East Meets West

I enjoyed the articles on China and Chinese students at BU (Winter–Spring 2014), but I was troubled by the exuberant boosterism of Western-style economic development that seemed to permeate the magazine. Our own economic policies have had disastrous social and environmental consequences, including a widening gap between rich and poor, a rapacious appetite for using up finite resources, and permanent climate change. That these same policies are being adopted by a country of 1.3 billion people is not a good thing for them or for the rest of the planet. For instance, China’s hunger for fossil fuels is a driving force for the mining and transport of tar sands oil, which brings us that much closer to irreversible climate damage. Except for a few side comments about traffic and pollution, there is no reflection on this in Bostonia. We need to become partners with China and its students to address the issues that affect all of us, not just continue practices that take us all to the brink.

Lise Hildebrandt (SPH’04)
Concord, N.H.

I am a graduate student in COM and an international student from China who is struggling with whether to go back to my home country or stay here after graduation.

In the special Winter–Spring 2014 issue of Bostonia, “China: A Generation Comes to Learn, and Returns to Build,” several Chinese students at BU described their studies, lives in Boston, and their dreams in the United States. In addition, the report also analyzed the differences in education between the United States and China, and finally introduced some students’ career life after they went back China. While I admire the fact that Boston University cares about international students, as demonstrated in the report, I am not sure BU understands some of the perspectives of Chinese students.

Since the report was published after Boston University issued official letters of admission to candidates, its timing seems like a recruitment advertisement to me. But the most important factor for Chinese students to choose a school is the ranking. A lot of study abroad agencies in China charge their clients according to the US rankings for the school where they have enrolled.

The report also establishes BU as a great community with a lot of Chinese students, and this article even has a Chinese version. Actually, Chinese students do not like a campus with a lot of Asian students. On the contrary, they tend to go to a school with fewer Chinese students so that they can force themselves to practice English.

Finally, the “Nation Builders” story introduced some BU alums who work in China currently as success stories. However, most Chinese students plan to stay here for several years, then go back China. Many Chinese students gave up job offers in China to study in the United States, so these stories in the special report are not that helpful. We are eager to know how many international students, especially international students in COM, got a job in the United States and how they learned about those opportunities. This information was missing from the report.

I believe future reports should try to understand international students from their own perspective. Thank you.

Qi Wang (COM’15)
Allston, Mass.

Love, love, love Bostonia! I read it from cover to cover. But I found a boo-boo in the Winter–Spring 2014 edition, on page 32, where it says, “…says Ge’s father, speaking through a translator.” Translators work with written material; interpreters work with the spoken word. You would never find a translator in the courtroom unless she or he were reading from evidence, etc. Keep up the good work, though, with your written word.

Helen Leroux Marston (CAS’56)
Tenants Harbor, Maine

Life Out There?

I read with great interest the article about Catherine Espaillat and her work with the Discovery Channel Telescope in searching for the “Goldilocks” zones around distant stars (“Finding Planets Before They Happen,” Winter–Spring 2014). Unfortunately, most of this investigative work by many astronomers like Espaillat ends up looking for life-forming planets millions of light years away and speculating on their “just right” zone locations and the so-called planet’s composition in the search for life, which we will never be able to confirm with a visit because of the vast distances—unless Einstein is wrong and Gene Roddenberry is right.

What we need to do, and I’m pleased to hear that NASA has put money in the 2015 budget, is send probes to the moons in our solar system, like Europa, that have vast liquid water oceans under icy crusts. If we could determine that the surface upwellings have carbon-based organic life or that the liquid water under the crusts has living carbon-based life, then life is everywhere.

Peter G. Parsons (COM’65)
Mission Viejo, Calif.

First Steps

The method of walking described in “Walking Like a Cavewoman” (Winter–Spring 2014) may not be simply a matter of primitive bone structure. Tom Brown, a lifelong student of primitive hunting methods, describes exactly the same walk in Tom Brown’s Field Guide to Nature Observation and Tracking, pp. 97–98. He advocates it as the best way to stalk an animal by making the least amount of noise.

Michael Field
Farmington, Maine

Getting Both Sides

Catherine Caldwell-Harris (“How a Liberal Learned to Respect Conservative Thinking,” Fall 2013) impressed me with her breadth of vision, her background, competence, and excellent writing, but I must take issue with the final section of her article.

She begins that section by calling for collaboration with the “other side.” The term, as she uses it, refers to political conservatives, since she identifies herself as a former staunch liberal and appears to assume that we, her readers, are liberals in need of the understanding or toleration of those to the right of us. Such an assumption is, of course, questionable, but forgivable. What struck me as utterly illusory, however, was the author’s tenet that “the right is happier than the left.” What earthly connection does politics have with joy or sorrow? Does liberalism cause sadness? Vice versa? I searched throughout the article for some documentation or proof of this presumed connection: studies by eminent psychologists (or one by some ambitious untenured faculty member trying to publish something, anything), but the only time the author came near citing a source was a passing reference to some vague “surveys,” to wit: “And if so, is their more natural mind-set the reason that conservatives are, at least according to surveys, often happier than liberals?” Here she tempers her generalization with “often,” but the rest of the time it appears to be “always.”

Finally, it might have been well to reverse the argument and show toleration as well for the other “other side,” meaning the liberals, considered wimps, dreamers, or communists by a good number of conservatives.

But these remarks refer only to the last section. Reservations aside, the article held my interest throughout, and I found it well worth reading.

Vera Lee (GRS’62)
Newton, Mass.

I was disappointed that the letters to the editor on “How a Liberal Learned to Respect Conservative Thinking” were one-sided. There were no liberal rebuttals. First, let’s establish that there is a spectrum of beliefs from the far right to the far left. In today’s society the country is politically polarized and the extremes are very vocal. Both ends of the spectrum are adamant that their way is the right way. Both extremes are cultish in behavior and can be accused of group-think. Both have opposing views on the practice of religion, on the treatment of illegal immigrants and their American-born children, on sexual mores and ethics, and on the significance of global warming. Neither view can be imposed on a pluralistic society. Neither extreme group is prepared to compromise, but both are very vocal. We do not have “faith in the constitution”; we use it as a set of principles by which we govern ourselves. We differ on the interpretation of these principles, and, again, compromise and tolerance are often not in the vocabulary of either extreme group. Everyone is entitled to their beliefs, but they should not be imposed on others. Caldwell-Harris is speaking of her own experiences.

Michael H. Bartlett (CGS’72, CAS’75) claims that “a free market is the foundation of prosperity” for all. First of all, the concept of free markets at the moment is a theory that is evolving and has not been fully proven. It can lead to monopolies (or rather, a few large companies, polyopolis, that put small businesses out of business, and there are many examples of these). It also leads to the concentration of capital in the hands of a few, to speculation in the stock markets, and to little or no government influence on these events. In fact, it is the theory of the conservatives, and its practice has led to several economic downturns (recessions) as well as the current great recession of 2007, from which we are slowly recovering. (In 2002 Randall Dodd of the Derivatives Study Center clearly spelled out the flaws in the free market theory that led to the recession that began in 2007.)

One can make all kinds of arguments about why these events occurred, but that begs the question. The liberal point of view is that markets need some degree of regulation and that some of the excess profits should be returned to the people who buy products produced by that market. Is there a viable example of the success of the free market theory? Why choose this theory as opposed to those proposed by the liberal groups? The optimum solution lies somewhere in the middle. Why not compromise? My objective is not to discuss the details of the theories but to challenge others to think, to point out the biases, and to make changes that lead to a more stable economy.

In conclusion, these letters illustrate the biases of the conservative movement rather than an issue with Caldwell-Harris’ personal experiences and their relationship to concepts of social psychology.

Sam Margolis (CAS’55, GRS’63)
Bethesda, Md.

Mystery of Flight 800

The article on Kristina Borjesson’s documentary about TWA Flight 800 (“What Really Happened to TWA Flight 800?” Winter–Spring 2014) poses some very big questions, none about the flight itself. It’s been clear all along there was a major cover-up, and her documentary only confirms that.

The biggest question is, why would anyone waste their money and time getting any sort of communication degree, from any school, if what’s waiting for them (if they make it to the big time) is CBS, NBC, ABC, and every other major news outlet? The article makes clear CBS is run by gutless hacks, the doc makes clear NBC is run by gutless hacks, and we can safely assume ABC, whose Nightly News anchor, Diane Sawyer, favors kitten videos over hard news, is no different.

The other question posed by both the article and the documentary is, now what? We do nothing? Just one more example of the American government giving the people the shaft, and those in positions of power, in government, in the media, in academia, rolling over?

I suggest BU, and the College of Communication, not allow that to happen. Every class at COM, whatever the degree, should allocate time and resources and effort to have this “investigation” reopened, redone. Harass newspaper editors, members of Congress, the FBI, the National Transportation Safety Board—just like the good old days, when news, and journalism degrees, meant something.

In the same issue of Bostonia, letter writer Jane A. Berryman (CAS’84, COM’84) wrote that she had yet to give BU a substantial monetary gift, so annoyed was she still over the reign of John Silber. Maybe an undertaking such as this would get her to change her mind. BU can get that money yet.

C. J. Mellor (COM’81)
Savannah, Ga.

Kudos to Kristina Borjesson for having the fortitude and conviction of a truly concerned citizen. But I fear for her safety and can only trust she is fully aware of her circumstances. However, in all fairness, the truly groundbreaking investigation, outside the control of government agencies, was first undertaken by James D. Sanders in the late 1990s. Sanders, a man with considerable credentials, authored The Downing of TWA Flight 800. It is worth noting that both Borjesson and Sanders reach essentially the same conclusion. It is also worth noting that except for an unscheduled last-second change in the order of takeoff from JFK, the target would not have been the TWA flight, but an El Al 747 flight departing for Tel Aviv.

Thomas H. Hitchcock (CFA’62, SED’69)
Sturbridge, Mass.

You cannot tell your readers that an airplane was shot down off the coast of Long Island by missiles without getting an answer to the question, where did the missiles come from? It is no answer at all for the maker of a documentary on this subject to say that she is not answering because she is “vulnerable.” That is an evasive and unacceptable answer, the reaction to which can only be, “What the hell does that mean?” Or maybe just, “Baloney!”

Leo Vanderpot (CGS’57, SED’61)
Red Hook, N.Y.

Looking Back at Silber

I read Jane Berryman’s letter regarding the late John Silber (Letters, Winter–Spring 2014), and it struck me as quite odd that one would choose to speak ill of the dead. However, she does raise an interesting issue that a publication such as Bostonia might consider exploring in depth with the help of University researchers and students. Why not go back through various media archives and explore the history of John R. Silber at BU in all aspects? I do recall he was heralded when he arrived on campus as a gifted philosopher. He came at a time when the Vietnam War was at its apex and the student community was all astir. He took on academicians who gave passing grades to students, I suspect, so they would not be drafted. He challenged the formation of a professors’ union at a private university and insisted academicians publish or perish. As an older student who got the opportunity to earn a degree through the G.I. Bill, I greatly appreciated his steadiness at the helm. Regardless of the hurt feelings, I believe he deserves more than grudging respect of all alumni. I hope to read more about John Silber, and I will continue to donate what little I can, but alas I must leave my estate to my children and grandchildren.

Jim Quirk (COM’74)
Bluffton, S.C.