LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Tackling substantive issues

To the Editor: In addition to making it mandatory for freshmen to be randomly assigned housing, I believe making all freshmen take a required course about the experience of immigrants in America would help bridge the race gap; the University of California at Berkeley has one. Since we are all immigrants to this country, whether we have been here for generations or not, we should start pushing ourselves to try to respect others so that misunderstandings and wrong judgements are not made. Our happiness will be determined by how much people respect and get along with each other. Look at the segregated pockets of Philadelphia and its suburbs. We know not to live beyond a certain street (i.e., 40th Street in West Philadelphia) because of its dangers; we know who lives in North Philadelphia and who lives in Center City. On the Internet, there is a site where you can punch in zip codes to find out the number of homicides in different areas. Zip code "19104," which is the Penn campus area and parts of West Philly, had 46 homicides during 1994-95, while "19102" (about 15th and Spruce and the surrounding areas) had only two. North Philadelphia, around 8th Street and Fairmount and "19123," had 26. We are all the future leaders of this nation and we have to start to get along and understand each other now, before we have to go through even more drastic measures of living in segregated areas where tension escalates. I believe Penn's curriculum in diversity (if there would be one) should include a mandatory course that teaches about other cultures, so we can co-exist in peace while we are still young and are in the mode of education and change. If none of these things take place, we could at least have dialogue and communication amongst ourselves on the issues of race and segregation, just like Nadel did by bringing it out into the open in the DP. We should never hide our feelings and act like things are just fine when every one of us has deep-rooted misunderstandings and prejudices. Karina Kim Social Work '97 A job well done To the Editor: I would like to applaud Clive Correia and the rest of the Freshman Class Board for making the first-ever Freshman Spring Blowout such a success. Although I'm a sophomore, every frosh friend of mine both attended the Hill Field event and loved it from beginning to end. Equally commendable was the DP's coverage leading up to the event ("Class of '99 board organizes 'Blowout'," DP, 4/8/96). Without such publicity and exposure, the event could not have been such a great time for the freshman class. Larry Kamin College '98 Undergraduate Assembly Vice Chairperson Flawed generalizations To the Editor: William James Walton declares in his Letter to the Editor ("Remembering ancestors," DP, 4/15/96) that "we [blacks] will not forgive you [whites]" for discrimination. He also says "we [blacks] won't let go of it [resentments] until whites stop being such hypocrites in their actions." First of all, I'm relieved to see blacks in America have finally chosen a leader to speak for all of them. This way, Walton can tell the rest of the country how every black American thinks. (In case your "oppressed" mind didn't pick it up, I was being sarcastic.) Secondly, I don't want your forgiveness. As far as I'm concerned you can stick your forgiveness where the sun don't shine. Last time I checked, I hadn't "discriminated" against anybody. If you're waiting for me to come to your house and beg forgiveness -- you have a better chance of being a nun. If you want to generalize whites, don't start crying racism when blacks are generalized. Your logic is part of the problem, not the solution. Lou Camaratta Engineering '99 Attitudes on marijuana To the Editor: I am always amused by the amount of emotion involved when the issue of legalizing marijuana is addressed ("Pot legalization article unfair," Letters to the Editor, DP, 4/16/96). I love watching all of you little undergrads run around for your first three years crying about your personal right to smoke and espousing all of the benefits marijuana has to offer. My biggest source of amusement is watching you young sheep quit your habit and your emotional speeches as soon as you find out that First Boston and Solomon Brothers won't hire you without a negative urine test. My advice -- grow up and realize that pot will never be legalized and focus your misplaced energies on keeping West Philadelphia a little cleaner. Steve Pokorny Veterinary Medicine '98 Missing the point To the Editor: Contrary to his claim that he understood my analogy comparing street vendors to a large institutional dining service, Don Jacobs not only missed the point by a truck-length -- he elaborated upon it with a non sequitur that is hard to match ("Debate over food trucks healthy," Letter to the Editor, DP, 4/16/96). Equally amusing is his redefining of "family enterprise" to include virtually any workplace whose employees have families. With logic like that, what job could not be called a family enterprise. Jacobs should have been a politician! Louis Delpino Medical School Pathology Department