Read “Grader’s Reply” as Historical Document

To the editors:

In response to Susan Brunka’s passionate disapproval of The Crimson's reprint of a 1962 article besmirching Radcliffe women (Letters, “A Reader’s Reply,” May 23; Opinion, “A Grader’s Reply,” May 16), I would hope Brunka and other readers of like mind would consider these documents historical.

They are not slanderous commentary on contemporary gender relations, but instead provide valuable insight (admittedly tongue-in-cheek) to the relationship Harvard was seen by some to have with Radcliffe decades ago.

As my undergraduate degree is from a women’s college, one would perhaps point to me as the most likely supporter of Brunka’s views. However, I doubt that it was The Crimson’s intention to espouse such opinions and thus take no offense.

If anything, items such as that continually prompt me to appreciate the changes vocal women (indeed, such as Brunka) have made since then.

Lauren E. Brown

May 23, 2001

The writer is studying history at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Crimson Comic Should Not Make Light of Hitler

To the editors:

I write in response to an issue of the “Comeuppance” comic strip (May 23). The strip shows a masked man sitting at a theater balcony while another man, who is apparently Abraham Lincoln, sneaks up behind him and assassinates him. When the mask is pulled off, it is revealed to be Adolf Hitler, and Lincoln is portrayed as saying: “Nobel Peace Prize!”

I was shocked that The Crimson would actually run a comic strip poking fun at a man who created a very dark period in human history. It reveals the insensitivity and naiveté not only of the strip’s authors but also of the Crimson editors who thought it would be acceptable comic material.

M. Sofia Velez ’01-’02

May 25, 2001