[1539] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
letter
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Kai-yuh Hsiao)
Thu Nov 6 15:17:54 2003
Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2003 14:29:59 -0500
Reply-To: eepness@MIT.EDU
From: Kai-yuh Hsiao <eepness@MIT.EDU>
To: MIT-Talk@MIT.EDU
To the Editor:
I would like to state my guarded approval of the statements made by
the faculty and staff letter in Tuesday's issue, as well as Chancellor
Clay's statement. While both expressed intense disapproval of the
"ghetto party" email, they did not directly recommend administrative
sanctions against the students involved, and in fact the Chancellor
recommended open discussion, and I believe this is the way such things
should work.
I say "guarded approval", though, because I am still wary of the
possibility that people, in the heat of being offended, might use what
power they have to inflict administrative punishment. This may
mitigate emotions in the short term, but will only stifle and thus
prolong the actual problem. People naturally listen to one another,
and we will all benefit the most from open discussion, not official
sanctions.
In response to one of the Chancellor's points, though, I would say
that people are morally and legally entitled to their own opinion,
including a lack thereof. Leave the bystanders to their own lives and
problems. People cannot be directly taught to "do the right thing",
but rather given an environment of open discourse and freedom, they
will naturally grow to find their own sense of right and wrong.
Finally, I would also like to commend Stephen Friedenthal '92 for
expressing his opinion against the Tech's article on oral sex without
recommending official sanctions. I will add, however, that I believe
journalism should reflect reality, and for as long as oral sex is
happening all around us, it is only fair to allow its mention in our
newspapers as well. Besides, there have been plenty of Tech articles
in recent memory more badly written than that one.
Kai-yuh Hsiao '99
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