Hanson's Words Show Him Shifting Blame

To the editors:

I hope the irony of the statement attributed to Winthrop House Master Paul D. Hanson in The Crimson has not gone unnoticed (News, “Faculty Debates Summers’ Remarks,” Oct. 16). Hanson stated that, “he had experienced first-hand how quickly the door to free and open debate can be closed,” referring to the campus-wide backlash against the signers of the divestment petition in general and, more specifically, to the fact that Frankfurter Professor of Law Alan M. Dershowitz publicly challenged him to a debate, a challenge that he refused. Is Hanson serious? If anyone “closed the door to free and open debate,” it was Hanson himself, upon shamelessly refusing to defend his positions in public in a “free and open debate.” If one has the gall to sign a morally controversial petition sure to offend a significant segment of the University community, public explanation and debate are called for. Attempting to shift the blame onto those that seek debate is, at the very least, dishonest.

Joshua Suskewicz '05

Oct. 16, 2002