The Bowdoin Orient

Thank you

To the Editors:On behalf of our family, I would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to Bowdoin College: our president, Barry Mills, and Dean for Academic Affairs, Cristle Collins Judd, my esteemed colleagues, and all of our dedicated staff, who labored so lovingly at my husband’s funeral, interment and reception. We are especially grateful to Dining Services, who, faced with the challenge of producing the annual Thanksgiving dinner that evening, provided refreshments at the reception following William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Constitutional Law Richard Morgan’s burial. It has been a painful time for us, and speaking personally, I would like to thank Bowdoin’s administration, Trustees, and  my colleagues across campus, but especially in the government department, as well as students past and present for their outpouring of support.Sincerely,Jean M. YarbroughGary M. Pendy, Sr., Professor of Social Sciences

This fall will mark my 23rd year of teaching political philosophy and American political thought at Bowdoin. I dearly love this college and want to do everything that I can to see Bowdoin be the best that it can be. But love requires honesty, and Thomas Klingenstein's essay provides us with the opportunity to examine one area where we are notably deficient: intellectual and political diversity.

As the Republicans were fond of saying in the aftermath of 2004, "elections matter." Their stunning loss of what now appears to be both houses of Congress will have ramifications abroad and at home. Within the last hour, we have learned that Secretary Rumsfeld is gone, to be replaced by Robert Gates, a member of the Iraq Study Commission.