Athletics Is a Business
I personally think Title IX is not fair. If women’s sports cannot be supported by their own income, they should be canceled. If football or wrestling bring in a ton of money, I see no problem paying the coaches of that sport a lot of money and letting them give away a lot of scholarships. If some sport is not bringing in much revenue, they should not give out scholarships. Athletics is a business and it should be run as such.
Mary Jane Kovortnick
Minneapolis

Hands off Minnesota
Carnegie Mellon University professor Richard Florida says: "What you want is to turn it [the University of Minnesota] into Berkeley or UCLA" "(Campus Digest, March–April)". If you do, count me out!
George Glotzbach (B.A. ’53)
Santa Fe, New Mexico

Earlier Smoking Research
Your short note "Sick of Smoke" "(Faculty Research, March–April)" reminded me of my 1948 research and report in the Medical Bulletin. I reported that lung cancer was being caused by cigarette smoking. The St. Paul Pioneer Press, knowing that this was a "first," gave it a big headline, but no one else did. Look up "A Biography of Lung Cancer" in the Bulletin of the Minnesota Medical Foundation and Medical Schools. Thank you for a good magazine.
B.J. O’Loughlin (M.D., Ph.D. ’50)
Newport Beach, California

Amazed
I am amazed that you have not posted the john powell article "On Race and Space" on your Web site after going to the trouble of publishing it in your magazine. I happened to see Minnesota and the john powell article in a co-worker’s office and later sought out the story on-line so I could share it with friends, colleagues, and my representatives. I can’t help but think that your refusal to make this available on the World Wide Web is yet another slight to minority communities.
Renee DeRosier
Hartford, Connecticut

Editor’s note: "On Race and Space" is available on the Web site of the Institute on Race and Poverty
at the University Law School. Because Minnesota is a member benefit, not all content is posted on-line. In addition, the magazine does not own electronic publishing rights for articles written by freelancers.

We’re All Free to Choose
You embarrass and dismay U of M alumni by featuring, even publishing, "On Race and Space" (March–April). It is black propaganda designed to blame white people for black faults and failures. It is permeated by [half-baked] perceptions of space dynamics and specious reasoning.
The spatial pattern of residential settlement in America is the natural result of automotive technology and freedom for people to choose location and communities that maximize their lives’ satisfactions. It is not a white scheme to disadvantage blacks. Blacks are also free to choose where to live, even in white communities! Infrastructure development must be coordinated with where people want to live. Highways and roads are paid for by highway user taxes. It is inner city subways, etc., that are subsidized out of general revenues.
Lloyd Halvorson (B.S. ’39, Ph.D. ’43)
Warrenton, Virginia

Appalled
I was appalled at your choice of the cover for the March–April issue ("On Race and Space"). It is hard to believe that only 250 years ago we fought a revolution in this country based upon a small complaint like taxation without representation. Our forefathers would be shocked to see the intervening years of rule, regulation, ordinance, code, and law after law stacked one upon the other and all designed to chip away at the freedoms they won. John Powell is but the latest example.
Apparently Mr. Powell feels that it is his right to tell people where they should live and with whom they should associate, never mind their right to choose or the right of freedom of association. We should not be allowed to follow our dream and choose our associates because everyone might not be able to make those choices. What nonsense. Perhaps if Mr. Powell spent his time cleaning up the crime-ridden inner cities he seems to cherish he might be able to get people to voluntarily return. Instead, like most ideologues he would resort to the force of rule and regulation and kill yet another freedom. To Mr. Powell I say no thanks. I will live in the best community I can afford and choose those with whom I will associate. I shall choose like-minded people who share my culture, tastes, and sense of values. That is the freedom I have earned by my own efforts.
The choice to feature Mr. Powell was particularly egregious given the article about Philip Brain in the same edition. Mr. Brain’s survival of the Bataan Death March and the care he gave his fellow soldiers did more to serve this country than will a thousand Mr. Powells. Mr. Brain should have been the cover story: He fought for freedom while Mr. Powell seeks to destroy it. In fact, your choice between the two speaks volumes about your sense of values, freedom, and politics.
Edward Barnett (B.A. ’74)
Wauwatosa, Wisconsin

What’s at Stake
Thank you for the article on john powell and urban sprawl. This is an important topic that needs to be discussed at city, county, state, and federal levels. The vitality of our communities and our quality of life—not to mention justice and equal opportunity—are at stake.
C.T. Ritchie (B.S. ’84)
St. Paul

Let’s Move on
You point out that john powell believes that reasonable historians will conclude that there is a conspiracy versus people of color. You mean, or he means, I guess, they are reasonable so long as they agree with him, but not otherwise.
When I attended the University of Minnesota under the G.I. Bill, some areas were too stuffy to let Japanese Americans live there, even though some of their people were put in barbed-wire, armed-guard prison camps in the U.S. in WWII for no valid reason. And then those POWs or their family members fought the war in Europe and the Pacific with the highest rate of them becoming [killed in action] in Europe, just to preserve for these stuffed shirts the right to be stuffed shirts with biases.
I have personal acquaintances like these; for example, one who watched the Pearl Harbor bombing from outside the gates and was exposed to airborne machine gunfire herself. Her brother was in the 442d Regimental Combat Team. Another brother was in the Army. Another was an Air Force pilot. Yet in Minneapolis she was prevented from living where she chose. But she didn’t stand around wringing her hands about it. Despite those people who refused her living where she chose, she became an outstanding teacher to some of their own Minneapolis children in the local school system. She also taught them tolerance and understanding, which they did not learn from their parents. But those kinds of days are mostly over. Powell should put to rest the ’20s and ’50s you write about, as most of us have, and concentrate on the nows. Of course I don’t mean to literally forget them, but let’s move on.
Lenny Herrst (B.S. ’55)
Torrance, California

Remembering Harold Stassen
The cover of the May-June Minnesotashowing 72 covers of past issues was most interesting. I noted the April 1950 cover featured Harold E. Stassen, an alumnus of the U of M (B.A. ’27, J.D. ’29), as a reunion speaker. Also, in "A Century of Stories," the March 1945 issue noted a story about Commander Stassen discussing his mission as a delegate to the United Nations charter conference to be held in San Francisco.
He was on active duty serving as flag secretary to Admiral "Bull" Halsey on the USS Missouri when he was ordered by the president to report to Washington to become one of eight U.S. delegates. He was later selected by the World Press as one of the two delegates most influential in the drafting of the charter. He returned to the Missouri in time to be engaged in the battle of the Philippine Sea. After the Japanese surrender, intelligence information indicated that submariners and airmen were in danger of being killed before the formal surrender ceremonies, which were to be held two weeks hence. Halsey then ordered Stassen to lead a mission to rescue and release 14,000 American and Allied POWs from prison camps on the Japanese mainland. Mission accomplished in four days. He was awarded a Bronze Star for that mission upon the recommendation of Admiral Halsey.
I write this letter to thank the alumni association magazine for these items of recognition. Why should I be so pleased over this modest recognition? During the 150th anniversary of the U of M, 150 top alumni were listed in the anniversary celebration brochures. Surprisingly and disappointingly, Harold E. Stassen was omitted from that list. So, thanks again.
J. Robert Stassen (B.A. ’51)
Mendota Heights, Minnesota