To the Editor:

I am disturbed by Cornell’s policy of giving “free” classes to inmates at Auburn Correctional Facility. How is it that people who have been convicted of crimes get personalized education, versus people who can’t afford college tuition and haven’t broken the law?

I’m sure lots of other people, the ones that have to work two jobs and can’t afford to attend college to enrich themselves, would have been fantastic students as well, given the same generous opportunity. It saddens me that Cornell is rewarding criminals with free education, a financial luxury not everyone has.

 Alyssa Sogor, Ithaca College ’08

To the Editor:

After the first 900, or so, words in the column titled “I Would Found a Motto ...” (Sept. 4), it is good to see that Rob Fishman ’08 agrees that our institution’s aspirational motto is indeed so inspiring. While I do not mind the unkind characterizations in his piece, I do object to factual errors. My statement, quoted from a press release, and the teenage focus group sessions he mentions refer to use of the full university motto, not its abbreviation — a misimpression central to Fishman’s thesis.

 Tommy Bruce, vice president for communications and media relations

To the Editor:

I appreciated Jenna B.’s candid article “Hit It, Quit It, Pop It, Stop It,” which explored both the details of her sexual adventures and her frustrations with pregnancy prevention. While her experiences obtaining birth control pills and emergency contraception were not optimal, I hope the following information will help empower other Cornell women to navigate Gannett services (and health services in the wider world) more successfully.

Ben Birnbaum’s excursion into conspiracy bashing (“The 9/11 Conspiracy”) was disappointing in every way but one. Birnbaum’s set of mental defenses against considering any evidence that contradicts the official conspiracy theory is textbook perfect. His reasons for discounting the alternative conspiracy theorists are three: 1)Paranoids don’t have to be taken seriously because they’re paranoid. I don’t believe this argument requires any further refutation. 2) The Bush administration is incompetent.No one is arguing that Bush personally planned the attacks or the disappearance of the U.S. Air Force for two hours on 9/11. Besides which, a judgment on how incompetent the Bush administration is must depend on what they’re actually trying to do.

To the Editor:

In discussing a recent controversy over a conservative publication at Tufts, Bill McMorris ’08 uses the standard right-wing meme to claim that conservative students are being censored on college campuses. Of course what happened at Tufts was reprehensible, but would campus conservatives be as outraged if it were people on their side who were trying to censor opposing viewpoints?

To the Editor:

In his article “Ideological Diversity: A Different Perspective,” Mike Wacker ’10 appears to share Dr. Dobson’s view that conservatives need only tolerate homosexuals, rather than accepting them outright. He then paradoxically goes on to argue that a liberal institution such as Cornell University must not only tolerate conservatives (which it certainly does), but accept them. This the brunt of his argument for ideological “diversity” on campus.

To the Editor:

To the Editor:

Monday was the last straw. I have been reading The Sun for over three years now (I picked up my first copy during Cornell Days in my senior year of high school). I don’t want this to sound like one of those “back in my days ...” but I must say that the quality of content in the Opinion section has really deteriorated over the past years. I remember a time when the Opinion pages were filled with actual opinions on current social and political topics, not a half page article like Ben Birnbaum ’08’s “Yiddish for Dummies,” which defines useful terms in a language no one actually speaks natively (where is the “opinion?”).

To the Editor:

I applaud Rob Fishman’s suggestion that we limit smoking to certain areas (“Take My Breath Away,” Aug. 28), but why stop there? We need to completely eradicate these parasites from society! I suggest setting up special smoker colonies, where these people can safely live out their nicotine-filled lives without infecting the rest of us. Especially at a school like Cornell, where diversity is not just accepted but celebrated, we need to show this minority of students where they stand! Together, we can help these smokers conform!

To the Editor:

Today’s Middle East is so complex that casting blame seems to be the only way to rationalize the region’s problems, and what easier target than Israel? Let’s make no mistake — to say that Israel and AIPAC, America’s pro-Israel political action group, are undeserving of criticism is incorrect, and not something that I believe.