In your words

Letters to the editor

Want to respond to something you read in Miamian? Feel free to submit letters to miamian@muohio.edu. Include your name, class year, home address, and phone number.

Editor's note

No excuses

Family and friends ... we don't mean to take them for granted. Maybe we don't even realize when we do. After all, our excuses aren't excuses if they're true, right? "I should call her for lunch, but ____." Feel free to fill in the blank. Your choices range from an allergy attack to a yearning for extra ZZZs.

The wonderful aspect of family and those friends who love us like a brother or a sister is that they forgive us our excuses as we forgive those who excuse against us. And when we desperately need their strength, they give it ... freely.

The power of such support struck me once again while putting together this issue of Miamian. When Mallory Holding '09 ("Heartache and Hope in Haiti") got caught in the Jan. 12 quake, she spent the first 24 hours aiding others while trying to reach her mom back home in the States. They finally managed to connect, but only for a minute before the phone went dead. That left so much unsaid. But it was enough.

Lest we think that the need is strictly child-to-parent, Kay Walla MEd '65 EdD '77 ("Aching for all Haitians") spent a similar harrowing time in Haiti trying to contact her daughter. It was 48 hours before her daughter received a call from a Haitian doctor, a family friend, that her parents were alive.

Tragically, the father of Brendan Burke ("Brendan's Gift") received a different kind of call, a call every parent fears. His 22-year-old son died on a snowy road in Indiana. Brian, general manager of the 2010 Winter Olympics' U.S. hockey team and the Toronto Maple Leafs, told Sports Illustrated reporter Michael Farber, "In times of sob-till-your-chest-hurts tragedy, tissues do not hold up. Go with paper towels."

Finding no paper towels after reading this, I reached for a tissue and started thinking. We get so caught up in the mechanics of daily routine ... wash the dishes, pack the lunches, rush to work, school, soccer practice, cut the grass.

There's nothing wrong with that. That's life. But too often we decide that friends and family can wait. They understand, and they'll always be there. Of course, we know that's not true. We know time isn't endless, but we go on living as if it were. And maybe that's OK. But every once in awhile, life shakes us up by not being ordinary or routine.

That's when we need a hug or a chat with our children or our parents or our best friends. No explanations necessary.

Donna Boen '83 MTSC '96, Editor

Letters to the editor

Measureless qualities

The last thing I expected while reading the most recent Miamian was to burst into tears! The article by Tierionna Morris '10 ("No Money, No Meal Plan," Winter 2010 Miamian) really struck a chord in my heart.

Her essay demonstrates two qualities that Miami students and faculty possess. The first: Miami students are a special breed. Tierionna's tenacity and drive to succeed demonstrate that quality. The second: The faculty at Miami have a passion for their students that transcends the classroom. The professor who handed out the two crisp $100 bills is a testament to that fact.

Over the years, Miami has won countless kudos, national rankings, and superior ratings. It is sad that there isn't a way to measure a student's drive to succeed or a professor's compassion for students.

My daughter, a fourth-generation Miami University student, will graduate in May 2010. I will be there with tears in my eyes, a lump in my throat, and a heart bursting with pride because the students and faculty at Miami have qualities that just can't be measured.

Terri Mueller Williams '77
Maineville, Ohio

Lucile's story amazing

The story on Lucile's favorite year ("Searching For Traces of Lucile's Favorite Year," Winter 2010 Miamian) was amazing! Ms. Stauffer's journey of discovery brought Miami and Oxford history alive.

I had a thought – thanks to a program on public television Monday night. Could the reason that Lucile Kirk spent only one year in Oxford be the influenza pandemic? Maybe she was needed at home.

Monica Shafor Streit '08
Hamilton, Ohio

Thanks, Jack

I read through the latest Miamian today and was sorry to see one of my favorite professors, Jack Kirby, listed under the obituaries. I was lucky to have him for class just before he retired after a long career at Miami.

With an ability to infuse history with memorable anecdotes and that great Virginia drawl, who could be better to teach "History of the American South"?

Just another example of the great faculty that helped make my years in Oxford so much fun.

Steven Early '02
Terrace Park, Ohio

Phone call for Punky

I liked the picture of Fisher Hall in the Winter Miamian. It brought back many happy memories.

Another comment on Fisher Hall:

As a freshman in 1945, I and 13 other "Marilyns" stayed at the freshman women's residence, Fisher Hall. There was one telephone. Imagine the confusion when it rang, and the call went out to find "Marilyn!" I soon had another name: Punky.

That was a happy year in a very old but grand building.

Marilyn "Punky" Benson Hughes '49
Walnut Creek, Calif.

Struck wrong chord

I was living in the New York City area before I came to Oxford. I remember seeing Pete Seeger performing with the Weavers in the city prior to the Carnegie Hall concert, which was in 1955. What Dr. Winkler's essay ("A Visit With Pete Seeger," Winter 2010 Miamian) did not present was the "era" that existed when the riot occurred in Peekskill. His essay presents this riot as being "racial." I do not think this is correct.

The East Coast of the country was at that time engulfed in "the McCarthy era." Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wisconsin) was running wild in Washington, D.C. People who had been or were accused of being members of the Communist Party were being attacked. Local groups took up an accusative stance to add to the media frenzy.

Paul Robeson and Pete Seeger were admitted members of the Communist Party. The reaction of the people in the Hudson Valley was much more motivated by the Communist Party affiliations than Paul Robeson's color.

Yes, there may have been KKK members present, but color was not the cause of the riot, according to the Dutchess County Grand Jury that was convened to investigate the occurrence.

Tom Heilpern '58
Las Cruces, N.M.

More Miami memories

As I shopped at our local big-box store, I saw many moms shopping with their college-bound teenage kids. The carts were loaded with whatever he or she would need for college. I suppose all the electronic stuff was at home waiting for that trip to the big adventure: college.

Watching them shop, I was reminded of a letter I've kept, written by my counselor, Dotty Holloway (Dotty Holloway Westhafer '51 MEd '53). I received the letter in the summer of 1948, prior to my living as a freshman in old Hepburn Hall (formerly situated where the library is now.)

Among the more interesting items suggested to bring to Miami (my comments are in italics):

"Alarm clock – not electric in Hepburn because the current changes at midnight and the clock goes off."

"Raincoat, umbrella, kerchief, and boots." (A kerchief is a scarf used in case of rain.)

"Skirts and sweaters or blouses for classes." (Shorts were only to be worn if we were carrying tennis rackets and on our way to the tennis court! And we seldom wore slacks at any time.)

"Fountain pen." (Ballpoint pens were not tolerated by the English teachers.)

"Laundry bag to keep soiled clothes in until next washing." (We had no washers or dryers in the dorms. Most girls sent their washing home in a metal suitcase sent through the mail.)

"Lamp. You are permitted to use a total of 165 watts: 100 of these are in study lamp provided by the University, 25 are in the ceiling light. That leaves 40 watts."

(My roommate and I bought flowered curtains made of paper uptown at Zwicks.)

Joanne Ramsey Rose '52
Aurora, Ohio