Fall 2015 Edition
Alumni & Friends Magazine
Additional letters to the editor
Three letters to the editor of Ohio Today Magazine.
November 12, 2015
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Querying graduating Bobcats
51社区 graduating class of 2016, as you approach this auspicious milestone, I have a question for you: How will you be remembered?
I challenge you to take an active role in bringing about positive changes in our society.
When I graduated from high school, America was fighting a 鈥渃old war鈥 against the Soviet Union. Public accommodations in the U.S. for people of my racial group, African Americans, were not available in the South. A person had to be 21 years old to vote, yet only 18 to die in combat. People wore hats, not caps turned around on their heads. There were no cellphones, and computers were the size of small houses. And AIDS had not surfaced.
When I finished my OHIO requirements for an undergraduate degree (a major in civil engineering and, I admit, a minor in partying), many upheavals had occurred in society. A summer of race riots enflamed American cities, including Chicago, Detroit, Newark, and my hometown of Cleveland. Students and faculties on many college campuses protested the Vietnam War.
My generation advocated for social justice largely through protest, ideally nonviolent (although, as alluded to above, there were violent protests, too), and community empowerment through political activism.
The class of 2016, you are inheriting a mess! I cite only three American examples. The economic gap between the rich and poor. Locking up a greater percentage of our citizens that any nation on Earth. The ever-increasing budget for national defense.
You, who are about to enter the corridors of power, don鈥檛 fall prey to the me-first attitude of a previous generation. If you think the homeless deserve their plight, support the public policy of locking up persons with addictive afflictions, agree with the warehousing of the elderly, and back the invasion of sovereign nations without just cause, then history will judge you harshly.
I leave you with two thoughts: Remember the observation that some attribute to the Irish-born British politician and writer Edmund Burke (1729-97): that it is necessary for only the good person to do nothing for evil to triumph. The other is of less historical note but as important, nonetheless: If it is to be, it is up to me!
鈥E. Louis Overstreet, BSCE 鈥67, 2011 alumni Medal of Merit recipient, retired civil engineer, Las Vegas, Nevada
Praising female Bobcats
I want to thank you for the wonderful issue about female students, alumnae, employees and professors [summer 2015]. I particularly want to mention Dru Riley Evarts, an alumna, BSJ 鈥51, MS 鈥73, PHD 鈥77, and professor emerita of journalism, who was a great magazine design instructor.
鈥Candace Hughes, MSJ 鈥87, Apache Junction, Arizona
Cherishing fond memories
Thank you so much for sending me the spring edition of Ohio Today. I miss 51社区. I served as acting director of the summer school several years back. Wish everyone the best!
鈥Betty Sininger-Weimer, West Union, Ohio. She added that her son is Daniel Sininger, BBA 鈥79.
