LETTERS: Panhel apologizes for e-mail snafu

To the Editor: Our new age initiative to reach individuals that may not have otherwise been targeted by our standard publicity somehow backfired. A computer error occurred causing many e-mail accounts throughout the University to be flooded by unwarranted response messages. As of midnight Tuesday morning the listserve was terminated and no further messages will be sent from our organization. Panhellenic is Penn's largest women's organization. Our programming is directed at the entire University and this year our recruitment is as well. We are sorry for any inconvenience you may have encountered and we hope that interested women will not be discouraged from signing up for rush registration. Thank you for understanding. Jennifer Wigman College '98 Vice President of Rush Panhellenic Council Hypocrisy in U.S. criticism of China To the Editor: In response to the Marcel's Benjamin's letter to the editor printed in Monday's The Daily Pennsylvanian ("Rodin disgraced U. with Jiang visit," DP, 11/3/97), I would like to point out the hypocracy of his and other American protests of Jiang's visit to the U.S. First of all, it seems ironic to me that in a country that inflicts the death penalty disproportionately among its poor and uneducated would have the nerve to complain about human rights. We are the only "developed nation" that still inflicts the death penalty. Combine that with a system that has statisically proven that prosecuters are more likely to pursue the death penalty for minority offenders and we can start to see a legal system of our own to be ashamed of. Secondly, we as a nation has had our own Tiananmen Squares. For example, the massacre at Kent State, the Move disaster and more recently the actions at the compound of David Koresh. These were the type actions carried out by law enforcement in the long run interest of democracy. Thirdly, why free Tibet when the impoverished children of the inner cities aren't free? It seem that Americans with no real problems of their own care more about people way over in Tibet than they do about those "Scary People" that live across the tracks in West Philly, Bed-Stuy or East New Orleans. Free Tibet? Hell no, free Compton. Or is that too close to home? Brandale Randolph Wharton '98 All in the name To the Editor: Some impostor who calls himself "Terry Cohen" has been impersonating me on the climbing rock in Fairmount Park ("Physics prof climbs his way to top," DP, 11/4/97). I have been called a lot of names in my time, but Terry isn't one of them (unless that's short for "Terrible Cohen" or "Cohen the Terror"). Somehow the students manage to get a professor's name right when they're trashing that person on the SCUE form. Surprisingly, you get Stanley Chodorow's name right when he resigns after hardly a couple of years here. Imagine "Irving Chodorow resigns as provost." Well, I have been faithfully pounding my beat here since Irving and Judy were in grade school, and now my 15 minutes of fame have turned into ridicule. Colleagues snicker at me in the hall (even more so than previously). Incidentally, to keep the record straight (since climbers are sensitive about these matters), I did not lead the first ascent of the north face of Capitol Peak, but I did lead the crux pitch of the climb. My media consultants were correct when they advised me, "Don't talk to the DP. They'll do you in every time." Michael "Spiderman" Cohen Physics Professor