CURRENT ISSUE | SUBSCRIBE | ADVERTISE | WRITE TO US | CORNELL AUTHORS | PAST ISSUES

School Spirit

A SHOW OF SPORTSMANSHIP

THE MEN'S HOCKEY TEAM WON the 2005 ECAC championship in Albany, New York, in front of an audience of more than 8,000. My guess is that nearly 80 percent of the fans were cheering for the Big Red. We attended with three close friends from our days on the Hill, and we all felt proud to be surrounded by a sea of red--from current students to alums who had left Ithaca decades ago to diapered tots sporting tiny Cornell sweatshirts.

Harvard, the opposing team in the championship game, seemed to have hardly any supporters, prompting the Cornell contingent to chant, "Where are your fans?"And when the Big Red pep band trumpeted fight songs, we cheered,"Good band! No band! Good band! No band!" alternately pointing to the stripe-shirted Cornell musicians and the empty stands opposite. Earlier, during the consolation game between Colgate and Vermont, several members of the pep band had joined with the UVM band to strengthen their performance. It was heartwarming to see Cornell students playing with students from a school we had defeated the day before.

School spirit is something that develops from respect--respect for what our professors taught us, for where our degrees may lead us, for those who studied at Cornell before we did, for our fellow classmates, and for the students who are learning there now. Cornell's fans demonstrated fierce, true, unabashed school spirit at this game, and I felt honored to ring my giant cowbell after the Big Red triumphed.

Tiffany Wilding-White '00
Lenox, Massachusetts

Closing Argument

I WRITE TO TAKE ISSUE WITH DEFENSE attorney John Blume [the director of the Cornell Death Penalty Project, who was profiled in "The Strange Case of Michael Ross,"March/April 2005]. Blume states that "nobody is a total monster." May I suggest the names David Westerfield, Alejandro Avila, and John Couey. Men who sexually assault and murder little girls are, in fact, total monsters. And then, when asked if he would favor the death penalty if it were perfectly applied and no innocent person would ever be executed, he cops out by saying, "You're asking me to put myself in a place that I know doesn't exist." Having gone to law school, Blume should be familiar with the concept of a hypothetical question--and answer it. He's against the death penalty, no matter what, and that's fine. He should just be more intellectually honest about it and stop pretending that he opposes it simply because of possible procedural problems.

Dr. John Elfmont '60
Redondo Beach, California

John Blume responds: Dr. Elfmont asserts that I should be intellectually honest about my opposition to capital punishment. I thought I had been. I am opposed to the imposition of the death penalty under any and all circumstances.My opposition to the ultimate punishment has multiple sources, but, in short, I do not believe the government should have the power to take life. I do not mean to pretend that I oppose the death penalty only because of the arbitrary, capricious, and discriminatory manner in which the government has wielded this power. However, I also do not believe that capital punishment's supporters should pretend that the systemic flaws in the capital punishment lottery can be eliminated. They can't.

Reality Check

KUDOS FOR THE ARTICLE ON DR. SALLY SATEL '77 ("Her Right Mind,"March/April 2005).While it is of the she-is-a-conservative- but-really-smart-and-nice-anyway variety, it is refreshing to have Satel and her views presented in a generally positive light. One part of particular interest to me was Professor Will Provine's comparison of his discussions with Satel when she was his student to discussions he had with the Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman when Provine was a graduate student at the University of Chicago. Provine is quoted as saying that he "hated basically everything Friedman believed." That is another way of saying he hated reality. It raises the question of whether Professor Provine still feels this way--or was that just youthful hubris talking?

Frederick Mosser '67, MBA '72
Chatham, Massachusetts

Ed. Note: Professor Provine declined to respond.

Food Service

AFTER READING "RIPPLE EFFECT: HOW the Tsunami Affected the Cornell Community" (Currents,March/April 2005), I thought I'd share my story. I live and work in Singapore as the logistics and transport manager for a food distribution company. I've been here three years--two while serving at the U.S. Navy's logistics planning office and one working for a company that supplies food to the U.S. military in Singapore and Southeast Asia.

When the tsunami hit, the U.S. Navy quickly brought ships into the region to provide support.We were called upon to provide food to the Navy personnel, as well as to provide relief supplies for the Navy to distribute to the victims. In the first few days after the tsunami, we supplied more than 600,000 liters of bottled water and 150,000 kilograms of rice for the victims. These supplies were loaded on Navy ships in Singapore and transferred at sea to other Navy ships sailing to Sumatra. This rice and water was some of the very first aid to reach the victims in Aceh, when Navy helicopters dropped supplies to the desperate people who had survived the tsunami but were in danger of starving.

As the various relief organizations teamed up with the U.S. military to provide food to the victims, we focused on supplying food for the 16,000 U.S. troops and sailors in the region. For about six weeks straight, we worked without stopping-- and with very little sleep--to keep the food flowing to the men and women who were working so hard to help the victims.

Charles Brown '96
Singapore

Any Person

I SOMEHOW MISSED THE LETTER from Arthur Spitzer '71 about Cornell's new logo (Correspondence, January/February 2005), but I do have a reaction to the responses he generated in the following issue. Steven Menillo '77 defends the use of "A.D." in the logo, citing the "valuable experiences" he had at Cornell, which included those "afforded . . . by exposure to different cultural and religious ideas." Daniel Hooker '86 also supports "A.D," but he does so because it is religious in origin. Then Edward Hershey, Cornell's director of communications and marketing services, asserts that the term "has evolved into a secular reference point used throughout the world."

I believe that Mr. Hooker is correct and Mr.Hershey mistaken. "A.D." still does reflect Christianity. Jews do not use this term precisely because of the religious reference, instead choosing "B.C.E." (before the common era) and "C.E." (common era), promoting the concept that Mr.Hershey and Mr.Menillo seemingly intend to support: coming together on common ground even as we recognize our differences. It disturbs me that the university from which my husband and I graduated, and to which my daughter heads in the fall as a freshman, has aligned itself in its chosen public image with the Christian concept of Jesus as Lord. I would be no less disturbed were Cornell to align itself with my own religion. After all, we Cornellians consciously selected a university without religious affiliation--one that, since Mr. Hershey wishes to refer to the founding language, is for "any person."

Dina Wolfman Baker '83
Wyncote, Pennsylvania

Stolen Music

I ENJOYED THE ARTICLE ABOUT OUR alma mater (Cornelliana, March/April 2005) but am a little confused. It seems to be well established that Smith and Weeks penned the lyrics and set them to the tune of "Annie Lisle"--but where might Thompson have gotten the melody?

On a Sunday morning in 1978, I was walking near Grosvenor Square in London, and what did I hear but a band playing our alma mater. Heading toward the sound, I found the Salvation Army holding a worship service in a small park--and it was being sung as hymn. Did the melody migrate from hymn tune to maudlin ballad and on to what may be the most-played alma mater in the world?

Chet Maple '57
Hannibal, Missouri

Ed. Note: We have been unable to uncover evidence that H.S. Thompson lifted the melody of "Annie Lisle" from another piece of music--but we'd love to hear from any musicologist who thinks otherwise.

Speak up! We encourage letters from readers and try to publish as many as we can. They must be signed and may be edited for length, clarity, and civility.
Send to: Jim Roberts, Editor Cornell Alumni Magazine
401 E. State St., Suite 301 Ithaca, NY 14850
fax: (607) 272-8532
e-mail: jhr22@cornell.edu

Return to top of page