To the Editor:
Re “3 College Presidents Criticized for Remarks on Antisemitism” (information article, Dec. 7):
The presidents of Harvard, Penn and M.I.T. all failed of their congressional testimony to state unequivocally that calling for the genocide of Jews would violate their campus insurance policies, as an alternative stating limply that it will rely upon the “context.” A number of authorized students appear to agree that “context” is a part of the balancing act at no cost speech.
As an American Jew holding two levels from Harvard (one from Harvard Legislation College), I disagree vehemently that “context” issues. The clear exception to “free speech” has all the time been falsely calling “Fireplace!” in a crowded theater, for its propensity to lead to hurt to a panicked viewers.
The identical spirit holds true in calling for genocide of any folks, for its propensity to lead to hurt to others. One needn’t look ahead to that hurt (or on this case, mass dying) to happen in an effort to curtail such hateful, harmful speech.
And whereas universities ought to encourage debate, even over contentious points, the constitutional proper to free speech entails solely authorities constraint. A personal college is free to determine its personal pointers for what constitutes acceptable debate, and calling for genocide is clearly not acceptable — as all three presidents may simply have stated instantly with out authorized contortions.
James Berkman
Boston
To the Editor:
Let’s be clear: The presidents of Harvard, M.I.T. and Penn by no means stated that requires genocide in opposition to the Jewish group aren’t despicable. However they weren’t requested to weigh their objectionability; they had been requested whether or not such speech would — or ought to — topic the speaker to disciplinary motion. These are completely different questions, the latter of which necessitates a extra nuanced reply.
Free speech doesn’t exist just for speech with which you agree, and if it doesn’t cross the intense authorized line into actually focusing on people or inciting violence, punishing it’s problematic.
So sure, as Harvard’s president, Claudine Homosexual, rightly stated, context issues because it pertains to self-discipline. However that doesn’t imply there may be any ambiguity, any argument, that requires genocide in opposition to Jews aren’t each bigoted and deeply disturbing. They absolutely are.
Tom Templeton
Clifton Park, N.Y.
To the Editor:
This shouldn’t be a troublesome query. Calling for the genocide of Jews not solely ought to violate the code of conduct at any faculty, it additionally violates the code of human conduct, interval. Any pupil, instructor or administrator who requires genocide of Jews, or of some other group, needs to be instantly expelled. There isn’t a “context” to think about.
The pathetic congressional performances of the presidents of Harvard, M.I.T. and Penn who repeatedly danced round this query whereas attempting to not offend their liberal pro-Palestinian bases was appalling. What whole ethical chapter these so-called leaders confirmed.
Mark Godburn
Norfolk, Conn.
Rape of Israeli Ladies
To the Editor:
Re “An Appalling Silence for Israeli Rape Victims,” by Bret Stephens (column, Dec. 6):
Mr. Stephens has expressed what so many people feminists have skilled: a refusal even to hear on the a part of girls who in any other case deplore violence in opposition to girls.
Mine was throughout a dialog with a buddy whose anti-domestic-violence group I’ve supported for 17 years. After I tried to carry up the horrific assaults on Israeli girls, my so-called buddy stated, “I’m hanging up now.”
The sentiments of grief and abandonment won’t ever go away me, and I can not help this group or Columbia College, whose president additionally ignored my many emails regarding security for Jewish college students.
Jews in America now know that we’ve got only a few buddies. This sense of loss won’t ever go away us.
Barbara Barran
Brooklyn
Archie Bunker, an Ignored Warning Signal
To the Editor:
Re “Norman Lear, 1922-2023: TV Visionary Jolted America’s Conscience With ‘All within the Household’” (obituary, entrance web page, Dec. 7):
My aunt Ruth Carter labored as Norman Lear’s assistant within the early days of Tandem Productions and later — when “All within the Household” was in its prime — answered Archie Bunker’s fan mail. She was shocked that Archie’s followers noticed him not as a determine of ridicule however as a conduit for all of the resentments they felt a few fast-changing, extra numerous and egalitarian society.
Within the Nineteen Seventies, he embodied Richard Nixon’s “silent majority”; immediately he’d absolutely be a part of Donald Trump’s MAGA cult.
It’s a pity that progressives didn’t deal with Archie Bunker because the warning signal he was. We’d have spared ourselves quite a lot of grief.
Ken Peterson
Monterey, Calif.
A Scarcity of Air Visitors Controllers
To the Editor:
Re “Management Tower Vacancies Compromising Air Security” (entrance web page, Dec. 3):
I learn with alarm your article describing in typically harrowing phrases the persevering with scarcity of air site visitors controllers throughout the nation — an issue felt acutely in New York, the place it has resulted in flight delays.
There has not too long ago been a serious hopeful growth that would ease this downside, however many questions have but to be answered.
In mid-November, the Federal Aviation Company introduced plans to create a mannequin to permit larger schooling establishments that target aviation to supply coaching now out there at its academy in Oklahoma Metropolis, so their graduates can go straight to working at air site visitors amenities. They might nonetheless must move the mandatory assessments. This might ease the bottleneck, although it clearly raises questions of its personal.
However the F.A.A. has but to launch particulars of how this direct hiring proposal would work, so aviation educators play a ready sport.
Regardless of the scary tales of overworked air site visitors controllers within the article, these are fascinating and well-compensated jobs when effectively managed. They require smarts and focus and are by no means boring. And so they permit children from financially challenged backgrounds to hitch the center class and keep there for the remainder of their lives. (At my faculty, college students can’t wait to get into the digital air site visitors room to usher in passenger jets, information them across the subject and just about ship them again aloft.)
What a double win this artistic transfer by the F.A.A. might be — a chance to shut the wealth hole for individuals who haven’t historically had entry, and quicker reduction for present controllers who need to get again to loving their careers, and want new colleagues to take action.
Sharon DeVivo
Queens
The author is president of Vaughn Faculty of Aeronautics and Expertise.
Failure in Darfur
To the Editor:
Re “The Struggle the World Forgot,” by Alex de Waal and Abdul Mohammed (Opinion visitor essay, nytimes.com, Dec. 4):
We’re seeing the entire failure of worldwide organizations on full show in Darfur and the remainder of Sudan, simply because it was in Ethiopia.
President Biden will not be the emperor of the world and can’t give unilateral orders to sovereign states that ought to know their very own duty and worldwide organizations that sit on their palms and search for any individual responsible.
It’s long gone time for the United Nations, the African Union and all their members to see their duty and act in their very own curiosity.
Bruce Williams
Chicago
