LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: The dark side of free enterprise

To the Editor: Free enterprise and the idea of the all of the spoils going to the winner is a great idea, but only for the one who is the winner. For every winner there is (by definition) a loser, and I wonder what Robbins has to say to those people. Where are their "American dreams?" It must be good to be the king, but I wonder what happens to everyone else. It is very easy for someone in the position of a privileged, talented, creative student with the world as his oyster to believe that everything that he owns and wins through the competition of free enterprise is his because he somehow deserves it. I have no interest in Billy Joel, so I am not a disgruntled fan, but I see those students scalping tickets as a dangerous omen of what ultimately happens in winner-take-all free enterprise. The tickets are in the hands of the "haves" --but they are there because of random chance, mind you. People who do not even want the tickets feel like it is their right to exploit the "have nots." These tickets, much like our right to happiness, belong to everyone and it always wrong for someone to abuse their power and take advantage of those who are not as fortunate. Calling it free enterprise and being a creative entrepreneur does not make it right. Greg Romanow College '97 Mural sale angers alum To the Editor: ?As a former faculty member at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Rhode Island School of Design, I understand the institutional need for funds that may arise periodically, as it has recently for the Mask and Wig Club. As an alumnus of Penn, I am particularly sympathetic to the club's needs, as my roommate -- the late E. David Lukashok -- was a talented and esteemed member of that club. However, I am astounded at the club's decision to go to auction to raise funds. It is a major error for the club, for the University, for the city of Philadelphia, the state and perhaps the country as well. Having said that, I fully recognize the independent status of the club as a corporation. As an architect and urban planner, I am sensitive to the needs of the University campus and its planning requirements. It was my idea for the Class of 1962 to create the sculpture now known as "Ben on a Bench" as a part of our 25th Reunion gift in 1987. The statue was conceived as a creative solution (it serves simply as our class plaque) for both fund-raising purposes and as a unique part of our contribution of a more major gift which was actually the pedestrian walkway on 37th Street?. However, far more important than "Ben on a Bench," an historically inconsequential statue by an unknown sculptor, is the Maxfield Parrish fine art mural "Old King Cole." This painting is a unique, 100-year-old artwork created specifically for the University's Mask and Wig Club by Parrish, one of the greatest American artists. A great milestone artwork, "Old King Cole" was housed at the Mask and Wig clubhouse until just a few weeks ago, when it was removed to Christie's in New York?. In the 1920s and '30s, Parrish was ranked with Cezanne and Van Gogh as one of the three most famous artists in the world?. After such a long-standing and illustrious relationship with the University, it would be intellectually tragic and a major faux pas for such a great institution to so quickly give up such a significant piece of its own history and heritage?. It should also be pointed out that no Maxfield Parrish work has ever garnered more than $220,000 at auction. However, the club talks of $1,000,000 potential sale, and Christie's has estimates between $600,000 and $800,000? [M]y own class ("the best class yet," Class of 1962) might very well have raised the funding in a flash, had we been given the opportunity earlier. Laurence Cutler College '62 Maxfield Parrish Family Trust