Letters Satellites and social life

Author: [no author name found]

To the Editor:

As somebody who lives on the border of San Francisco's Castro District, I have had the good fortune to get to know many great Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Trans-gender, Queer people (GLBTQ). In addition to being good friends, they have also augmented my confidence in the fact that the mainstream queer community does not reflect the despicable views expressed by Kevin Moss. The GLBTQ people I've met in San Francisco know that respecting diversity extends to a respect for all ideologies - including "evil" conservative views like my own. My GLBTQ buddies also realize that our generation must deal with a lot of serious challenges in order for our country/planet to continue thriving. I can say with confidence that if they were at Middlebury, they would not waste their energy on a pathetic anti-Rehnquist whining campaign.

Sincerely,
Brian Goldberg '05
San Francisco, Calif.


To the Editor:

While your article about the Ripton wireless co-op ("BiHall Broadcasting Broadband for Ripton," 1/10/07) was fascinating, the image of the dish atop BiHall suggested erroneously that the dish was part of Ripton Broadband Co-op. In fact, the dish is Middlebury College's radio telescope, which I assembled as part of my senior thesis in physics. Unlike the antenna for the Co-op, the telescope is steerable and typically pointed towards the sky, rather than another terrestrial antenna. Ripton's wireless broadband system sends information over the airwaves, but nature, too, is continuously sending us information encoded in the electromagnetic (EM) spectrum. We can see a small sliver of that information with our eyes and optical telescopes, but we can capture a much greater range of information by observing other parts of the EM spectrum, such as radio frequencies.

Sincerely,
Zach Manganello '03
Montpelier, Vt.


To the Editor:

Saddam Hussein is dead. Right before the New Year. Was the Iraqi government worried Saddam was going to break out of prison if he was not executed? Probably not. Would he have been a threat to society while locked up? I doubt it. So why the need to execute the former dictator?

This was not a case of possible innocence. No one questions that Saddam was guilty of mass murder. The issue at hand is whether or not he deserved to have his life taken from him for his crimes.

Religious and non-religious people alike believe that life is sacred and that the taking of life is usually wrong. Just as there's no way to deny that Saddam's crimes were horrendous and inexcusable, there's no way to hide the hypocrisy of killing killers.

Since childhood we have been taught that two wrongs don't make a right. An eye for an eye is no longer the accepted practice in punishing criminals. The U.S. government seems to understand and follow that principle in all cases except murder trials - we don't beat assaulters, rape rapists, or torture torturers.

What does the United States' approval of execution say about us as a nation? That we are capable of treating life as casually as the criminals we punish? We had an opportunity to show the world that we hold the gift of life in high regard. If we are willing to kill a person who can no longer hurt us, are we not hard-hearted and incapable of taking the high road?

Sincerely,
David Schoenholtz '07
Middlebury, Vt.


To the Editor:

In February, the Student Task force on Social Life will meet with the Board of Trustees to discuss social life on campus. Whatever their conclusions, there is one thing we can all agree on-something is wrong.

Is it a problem that there are no longer parties in many campus social spaces, or that not a single freshman in Allen this year has gone to Porter for detox? I think so. The usual suspects of 1) the commons system and 2) increased requirements for reserving a space and hosting a party, are not entirely to blame. These problems need to be addressed, but with some foresight and consideration they can be solved. One obstacle to a healthy campus social life without a foreseeable solution is the new library.

How is the student body supposed to take the initiative, time, and money to host parties when the best social space on campus is a supposed "quiet space?" Ever since the library became the social hub of campus, what people do there has become socially significant by extension.

Term papers and problem sets have replaced favorite music and rehashing good weekend parties as go-to topics of conversation.

We wouldn't be in this party-starved situation had Starr Library never closed. People used to hide deep in Starr's labyrinthine halls to do their work alone and in silence. You didn't talk about assignments because they were something you did in the library, and the library was not cool.

As long as people looking for conversation and friendly faces are drawn to the lights of the library like fourteen-year-olds to a mall's marquee, there will be no cure for Middlebury's atrophied social scene.

Sincerely,
Justin Boren '06.5
Minneapolis, Minn.