Ideas without a revolution
To the Editor:
In his column ("A party devoid of both charisma and ideas," The Daily Pennsylvanian, 10/6/03), Dan Gomez made the egregious error of assuming that "revolutionary new ideas" must be good, and old ideas are always bad.
President Bush did have the revolutionary new idea to constitutionally codify that a marriage is between a man and a woman, but certainly that doesn't mean the gay and lesbian community should celebrate, because after all, this is a new revolutionary idea. Likewise, enacting legislation to drop the bottom out of federal funding for public education (and then attaching a compassionately conservative title to it) was new several years ago, but I'm sure the West Philadelphia community isn't applauding the measure. School vouchers might be new, but no study has conclusively shown that they will work in America.
Gomez consistently oversteps his boundaries in talking conclusively about ongoing problems. Certainly October 2003 is not the correct time to conclusively talk about Bush's tax cuts, record deficit spending, and invading Iraq. Whether these revolutionary new ideas are successful won't be seen for several years, if not decades.
Those silly Democrats are still trying to cover the 40 million Americans without health insurance. It's an idea older than most Americans. Gomez should tell those uninsured how "hilarious" and "idiotic" it is that elected officials are still concerned with covering them with health insurance. Wouldn't it be revolutionary and new to just leave them out? Why haven't Democrats realized that old ideas must be wrong? Perhaps the answer is that Gomez is in the wrong. In the end, trying to pass legislation for old ideas might not be all that idiotic, and revolutionary and new ideas don't have to be good.
Marc Tarlock SAS '04
Reaching a peak?
To the Editor:
During my freshman year at Penn, I took a course that benefited me tremendously during and after my years at Penn: a workshop in problem formulation and solutions by Professor Jorge Santiago-Aviles and Professor Krimo Bokreta. At the end of the course, the students engaged in a class project to benefit the Penn community. The project that our class chose involved analyzing the crime rate on and off campus and deducing meaningful information for Penn administrators.
Our class included students from all schools at the Penn community and we dedicated several weeks to that project. One interesting observation that we drew concerned the month of September (and I think we may have even labeled it "The September Effect"). Analyzing the data of crime statistics going back several years, we found a sharp peak in reported criminal attacks during September. We attributed this to several factors including the confusion and activity that are present when students are just beginning classes and the incoming freshmen and graduate students that may not be the taking necessary precautions.
I bring this up because of the recent discussions concerning crime on the campus. If history is any guide (and it is), the worse has most likely passed.
Omar Bassal Wharton '00 Wharton Graduate '02
