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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.
Republicans
What a shock to read the Spring issue of Macalester
Today and learn there was a Republican at Macalester! Congratulations to State Sen.
Julianne Ortman '86, Republican from Chanhassen, for standing up
for her beliefs while attending Mac. It must have been a tremendous
challenge facing the constant assaults against these beliefs from
her professors and fellow students.
Are there any more like her? I doubt it, but we can always hope.
Editor's note: The writer of the following letter lost
her 4-year-old son, Anton, in a car accident in 1996. She subsequently
led a successful effort to increase child safety nationwide with
improved booster seats. President Bush invited her and her husband
and daughter to be present when he signed Anton's Law in 2002. See
Spring 2003 Mac Today.
Anton's Law
I write not to belabor the sentiments expressed by Georg Leidenberger
'87 [Fall Letters] about the color photo of President Bush and my
family in the Oval Office, but to express a sincere thank you to
Bill Boyd '53 [Spring Letters], who saw in the photo what was really
there.
Anton's Law is the first federal law specifically created to provide
oversight for our elementary-age children on our highways. Not surprisingly,
the gist of this painfully-paid for, long overdue occasion was dismissed
as insignificant by some keen on saving Mac's political face. This
slighting of children's vital issues is precisely why traffic crashes
are the No. 1 killer of children in America. We'd really rather
focus on our adult agendas.
Maybe I would have preferred to pick out my own president to sign
the law, but the grown-up world doesn't afford us the luxury of
a customized cast list for personal history.
As for the future, this fall a new Anton's Legacy Web site will
be online, providing a forum for gathering crash information with
which we can further influence the road safety agenda for the world's
most vulnerable travelers.
I thank Mac Today and writer Karen
Lundegaard '89 again for providing a forum for a topic that is far
from finished: Safe, equitable treatment for the small of stature
traveling in either the front or the back seats of motor vehicles.
We must give them as much protection as we adults have. They trust
us to do no less and to fail them is a terrible curse, believe me.
Spring issue
As a Mac grad of 66 years ago, I write to express appreciation to
all who edit Macalester Today. You
do remarkably well, and I especially appreciate the Spring issue.
Our new president did a masterly job in his column. As a former
graduate school president, I know how one has to patiently evaluate
every situation that all be heard.
Centerfold
In the Winter issue of Macalester Today,
the centerfold photo particularly caught my attention. More than
a half century ago in the Forties and early Fifties, I stretched
out on the grass on warm days under the shade of the same trees
in front of Old Main near the Bell Tower and pretended to study
in the company of friends, just like the current students shown
in the photo.
That picture sure brought back some of the best memories of Macalester.
Days of yore
In the days of yore, before World War II and immediately after,
the philosophy of the college meant very much to me. Now in reading
Macalester Today, I find very little
with which I can identify and appreciate such as: patriotic fervor,
strong religious commitment, a will to win in Iraq, small federal
and state governments, individual initiative. And the list could
go on and on.
Jerry Webers
I can usually count on Macalester Today to provide an interesting
or informative feature on current faculty or alumni. If nothing
else, the Letters section never fails to administer my quarterly
dose of controversy. The Spring issue delivered both!
Thank you to Molly McBeath '91 for the thoughtful and inspiring
article on Dr. Jerry Webers of Macalester's Geology Department.
I was as happy and thankful to hear of Dr. Webers' amazing victory
in his battle with cancer as I was saddened two years ago to learn
of his illness during a brief visit back to Olin Hall.
Dr. Webers played an important and extremely positive part in my
Macalester education. As a second-semester freshman largely unsure
of the academic direction in which I wanted to proceed, I signed
up for his "Oceanography" class simply looking to round
out my spring schedule. Dr. Webers' passion for geology and the
enthusiasm with which he taught his students both in the classroom
and in the field inspired me. Three years later Macalester graduated
a new geology major. I thoroughly enjoyed each class and every minute
in that small (back then anyway) and extremely close-knit department.
It is wonderful to see both Jerry and the Geology Department healthy
and thriving.
Communication studies
I want to register my disappointment about the demise of the Communication
and Media Studies Department at Macalester. While I majored in philosophy,
I spent a great deal of time in Communication Studies. Professors
Nobles, Lesicko, Mosvick and Christiansen took me under their wing,
mentored me and taught me a great deal.
I share Christina Sabee's and Rebecca Opsata's views [Spring issue's
Letters] on what a loss this is for future Mac students. I only
hope the forensics program will not be next.
Children with special needs
Re: the death of Mine Ener '86 and her newborn child [Winter issue].
Our daughter Catherine was born in 1995 and diagnosed very early
with congenital hydrocephalous and Group B Strep Meningitis. She
spent most of her first nine months in the hospital. There were
moments when the fear was overwhelming; the depression crushing;
the prognosis dismal. There was a time when she was so ill that
I considered discontinuing treatment but my husband refused.
So many people have helped us. Doctors, nurses and hospital volunteers.
Our parents and siblings competed for household duties like laundry,
cleaning, yard work and babysitting. The church provided dinners
as well as daily visits filled with hope and prayer. The public
schools gave us therapists and teachers through their early intervention
program and the teachers taught us what to do.
Then one day, just a month behind schedule, Catherine learned to
smile. We worked harder and slowly she began to do other things
that "typical" babies do: roll over, hold her head up,
crawl, walk. She struggles every day yet when she succeeds at something
the joy is overwhelming.
In Catherine's honor our family formed The Watt Foundation in 1998.
Our mission is to help organizations that work with handicapped
children in Nebraska and Iowa. Since our inception we have given
away almost $350,000. We buy therapy equipment. We fund programs
such as IEP (individualized education plan) training for parents
and academic tutoring for children not served by commercial tutoring
centers. We funded two studies on treadmill and stretching to further
the research in children with walking difficulties and severe muscle
hypertonicity.
If you are struggling with a child with special needs, remember
that there are people like us out here to help you. We do what we
can, and sometimes it isn't enough. If you are searching for some
way to remember Mine Ener and her baby, perhaps you could find an
organization that serves special needs children in your community
and give them a donation of your time or money.
We know that every life is precious. Catherine taught us that while
perfection makes life easy, the challenges we overcome make life
meaningful.
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