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.

'Balancing Acts'

I was disappointed in "Balancing Acts" [Fall issue]. The efforts of middle- and upper-middle-class parents to balance work and family life are well-represented in the popular media, and now, it seems, well-represented in Macalester Today.

But what about all the middle-class families who still cannot afford for one or both parents to cut back from full-time work? Further, what about all the poor families and single-parent families for whom the thought of staying home full-time with children is a joke, and certainly not a realistic choice? The parents highlighted in this article have choices that simply do not exist for most Americans. Individual solutions to the problem of work-life balance do not address the fact that our society claims to value families yet forces most parents to work long hours for low wages.

Joy Ziegeweid '01
Ann Arbor, Mich.

Thanks for the heartwarming and uplifting photos of the Munene-Ostendorf and Gutmann-Gozo families [in the Fall issue]. They are the future.

John "Beano" Wheeler '74
St. Paul

Earl Bowman '50

I was shocked and saddened to read of the passing of Earl Bowman [Fall issue].

Earl was my classmate and fellow member of the Athletic Hall of Fame. He was also my friend. My friendship with him formed my lifetime attitude toward minorities, especially African Americans. I have been an activist in racial causes in the military and in the corporate world. I am currently housing a displaced black student who was a Katrina victim. He was attending Xavier of New Orleans, was flooded out and is now enrolled at nearby Long Beach State.

Thank you, Earl.

Bill Snyder '50
Long Beach, Calif.

Russ Wigfield '47

As the lives of professors, administrators and staff from my time at Macalester come to a close, I find myself cherishing my memories of those inspiring and noble individuals more and more. My memories of Chaplain Russ Wigfield are no exception.

He was for many students of the early 1980s a comforting presence on campus. He listened with compassion to those of us who came to him with youthful questions about the existence of a benevolent God in the midst of a violent and unjust world. He led us to examine our own lives and posited the notion that life is a journey of both personal reflection and group involvement. To Russ, the act of being fully human required both an awareness of self--of one's talents and shortcomings--as well as a commitment to others, friends and strangers alike.

Russ' own life was shaped by a religious calling that was bound to a dedication to social justice. He was a model of rational spirituality and its inverse, spiritual rationality. He sought balance and harmony in a world too often fraught with inequality and discord. He showed in his daily living how religion can guide a person and a community through life without becoming didactic, judgmental or bellicose. Russ passed on his hopes and strivings for peace and religious tolerance to many students without a single use of an imperative verb.

I have always felt deeply honored to have known Russ; I will continue to draw inspiration from my memories of him as a friend and as Macalester's chaplain from 1979 to 1986. But in all honesty, I must say that life was much sweeter when Russ was here with us.

Carlynn White Trout '82
Columbia, Mo.

Hard turns

From her vantage point in Spokane, Wash., Dorie Gathercoal Clark '53 has detected (in her Fall issue letter) that Macalester has taken a "hard turn to the left" since she left in 1953 and that it is no longer worthy of her support.

I live only a few blocks from the campus and I see quite a lot of campus life. I'm able to regularly attend lectures, plays and concerts on the campus, and I regularly peruse the campus bulletin boards. The hard turn to the left is not obvious from my vantage point. My observation is that the school continues to offer a fine liberal education, as it did in 1953, and that it continues to be worthy of my support.

One wonders whether it is Mrs. Gathercoal Clark who has taken the hard political turn, not Macalester.

John Flynn '53
St. Paul

Macalester's direction

I just wanted to let those who have contributed and are contributing to making Macalester College a great institution know that I am thankful for the continual path that the college has taken in providing its students with a truly liberal education.

I noted in the last issue of Macalester Today that some alumni have taken issue with the direction of the college, but I am inclined to believe that their opinion is based on forgetting what a liberal education should provide. Over the past 50 years since my graduation from Macalester, I have gradually become more and more informed so that I am a more fulfilled (and perhaps frustrated) human being. Looking back, I believe that a critical thinking seed was planted at Mac which has led to my being more inquisitive and skeptical. I regret that it took so many years to appreciate the opportunities offered to me while attending Macalester. Unfortunately, I am too far away to take advantage of the learning opportunities available to alumni and could not imagine living through a Minnesota winter after living in Southern California for 25 years.

To sum it up, I am proud of the fact that in a very small way I am still affiliated with Macalester.

David Coulson '54 B.A., '57 M.Ed.
Irvine, Calif.