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The Yale Alumni Magazine is owned and operated by Yale Alumni Publications, Inc., a nonprofit corporation independent of Yale University. The content of the magazine and its website is the responsibility of the editors and does not necessarily reflect the views of Yale or its officers. |
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Letters in response to our Special Tercentennial Edition You did a masterful job with the Tercentennial edition. There is so much good reading throughout, and plenty of evidence of a lot of good planning! You have every right to feel mighty proud of the end result.
"Quarrels with Providence," Lewis Lapham's meditation on the meaning of Yale, struck me as the rarest sort of literary journalism. He has traced an elusive sensibility across the centuries. A familiar place has been redefined for the future. The scene with George W. Pierson comes alive in a way that usually only a novel can manage. The meaning, as Lapham says, is "in the stone."
Lewis Lapham's article is both a commendable and heroic effort to describe the struggle for the soul of Yale over three centuries. However, I have two quibbles with his notion of Providence. While Lapham is correct to identify the unchanging history of "remonstrance and dissent" that characterizes Yale, he is remiss in noting the absence of a moral center that puts such dissent in context, as well as the apparent absence of any discussion of such a need in contemporary Yale. We probably all can agree that Nathan Hale was morally correct in his patriotic belief and sacrifice, while John C. Calhoun was not in his attempts to cobble together compromises to save the morally bankrupt idea of slavery. But the list of "Who's Been Blue," which precedes Lapham's piece, indicates the contemporary dimensions of moral discussion. Henry L. Stimson, Class of 1888, is noted. According to David McCullough '55, Stimson played an instrumental role in dropping the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, including selecting that city as a target. Other notable alumni, such as John Hersey '36 and former Yale professor Robert Jay Lifton, have written about the horrors of this seminal event of the past century, while McGeorge Bundy '40 defended this act. More recently, Tom Wolfe '57PhD, in A Man in Full, has described the moral crisis of a man who could be described as the Dink Stover of Atlanta. The point is that Yale has played an important role in major events and their impact -- a role that demands a moral examination in academe today. One does not have to debate the issue of God or the various "-isms" that plague campuses today to discuss morality from the viewpoint of multiple academic disciplines. To me, that is the fundamental issue confronting an increasingly corporate- dominated society which, as Lapham notes, does affect Yale directly.
I greatly enjoyed reading your collected accounts of Yale's most significant graduates through the decades. They provide an inspiring benchmark, and I see that I still have some work left to do if I am to appear alongside them in the 400th anniversary issue.
Bravo on the Tercentennial issue of the Yale Alumni Magazine. I've been reading the magazine for a frightening number of years, and this was the best, most entertaining, most thought-provoking, and surely the most ambitious effort I've seen. Of course you couldn't possibly receive that much praise from a Yale alum without some criticism. I was rather stunned to encounter the section of quotes from famous graduates, which included embarrassing entries for Clarence Thomas, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush. I'm not sure if this was an attempt at humor or high-minded candor, but it seemed bizarrely out of place given the occasion and the other quotes on the page. My compliments, nonetheless, on what was overall a fine, fine job.
It was a joy to read "Eloquent Elis" but a shock to see that not one woman was quoted. Haven't any female graduates said anything worth repeating? Maya Lin? Wendy Wasserstein? Hillary Clinton? Michiko Kakutani? Jodie Foster? Anita Hill? Camille Paglia? Naomi Wolf? Jane Mendelsohn? My book, For Girls Only, included over 450 quotes to inspire middle school girls. I worked to include quotes from people of color and both male and female Yalies. I wish you all a happy 300th anniversary, but I'm afraid the grade I'd have to give to your list of 28 quotes is an "incomplete." |
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