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Alumni Association Home > Minnesota Magazine > Past Issues > 2003 > May-June 2003	Print View

Letters
5/12/2003

Don’t Fall into Old Prejudices

It was very enjoyable and informative to read your article about the African Americans on the Twin Cities campus ("No Other Moment Like This One," January–February). Dave Taylor, mentioned in the article and now the dean of General College, and I were best of friends as undergrads. We met on the Union Board Council at Coffman Union. It was fun to also read about the remodel of the Union in that same edition.

Dave and I also participated in the Panel of Americans, which was discussed in the article. I am Japanese American but grew up in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. My area was the fifth category—or the everything-else-minority panelist, since the panelists usually consisted of a Catholic, a Protestant, a Jew, an African American, and a fifth person. I talked about Buddhism, which was considered really strange in those days, or the Japanese relocation camps, which were practically unheard of in the Midwest at that time. My parents and sister had come to Minneapolis from the camps in Poston, Arizona.

People would say that the occurrence of the relocation camps was an unusual circumstance and would not happen again. However, look at what is happening to people of Middle Eastern background. With a little more anxiety, similar types of relocation or segregation based on national background for the sake of "homeland security" could occur. We must continue to be aware of civil rights and what can happen in times of high anxiety.

Things have changed since I left the University and the education has changed in many ways. People know more about Buddhism and even find it fulfilling. The Japanese American relocation is now discussed in history classes. An African American is a dean at the University of Minnesota. Moreover, the campus still has a great feeling for me each time I return home.

However, we must be careful not to fall back into old prejudices, but we must learn from our previous mistakes, as the old saying goes.

Alfred Ono (B.A. ’67, M.D. ’71)
Portland, Oregon

A Vote against Such ‘Research’

I read the blurb under Faculty Research titled "Disenfranchisement Results" in the March–April issue with great interest. Professor Christopher Uggen noted that had ex-felons not lost the right to vote, the Democratic party might have control of the White House and U.S. Senate.

This type of static argument is completely nonsensical. When trying to speculate what could have happened in past elections, especially the 2000 presidential election, Mr. Uggen assumes that all other variables would be held constant, which is a faulty premise on which to conduct "research." For example, no one knows how many convicted felons may have voted Democrat. We also may never know how many Republicans with the intent to vote didn’t bother after the networks called Florida for [presidential candidate Al] Gore, seemingly thousands in the panhandle in primarily Republican districts. We also don’t know how many "dimpled chads" were recounted and, although not intended to be cast for Gore, counted as Gore votes anyhow. There are countless different scenarios that could have happened but didn’t.

As we all know by now, recount after recount have backed the fact that George Bush is our legitimately elected president, like it or not. This kind of baseless speculation does everyone a great disservice

Koreen Wallis Bowers (B.S. ’91)
Fairfield, Ohio

Everything Seems to Be a Business

The article "Lessons in Ethics" in the March–April issue about the Carlson School of Management is very timely. Speaking as a consumer, I see the economy, which totally involves businesses, as having become a "god" of some sort, making it extremely difficult to determine how to define ethics.

Everything seems to be a business involving the acquisition and exchange of money. The various local and national government bureaucracies, school systems, some churches, et cetera, claim and appear to be businesses. Goods and services are promoted to a point that individuals are not educated to be alert to what is important, needed, and what is excessive.

The statement, "Now the world is much bigger. People don’t know each other, and they don’t trust each other" is very correct. It was interesting to learn that business students do not want to be "preached to." We do not seem to be living in a society in which people care about each other; we tend to be more into ungenerously using each other.

There is much evidence of this. Our immigration policy does not require people to learn to speak English or to be responsible but merely to get a job and paycheck. Mothers are abandoning their children, suggesting the job/career is more important than the nurturing requirements of their children. Teachers have abandoned schoolchildren for increased salaries, and school administrators and superintendents are more highly valued, financially, than teachers whose responsibilities are considerably greater.

Inflation suggests that there will never be enough money in circulation to keep everyone happy. People should be required to become mature and responsible to successfully promote "freedom, justice, and equality under God."

Cecilia Biernat Langland (’B.S. 47)
Encinitas, California

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