LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Kudos to clean-up participants

To the Editor: As I gave a helped pick up trash and paint over graffiti, I witnessed the kind of cooperation between students and neighbors that needs to be fully recognized and encouraged. I hope many more students will join the campaign for clean streets. In addition to the clean-up, many students joined neighbors later in the afternoon to demonstrate against the proliferation of violence and drugs in our community. Such acts of cooperation with our neighbors can only lead to improved relations and a clear understanding that we need to be active participants, if we desire real change. Glenn Bryan Community Relations Director Fraternity wrongly depicted To the Editor: I am a brother of the Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Delta fraternity at the University. I'm very disappointed at the information included in the article "Frat remains outside IFC hierarchy" (DP, 4/11/96). Rather than explaining any important differences between us and the members of the IFC, the article merely describes our fraternity as being risky and insubordinate. In fact, most quotes were either taken grossly out of context or were never actually said. With the attitudes conveyed in the article, you would have done better to headline it "Rebel alcoholics don't need IFC." The brothers of this chapter take pride in being part of the University community, are committed to academics and have done more to serve the surrounding community than has ever been required by the IFC. As for our existence outside of the IFC not being "ethical," I just don't see how ethics have anything to do with it. It's not as if we're pushing drugs to school children. If the IFC requires a "special relationship with the police," then I don't think any of its representatives should be talking ethics. I don't have anything against the IFC -- in fact, I think it is a very beneficial organization. We are presently in close contact with the IFC and our national fraternity has been negotiating with the University for some time now. Our national, contrary to the article's depiction, wants nothing more than for us to have a closer relationship with the University. It is most probable that our chapter will be a member of the IFC very soon. John Gottstein Engineering '97 Pledge Master, Alpha Phi Delta Fraternity Remembering ancestors To the Editor: This letter is in response to Betty Calter's Letter to the Editor ("Eliminating resentment," DP, 4/10/96). Several issues need to be addressed. MAAFA is not about our resentments, it is about remembering our ancestors, who suffered innumerable indignities and even death so that we today might live. The resentments, if indeed we still carry them, are not so much from the events of the African Holocaust itself as from the legacy of that holocaust, in which the members of the African diaspora have been, and still are, villified, disrespected and, despite the strides made during the civil rights movement, denied basic human rights and treated as second-class citizens. Granting forgiveness to those who participated in the African Holocaust is a moot point. They're dead and have received the reward for their actions. But until African Americans are treated both equally and equitably by whites and by the institutions that both govern and maintain order in this country, then no, we will not forgive you. Secondly, Calter states, "Pray for whites to have the good things you want for yourself in life, pray for this even though a part of you doesn't want it and thinks they already have good things." This has got to be the most insidious and insipid utterance that anyone claiming to have a brain could make. Evidence shows that, by and large, whites do have the "good things" in far more abundance than do blacks, not only in material possessions, but in peace and security from being harassed by the civil authorities. This is not what we "think." It is a reality in this society. If we do have resentment, we won't let go of it until whites stop being such hypocrites in their actions. Williams James Walton College '96 Discussing segregation To the Editor: At last there is discussion regarding the horrendous racial segregation that plagues Penn campus, with the columns "Coming together" and "Caught in the middle" (DP, 4/11/96). Although there are no perfect solutions, randomized freshman housing is a step in the right direction. I am of mixed ethnicity and was brought up in an extended family with varied racial, religious and international members. If my ancestors or parents thought living separately was a good idea, I would not be here today?. As a senior my strongest and most powerful memories are of dozens of middle-of-the-night discussions in the dimmed light of my freshman dorm room. It was from these conversations that heated issues were pondered and allowed to develop and expand. These are the voices and perspectives that helped me change the most. Let's expand the opportunity of incoming freshmen to hear and discuss more perspectives, not limit them. Lee Collins College '96 Coverage of events lacking To the Editor: The Latin American Law Students' Association (LALSA) would like to formally protest the DP's shoddy coverage of the week-long Festival Latino de Penn from March 25 through 29. There were only two articles and no photographs whatsoever of the annual event. Last year's coverage was better, on shorter notice. At roughly the same time, Bisexual Gay and Lesbian Awareness Days events garnered three front page stories with numerous photos. While this is wonderful for BGLAD, including its Latina/o members, was there not enough space to cover festival events more thoroughly? Amy Maldonado Law '98 LALSA Vice President