To the Editors:
After reading "Coe Quad memorial too close to Ground Zero" (September 17), it took several minutes and another reading to consider whether this article was either so dripping with sarcasm and laced with "irony" that it could have been written in earnest, or was rather intended as a jarring parody.
All politics aside and without delving into the propriety of the College Republicans erecting a memorial to 9/11 on campus this year, I find it in very poor taste to make a mockery of the notion of sacred ground and commemoration. "[T]he Dudley Coe Quad has been hallowed ground ever since Sustainable Bowdoin built that circular stick thing there last spring" is an anemic attempt to vilify the beliefs of those students responsible for creating the memorial. Furthermore, the use of ignorant statements such as, "If [the College Republicans] didn't want to be related to all the negative acts that have been committed by any Republicans ever, then they wouldn't have chosen to be Republicans in the first place," is absurdly unfair. Are we as modern Americans responsible for acts dating back to the settlement of our country? Does choosing to be a student at Bowdoin render us in unfailing accord with the actions and beliefs of the thousands of graduates before us?
I hope that this jaded and distasteful ridicule of the placement of a memorial to 9/11 may have been accompanied by an actual moment of contemplation for the tragedy on the part of the author. I also hope that you may grow, Mr. [Carlo] Davis, to navigate your way to the convenience store for a Red Bull and realize that it isn't actually all about you.
Sincerely,
Kathryn J. Lohotsky '06