Letters

Not invincible For all our intelligence and talents, Yale students seem to accidentally hurt themselves and others alarmingly often. Being surrounded by gifted people who make everything look easy causes us to have undue confidence in our own abilities and to overlook the gravity of what we’re doing. The first thing you learn from your »

Travis Heine’s recent column argued that the upcoming changes to the Roman Catholic mass are for the better. I’m not so sure — as a Roman Catholic, I think the changes sound pretty horrid. The author says some of the current phrases used are opaque — well, I don’t know how you hope to fix »

The Slifka Center disgraced itself by presenting a talk by Israeli philopsher Asa Kasher. According to Ha’aretz columnist Amos Harel, Israeli soldiers tactics in Gaza in the winter attack of 2008-09 were based in part on “ethical theory” developed by Kasher. Respected human rights organizations regard Israel’s Cast Lead attack as replete with human rights »

Last night, I had the opportunity to attend a fascinating talk about the complexities of fighting terrorism. Professor Asa Kasher, a philosopher from Tel Aviv University who helped write the Israeli Defense Force’s Code of Ethics, spoke on Israel’s protection of human dignity when fighting terrorists. He described the seven-step process behind a targeted killing »

I owe belated thanks to Saybrook College Dean Paul McKinley for deciding in the summer of 2007 to place Mike Jones ’11 and me in the same cramped suite in Lanman-Wright Hall. Mike and I grew to be close friends, and I consider myself lucky to have lived with him for all four years of »

Colin Ross’s recent column (“Candidates neglect policing,” Oct. 26) was frustrating to read. Ross’s portrayal of Vinay Nayak’s view that “the mayor and police chief should be the only ones directing how cops fight crime” is misstated. The Board of Aldermen should always have a clear voice in advocating for policing reform, which involves cops »

In his recent column, “Candidates neglect policing” (10/26/11), Colin Ross compellingly argued that the Board of Aldermen should have an input in the procedures and behavior of the police force. But Ross’ criticism of Sarah Eidelson ’12 as lacking tenacity unfairly overlooks Sarah’s commitment to fighting for change and opposing establishment power. It also might »

When Harry Graver states in his Oct. 18 op-ed “Rooting the humanities in right” that my “rejection of an accepted methodology goes hand in hand with [my] rejection [of] the idea of conclusive result,” he would have been exactly right — had that been what I said. But that was not what I said. Regrettably, »

On Friday, Hana Awwad asked us to join her in lamenting the lack of Wikipedia entries for 10 specific Palestinian prisoners who were released in the recent Israeli hostage-Palestinian criminal exchange and called on us to celebrate them. I would like to help rectify this anonymity by providing profiles behind some of the names she »

It is appalling that the Yale Daily News would refer to vervet monkeys as “Yale’s newest collaborators;” it is morally on par with blaming a woman for being raped or describing her as a “collaborator” in the assault. Animals who have been taken from their homeland, torn from their familes, forced to live in captivity »

While I understand Ethan Rodriguez-Torrent’s argument about a smoker’s right to choose the “calculated risk” to smoke, I feel that he has misunderstood the point of Nell Meosky’s op-ed. She does not call us to ban smoking from campus entirely, and her description of the risks of smoking is factually accurate. Rodriguez-Torrent’s attempts to legitimize »

I was dismayed by the confusion shown in Yishai Schwartz’s column last Wednesday (“Consider the academics of sports,” Oct. 12) approving of a proposed integration of varsity athletics into college academic programs. To put it bluntly, he errs in ignoring the distinction between academics and sport, to the disservice of each. Let me be clear »