WALL STREET JOURNAL

November 18, 2002

LETTERS

A Skirmish Between

Academia and Military

Your Nov. 12 editorial "The Professor and the Cadet" regarding the faculty

member at Chicago's Saint Xavier University and the Air Force Academy cadet

was both fascinating and disgusting.

It was fascinating because Prof. Peter Kirstein's e-mail gives a look into

the heart of hearts of our university academic elite publicly desirous of

"peace, diversity, and multiculturalism" (as Prof. Kirstein describes his

teaching philosophy on his own Web page) but privately venomous, spiteful

and militant toward, and intolerant of, any opinion divergent from their

own.

It was disgusting in that Prof. Kirstein's loathing is directed at the

military might of our nation, which is the very thing that protects the

privilege to be "secure and unafraid to express opinion" (again, from his

Web site).

R. Stewart Eads Jr., M.D.

Mount Pleasant, S.C.

Even More Offensive

Regarding your editorial about the professor who sent a radical left-wing

e-mail to cadet Robert Krupiel. I find it disturbing that you call the

disciplining of the professor a "happy ending." Prof. Kirstein's remarks

were offensive and boorish, but not nearly as offensive and boorish as those

who want to muzzle him for speaking his mind.

I am sure Cadet Krupiel does not share the professor's ideas, but I am

equally sure that he would fight to the death to defend a man's right to say

what he thinks.

Mark M. Rufo

Nashua, N.H.

This Is a History Teacher?

Perhaps the most disturbing thought evoked by the article is that a

professor holding these kinds of views is teaching history to our youth. A

good history teacher will present material in such a way as to stimulate

further research, question outcomes and help formulate new approaches to our

world and the American way of life. What is this man teaching?

Tom Phillips

Chicago

Hypocritical Praise

Your editorial page is infamous for defending professors with unpopular

ideas against the forces of "political correctness." But it appears that you

hypocritically praise the repression of ideas you don't like. Should anyone

committed to academic freedom celebrate when a professor is "forced to

apologize" for rude comments? It boggles the imagination that a professor

who expresses an unpopular view (and apologizes) is denounced as an "uncivil

bully," while a university president who threatens the livelihood of a

professor for expressing his ideas is celebrated as a hero. I can only

imagine how you might react differently if a professor was forced to

apologize for referring to abortion doctors as "baby killers." Your "happy

ending" is a sad day for liberty on college campuses.

John K. Wilson

Normal, Ill.