Please send letters intended for publication to Letters to the Editor, Macalester Today, College Relations, Macalester College, 1600 Grand Ave., St. Paul, MN 55105-1899. Or by e-mail: mactoday@macalester.edu. We reserve the right to edit letters for conciseness and clarity.

Left, right and Dr. Mitau

In response to Tom Dynneson's letter in the Summer issue: It is a frightening world indeed if a rumor spoken twice becomes truth. Are we all now convinced that Macalester is captive to dangerous left-wingers--you know, of the sinister Ted Mitau type? And now we are told Classical Studies prove that Socrates couldn't get a job there?

Come on, folks, this craziness is not worthy of people educated at Macalester.

Dick Rautio '55
Aurora, Colo.

Here's one letter in support of Roger S. Peterson '67's letter on "political correctness" in the Spring Macalester Today.

His letter closely expresses my belief that Mac has decided to travel down the wrong path, while many Mac alums have watched in disbelief and astonishment. A Dean for the Study of Race and Ethnicity?

I, too, belonged to the Y-DFL while attending Mac, and graduated with a political science major and a philosophy major, due in large part to Dr. Mitau, who always encouraged discussion from the entire political spectrum.

Mac has taken a hard turn to the left since I graduated. Although my husband and I (both Mac '53) happily supported the Alumni Fund for a number of years after our graduation, our financial contributions for education no longer go to Mac, but to other institutions which are more reflective of the views and values we learned at Macalester and which have been deepened and broadened by our years of experience.

Dorie Gathercoal Clark '53
Spokane, Wash.

Sports, life and Macalester

I enjoyed President Rosenberg's column about the role of athletics at Macalester [Spring issue]. Unfortunately, the value of sports in college is often defined by won-loss records rather than the important role that sports play, win or lose, in so many people's lives, including my own.

I have always enjoyed sports, tennis in particular. I started playing tennis at age 10, and played on Mac's tennis team all four years. Back in those days (mid-'60s), tennis was not widely popular, and I was just glad that Macalester had a tennis program!

I am truly grateful that Mac gave me the opportunity to participate in collegiate sports. Our tennis team won the MIAC championship three of my four years, if memory serves me correctly, but the importance of tennis in my life has far transcended this winning record. As I look back, I see so many positives that have resulted from sports.

As a shy child, the modest success that I enjoyed in sports gave me self-confidence. During my teens, sports were a positive focus in my after-school activities. In college, sports, both varsity and intramural, provided social contacts, developed teamwork and provided a great counterbalance to academic stresses.

After graduation, tennis afforded me the opportunity to meet many interesting people literally around the world. During the difficult times after my marriage failed, the tennis courts became my refuge rather than the bars. Tennis has helped me keep my weight down and enjoy good health. Last, but certainly not least, tennis has just been a lot of fun, and an activity I have been able to pursue, socially and competitively, to this day. (Now if tennis would just grow hair, we'd really have something!)

Fielding winning teams should be Macalester's goal, but win or lose, the benefits of actively participating in sports, on any level, are great. This is why Macalester must continue to support athletics. Perhaps that old clichÈ should be modified to read "it's not whether you win or lose, but if you play the game."

Sports have been an important part of my life. Macalester played a significant role in developing this aspect of my life, and I sincerely hope that subsequent generations of Macites will be afforded the same opportunities I enjoyed.

Richard P. Shipman '66
Concord, N.C.

Disability rights

I became a disability rights activist just after the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed in 1990. For the last 15 years I have struggled to get the supports people need to live in their own homes regardless of what barriers they face. I now work for the Colorado Cross Disability Coalition as the coordinator for southeastern Colorado.

In September 2004, I watched a woman die because no neurologist would treat her and she had Medicaid. The very people who pioneered the independent living movement when I was studying at Macalester, many of them my childhood friends, are being threatened with re-institutionalization because of drastic cuts in literally every program people depend on for assistance, whether they are capable of working or not.

Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts are coming home with life-altering injuries that will need long-term care. The Boomers are retiring just as major corporations are dropping their pension plans. The cost of health care is the single largest burden on the economy behind the budget deficit and the national debt.

I challenge the Macalester community, new and old, to come up with paradigms at the local, state and federal levels that will help us integrate the young, the old, the temporarily able-bodied and the disabled, the Fortune 500 Club and the minimum-wage worker. If we fail to create new visions for our society, the 21st century may well lead us down a path of social upheaval to rival Hitler.

Kristen Castor '76
Pueblo, Colo.

Ethnography

I smiled and nodded my head as I read the article "Anthropology Spoken Here" (Summer issue). As a freshman at Macalester in 1971, I was speechless when asked if my ethnographic research paper, "Games Children Play: Ethnography of a Second Grade Recess," could be included in the 1972 edition of The Cultural Experience: Ethnography in Complex Societ. Of course I said yes, and to this day, I still meet anthropology faculty who are familiar with the book and are surprised to learn I am one of the "contributors."

As I read the article, I reflected on ways in which ethnographic interviewing has impacted my life and work.

First, my personal and professional experience has demonstrated, unfortunately, that not enough people know how to listen and to ask questions that solicit information about people and their lives. My professional career has revolved around addressing violence against women, most specifically, domestic violence. This requires working with multiple systems and stakeholders and asking them to consider doing things differently in light of the complex dynamics of domestic violence. I have always found this works best when I take the time to learn how each system works and operates. I hadn't realized until I read the article that this involves, to some extent, ethnographic interviewing. However, in my case, I do have a motive beyond understanding, as I am hoping to encourage change.

Coincidentally, an innovative tool for evaluating domestic violence case processing has been developed by Dr. Ellen Pence of Praxis International. This tool, called the Safety and Accountability Audit, is utilized to help improve a system's (such as law enforcement, prosecution, child protection, or probation) response to domestic violence cases by enhancing safety for victims and accountability for offenders. Its methodology was heavily influenced by the work of Dr. Dorothy Smith, a sociologist, who specializes in researching the ways in which workers within institutions are organized and coordinated to think and act.

The Safety Audit is a complex process that essentially involves taking the time to learn how a particular system is organized to think and act in response to domestic violence cases. When is this form used? What information does it ask for? When do you decide to arrest, when not? How did you learn that? Through the audit process, problematic practices as well as where and what changes need to be made become clear. The focus is not on the individual practitioner, but on the rules, regulations, forms and training--essentially the institutional practices. For this reason, the Safety Audit is referred to as an institutional ethnography.

A full circle was completed for me as I read the article. The Safety Audit has been a compelling and exciting tool in my community of Bellingham and it has led to significant improvements in our law enforcement response to domestic violence cases. Perhaps the Safety Audit resonated so well with me because of the foundation that was laid in 1971 in the Spradley-McCurdy method of ethnographic interviewing.

Thank you for that memory and connection.

Sue Parrott '75, Director
Bellingham-Whatcom County Commission Against Domestic Violence
Bellingham, Wash.

Professor Earl Spangler

It saddened me to learn of the death of Earl Spangler [Summer issue]. He was my undergraduate adviser and one of my favorite professors at Macalester. As a veteran of the Korean War on the GI Bill, I and others found that he was one of us, a warrior/scholar/author. Because of him, I came back to Macalester to complete my M.Ed. and he served as my adviser. I wrote a history of the Negro Church in Minnesota under his supervision. He offered me a job at Kenosha, Wis., where he was dean, but I could not interrupt my graduate studies at Colorado.

I remember when he turned 50 his students presented him with a bow and arrow toy set for fun. Earl taught the history of the South and the history of the West. He was an excellent teacher and a great guy, moderate in his political views and did not try to influence our politics. He did give us an excellent foundation in history and inspired us to go on to graduate school by preparing us for academic warfare. At one time I attempted to get him to come to the University of Texas of the Permian Basin (branch of the University of Texas) where we were searching for a dean of arts and education. He did not come, but I remember that he was retired and wanted to keep on teaching. I lost contact with him at that time and often wondered if he continued to teach. I learned in your obituary that he was active to the very end. What a great guy! He always stood his ground in the murky waters of academic politics and was a straight-ahead type of scholar who would not bend for personal gain.

The students who were influenced by Professor Spangler can only give thanks to Macalester for providing a person of his character and ability. If I had my wish, I would inscribe a small monument on campus stating that Earl Spangler taught here and proclaimed the virtues of lifetime learning.

Thomas L. Dynneson '61, Ph.D.
Odessa, Texas