explains how she learned to fight for her country, proudly. We published a sampling of these letters on Monday.
Is MIT full of self-serving geeks whose research reveals a limited grasp on reality? Tim Moerman of Ottawa made this case in his letter about Janelle Brown's interview with author and scientist Neil Gershenfeld.
Jeffrey Herf, one of the 400 historians who signed the statement "Historians in Defense of the Constitution," took his personal friend David Horowitz to task for his recent column bemoaning "American academia, which in the midst of the presidential battle volunteered a battalion of scholars to serve the Clinton cause."
And today, one reader says that literary writers demean themselves when they turn their pens to the subject of politics.
SALON | Feb. 5, 1999

_______________THE MYSTERIES OF BILL CLINTON BY GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ (02/02/99)

Great writers like Gabriel García Márquez demean themselves when they comment on politics. Even an overtly political writer like García Márquez transcends in his fiction the limitations of his ideas because of his imagination and his commitment (perhaps unconscious) to literature over politics.
Still, he and other writers who have supported President Clinton, particularly American writers, should be reminded that he advocated a Communications Decency Act that would be a first step toward censorship, and that he lied in a deposition that was based on a law he passed, i.e., that it is acceptable to investigate the sexual history of someone accused of sexual harassment.
I don't really care if my president is culturally sophisticated. I can think of many people whom I admire as artists or critics that I would not want as president, governor or legislator. Art requires nuance and shading that the literalism of politics doesn't allow. Artists like García Márquez, Toni Morrison and William Styron reveal their limitations as political thinkers when they enter that arena.
By the way, Toni Morrison didn't write that, "They treated him like a black president." She wrote (appallingly) that President Clinton was black because he exhibited certain cultural stereotypes -- stereotypes she would never have tolerated had they been claimed for black culture.
-- Joe Taylor
Gabriel García Márquez asks why America is crucifying its most literate president. The answer is simple: He deserves it. Just because a person is intelligent and well educated, traits that President Clinton has in spades, does not mean that he ought to be immune from criticism. The left in the U.S. is outraged because he signed the Welfare Reform and NAFTA. The right is outraged because he refuses to cut federal programs. Unlike President Carter, who defended human rights, or Margaret Thatcher, who pushed for reforms, Clinton doesn't seem to stand for anything. His wit and intelligence are used for self-preservation rather than advocacy of his program. That is why he is crucified.
-- Fabio Rojas

_______________UNDER THE COVERS: THE LITTLE N-WORD BY JAMES PONIEWOZIK (02/02/99)

I don't see anyone screaming about "tuck," which looks and sounds an awful lot like a "naughty" word. Nor about "grunt" or "punt" or "shunt." Up until the end of 1997, AOL would automatically ban anyone mentioning the name of the British town Scunthorpe because of the string of characters in positions 2 through 5, inclusive.
Maybe one day people will start relearning the English language (as Malcolm X did while in jail, something well-documented in Alex Haley's biography). The word "niggardly" has a completely different etymology than "nigger," the former being Scandinavian (probably Norse) meaning "stingy" and the latter being a Spanish corruption for "negro," meaning "black."
-- M. W. Grossmann
N E X T+P A G E+| Campus boozers not to blame for a binge-inducing society; Ralph Nader, all-American hero

_______________MAIL ROOM DISPATCH ...
	Salon's new national correspondent, Debra Dickerson, is either an abominable human being or a courageous soul, depending on whom you ask. Salon received a barrage of mail conveying both views after publishing Dickerson's provocative essay, "No Apologies," in which she explains how she learned to fight for her country, proudly. We published a sampling of these letters on Monday. Is MIT full of self-serving geeks whose research reveals a limited grasp on reality? Tim Moerman of Ottawa made this case in his letter about Janelle Brown's interview with author and scientist Neil Gershenfeld. Jeffrey Herf, one of the 400 historians who signed the statement "Historians in Defense of the Constitution," took his personal friend David Horowitz to task for his recent column bemoaning "American academia, which in the midst of the presidential battle volunteered a battalion of scholars to serve the Clinton cause." And today, one reader says that literary writers demean themselves when they turn their pens to the subject of politics. SALON \| Feb. 5, 1999
_______________THE MYSTERIES OF BILL CLINTON BY GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ (02/02/99)
	Great writers like Gabriel García Márquez demean themselves when they comment on politics. Even an overtly political writer like García Márquez transcends in his fiction the limitations of his ideas because of his imagination and his commitment (perhaps unconscious) to literature over politics. Still, he and other writers who have supported President Clinton, particularly American writers, should be reminded that he advocated a Communications Decency Act that would be a first step toward censorship, and that he lied in a deposition that was based on a law he passed, i.e., that it is acceptable to investigate the sexual history of someone accused of sexual harassment. I don't really care if my president is culturally sophisticated. I can think of many people whom I admire as artists or critics that I would not want as president, governor or legislator. Art requires nuance and shading that the literalism of politics doesn't allow. Artists like García Márquez, Toni Morrison and William Styron reveal their limitations as political thinkers when they enter that arena. By the way, Toni Morrison didn't write that, "They treated him like a black president." She wrote (appallingly) that President Clinton was black because he exhibited certain cultural stereotypes -- stereotypes she would never have tolerated had they been claimed for black culture. -- Joe Taylor Gabriel García Márquez asks why America is crucifying its most literate president. The answer is simple: He deserves it. Just because a person is intelligent and well educated, traits that President Clinton has in spades, does not mean that he ought to be immune from criticism. The left in the U.S. is outraged because he signed the Welfare Reform and NAFTA. The right is outraged because he refuses to cut federal programs. Unlike President Carter, who defended human rights, or Margaret Thatcher, who pushed for reforms, Clinton doesn't seem to stand for anything. His wit and intelligence are used for self-preservation rather than advocacy of his program. That is why he is crucified. -- Fabio Rojas
_______________UNDER THE COVERS: THE LITTLE N-WORD BY JAMES PONIEWOZIK (02/02/99)
	I don't see anyone screaming about "tuck," which looks and sounds an awful lot like a "naughty" word. Nor about "grunt" or "punt" or "shunt." Up until the end of 1997, AOL would automatically ban anyone mentioning the name of the British town Scunthorpe because of the string of characters in positions 2 through 5, inclusive. Maybe one day people will start relearning the English language (as Malcolm X did while in jail, something well-documented in Alex Haley's biography). The word "niggardly" has a completely different etymology than "nigger," the former being Scandinavian (probably Norse) meaning "stingy" and the latter being a Spanish corruption for "negro," meaning "black." -- M. W. Grossmann N E X T+P A G E+\| Campus boozers not to blame for a binge-inducing society; Ralph Nader, all-American hero