Mercier should resign if so concerned about teaching ‘numbskulls’
Dear Editors,
Re: “Filled with revulsion” (Toronto Star, Sept. 28, 2005).
Adèle Mercier should be ashamed of herself for likening the drunken revelry on Aberdeen Street this past Homecoming weekend to the ideologically driven hate-mongering of the Hitler youth movement. Such comments do nothing to solve the problems behind excessive destruction and violence during Queen’s Homecoming celebrations, but they succeed only in trivializing the Holocaust and alienating the Jewish community at Queen’s University. I therefore applaud and endorse the condemnation by Queen’s Hillel and other groups and individuals across campus of Mercier’s breathtakingly inappropriate remarks.
Mercier adds that she is disgusted “at the thought that [she devotes her] life to teaching students who turn into numbskulls … at the drop of a beer keg.” Might I suggest Mercier put her money where her inflammatory rhetoric is and resign, then, as soon as possible. I know lots of upper-year graduate students, sessional adjunct instructors and postdoctoral fellows who would be more than happy to take her place.
Robert G. May
BA ’95, PhD ’03, Department of English
Comparison to Hitler youth offensive and unfounded
Dear Editors,
Re: “Filled with revulsion” (Toronto Star, Sept. 28, 2005) and “Professor’s Letter Draws Fire” (Journal, Sept. 30, 2005).
I was appalled and disappointed in Mercier’s lack of sensitivity and careless reference comparing Queen’s students to the Hitler youth in her letter to the Toronto Star. Despite Mercier’s claim in the Journal that the comparison she meant to draw was that both groups acted mindlessly, the Hitler youth were children and teenagers that were brought together in Nazi to be socialized with Hitler’s politics. This movement allowed Hitler to instill in his citizens the belief that Jews, among others, are less than human and worthy of death. To be compared to a movement that contributed to a culture that put 10 million people to death, including relatives of many students on this campus, is utterly and wholly offensive. Mercier did not intend to compare Queen’s students to the Hitler youth in of their political embodiment, but she needs to be much more careful when she uses historical examples from the Holocaust and other historical atrocities. When drawing on references to the Holocaust, one cannot pick and choose which aspects are similar when there is so much implicit meaning. The practice of invoking comparisons to the Nazi era has become all too frequent in today’s society. The Nazis have come to be the symbol of evil incarnate. It might be the case that we, the students were belligerent, drunk and irresponsible, but I fail to see a single similarity between the behaviour of drunken students who turned over a car and the Hitler youth, who were part of a greater movement that murdered millions of people. Drawing these types of comparisons trivializes the Nazi era and the victims of the Nazi era, and is grossly inflammatory.
Her reference was completely inappropriate and overtly offensive because no matter how embarrassed she may feel or how irresponsible we were, we were not evil incarnate.
Aaron Hart
ArtSci ’06
Media’s criticism of police ignores students’ responsibility
Dear Editors,
RE: “Madness and mayhem on Aberdeen” (Journal, Sept. 27, 2005).
The editorial published in the wake of the latest Homecoming embarrassment seeks, in part, to blame the police for not doing enough to stop the next generation of Canada’s leaders from making fools of themselves and worse. Last year, the Journal also felt itself justified in criticising the “hollow rhetoric” of the police, and then went on to condemn as heavy-handed Chief Bill Closs’ promise to crack down in future. So, had the police broken up the crowd with tear gas or water cannon (as the Mayor has suggested may happen next year), I suppose there would have been a shrill cry of condemnation. I sincerely hope that the Kingston police will get it right one day: allowing students to run amok in the glass-strewn streets of the Ghetto, saving them from themselves without also demanding that they behave like adults and (heaven forbid) citizens.
Charles W. A. Prior
PhD ’03, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge
Letter grossly misrepresentative of Kingston Police
Dear Editors,
RE: “Anti-authoritarian sentiments justified on Aberdeen” (Journal, Sept. 30, 2005).
I am not going to go on and on about Andrew Robinson’s one-sided letter, I am going to address two points. Kingston police officers are not solely made up of males as his letter implies. He missed the fact that, believe it or not, the Kingston Police Department has women officers. So much for his “boy-hero cops” theory. The police were there for no reason? Perhaps he should have walked or driven through other neighborhoods in Kingston that night. I wonder if Robinson would have picked up on the fact that it would be very difficult to find masses of people walking the streets with open alcohol, people with music excessively loud, people walking the streets crossing without looking both ways in other neighbourhoods. I guess in his world they do not have impaired drivers, one reason why an officer might suggest that people wait for cars to stop before [crossing], even though there is a stop sign posted.
I also have to take exception to the statement that “police don’t have the best education.” Perhaps he should have done a little research before writing this letter. I will start with the top. Police Chief William Closs is a graduate of the Queen’s executive MBA program. Deputy Chief Robert Napier is a Queen’s graduate, as is Deputy Chief Dan Murphy. There are several Queen’s alumni that are police officers for Kingston Police and are educated in different areas. Furthermore, someone should tell Andrew that just because someone has an education doesn’t make them smart.
Const. Lisa Damczyk
Kingston Police Force, ArtSci ’90
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