University of Virginia Library

Letters To The Editor:

Baer's Letter Commended

I wish to commend Chris Bear
on his criticism of Wilson Hall
which appeared in The Cavalier
Daily. The article was well
thought-out, well written and presented
in a most gentlemanly
manner. Hopefully, the Administration
and the Board of Visitors
will see the validity of Mr. Baer's
remarks.

Venable School

Just for the record I would like
to clear up any misunderstanding
about the "Tutoring Teach-In"
article in yesterday's Cavalier Daily.

First of all the implication that
4th and 5th graders or any other
students at the Venable Elementary
School are "at a disadvantage
because of poor educational facilities"
is completely false and misleading.
The students that are to be
tutored in this program may be at a
disadvantage because of poor educational
achievement due to a
variety of circumstances, but not
because of the poor educational
facilities of the Venable School.
Anyone who is familiar with the
current reputation of Venable as a
leader in progressive educational
programs knows that it is one of
the finest, if not the finest,
elementary schools in the Charottesville-Albemarle
area.

Secondly, I have no connection
with the Charlottesville Human
Relations Council, but rather the
Martin Luther King, Jr., Chapter of
the Virginia Council on Human
Relations.

Monument

Those poor mistreated German
lambs! Perhaps we ought to build a
monument to the martyred heroes
of Nuremberg. After all, they were
just typical Nazi leaders who followed
orders.

Prevailing Bigotry

It was gratifying to see that the
SAC disapproves of the despicable
conduct of the "Virginia Gentlemen"
during the Virginia-North
Carolina game. It is clear to anyone
familiar with this University that
the actions of the students that
night were no rarity but manifestations
of the over-all attitude
which prevails here.

The University has a long way to
go toward creating an atmosphere
in which athletes like Charlie Scott,
Black students in general, and even
rational whites can feel comfortable.
Of course the situation will
never change as long as bigotry
prevails and tradition is more
important than progress.

Crying Wolf

I would reply to the Student
Athletic Council's letter of the
February 11th Cavalier Daily by
nominating the SAC as charter
members of The Little Boy Who
Cried Wolf Society. The situation
which they so indignantly decry is
no more than a product of their
perhaps guilty imagination.

The logic of their letter is most
difficult to follow. It may well be
conceded that this University has a
racial problem, and also that it is
both unmannerly and unsportsmanlike
to boo or hurl ice at a member
of the opposing team. To attempt
to relate these so as to create a
spontaneous racial demonstration
from the events of the UNC
basketball game is not only absurd
but seeks to unnecessarily inflame
emotion. Personally, I cannot agree
that it "adds to the depravity of the
situation" that the target of the
boos was a black athlete.

Or does it? Perhaps the depravity
of the situation is in fact that the
SAC itself harbors such guilt
feelings about the black athlete at
Virginia that they would seek to
make it more reprehensible to be
unmannerly towards a black athlete
than a white one. Could the SAC at
this point examine their definition
of racism?

To my perhaps untrained eye it
seemed that the response was one
highly typical in University Hall
and was directed rather to an
incident on the sideline of the court
than to the color of Charles Scott's
skin.