Letters

Bicker, Bicker To the editor: Everyone is entitled to an individual opinion about the bicker process that exists at some of Princeton’s eating clubs, although as a Princeton senior I would argue that reading Spencer Morgan’s article would not give anyone a complete picture of the clubs and their role on campus [“Undercover at Princeton’s Eating Clubs,” Feb. 29]. Bicker aside, though, I was shocked to see gossip about specific college students published in a major regional newspaper. It doesn’t matter who these students’ parents are; it was wrong of Mr. Morgan to name the students, and it was wrong of The Observer to publish the article with their names in it. A supermarket tabloid would not sink so low. Mr. Morgan and you owe a lot of apologies. Joseph R. Zipkin
Princeton, N.J. To the editor: I am a ’73 grad—one of the first women at Princeton and a former member of Tower. I do remember a classic line about bicker when I was at Princeton—it was supposedly an old headline from the Daily Princetonian: “Jesus took 12. Ivy takes 11.” The Friends of the Women’s Center had a reunion panel about two years ago that I coordinated, about women and the eating clubs. Mr. Morgan highlighted many of the things we discussed. Good article. Linda Berman Wayne, Penn. Built Cars, Hated Jews To the editor: Ron Rosenbaum’s latest piece in The Observer prompted me to visit Henry Ford’s Wikipedia entry [“The Plot to Kidnap Wiesel: Targeting Survivors,” Feb. 26]. It was there that the weird synergy he noted in his column—between Holocaust denial and Henry Ford—came into focus. It is taken as an article of faith in classical anti-Semitism that wars erupt at the behest of “international bankers” (read Jews) who desire to profit from them. You may recall that Ford blamed this group for the sinking of the Lusitania—even after the Germans took the credit—and, similarly, for pushing America into World War II. Therein lies the problem. It’s deeply illogical that the Jews underwrote the Second World War—and suffered hideously as its consequence. Removing the Holocaust from the picture allows the meta-narrative—the one that truly explains the world to anti-Semites—to re-emerge. In fact, Holocaust denial, in this view, is the natural outcome of anti-Semitism, since it reduces the Holocaust to a device employed by Jews for the furtherance of insidious objectives. Ethan Wallison
Kyiv, Ukraine What Would Jane Do? To the editor: Matthew Schuerman and his subject, urban planner Laurie Olin, are apparently unconcerned with the major problem of the Atlantic Yards project, or of any development like it: control [“This Guy Wants You to Love Atlantic Yards,” Feb. 26]. The Atlantic Yards plan gives control over a vital swath of downtown Brooklyn to a single corporate “decider”: Forest City Ratner. Every decision—about the shape of an entire neighborhood, about which business can lease space, what tenants can do in their apartment buildings, or whether or not planned green space actually gets greened—will lie with this private group. It is a transfer and consolidation of civic control—over many, many city blocks—into the hands of a single private, profit-making organization. What’s the most distinctive—or the most desirable, or hottest, or coolest—neighborhood in New York? Not any neighborhood managed by a corporation: not Battery Park City, not Rockefeller Center, not anything by Trump. Our favorite blocks, our favorite shops and our favorite restaurants will never be located in these places. I suggest that Mr. Olin and Mr. Schuerman go get those Jane Jacobs books out of the trashcan. The neighborhoods she saved are the most expensive ones in the city. Right now, in 2007. And for a reason: They have character. Meals, coffees and leases are transacted between relatively independent players, not between individuals and powerful corporations. Interesting things happen, and not by committee. I can’t believe I have to read a reactionary corporate apologia in The Observer. Laurie Olin is the one who’s stuck in 60’s mode, and that mode is that of the megalomaniac, authoritarian planner. Andrew Nimmo
Brooklyn Gore Should Be Patient To the editor: Steve Kornacki may have a point [“Why Al Gore Won’t Let the Rumors Die,” Wise Guys, Feb. 19]. Al Gore should let the front-running Democratic trio bludgeon each other for nearly a year and a half (a year and a half!) and stay out of the fray. He might just appeal to the party at large after the Roman Circus leaves everyone else mired in the coliseum mud. But please! The “aesthetic consideration”!? How shallow does Mr. Kornacki think we are? Whether Mr. Gore is fat or not is not exactly le sujet du jour. Steven Morris East Hampton, N.Y.