To the Editor:

Shame on parents who have not prepared their children for college life, and are still hovering (read that interfering) in their lives. Your editorial had it exactly right. However, I believe there is another place, beside the kids who rely so heavily on Mom and Dad to solve their problems, which must share the blame. You overlooked the responsibility that must be placed on those elementary and secondary school districts who cower in fear of parents who threaten litigation if little Billy’s teacher doesn’t change a grade so he can be on the Honor Roll, or physically threaten the teacher who won’t forgive a class cut so Johnny can play in the big game. As an administrator in a K-5 school in suburban New Jersey, I see this kind of parent all the time. And, sorrowfully, I have to admit that these pushy parents usually get what they want – if not from me, from someone in a higher position in the district.

Once parents have been successful in getting their way, they feel empowered to continue pushing their own agendas for their children, despite what is sensible, prudent and fair. Your new parents office makes sense, but I don’t relish the extra cost for this that the rest of us sensible parents will bear to pay for. The fact that it’s been established makes me feel guilty because people in my position have contributed to the need for its existence. Until the mindset of principals, superintendents and school boards change-I fear that this new office will be very busy.

Margaret P. Lauricella

Yardville, NJ

To the Editor:

Having recently read Matthew Binanz’s editorial on the Iraqi insurgency, I cannot help but comment that at best it’s inaccurate. At worst it’s propaganda constructed of half-truths and insinuations that recall the time the Germans called WWII a war of Jewish aggression.

There are important differences between the American Independence War and the present war in Iraq-differences that Binanz fails to mention. For starters, while there was a large contingent of pro-British loyalists in the Americas at the time of the war, after the massacres in Massachusetts, support for the British never topped 50 percent of the population. In contrast, every poll shows overwhelming majorities (66 to 80 percent) of Iraqis are opposed to the insurgency and supported the American effort to remove Saddam Hussein and to create a democratic state. The British never received such support from the Americans once hostilities started.

At no time was it the official policy of the American Congress to decapitate and kill enemy prisoners. Unlike the American rebels, the Iraqi “freedom fighters” have made a point to systematically cut off the heads of almost every foreigner they come across — as well as Iraqis who support the democratic government.

Additionally, the American rebels never felt the need to kill American civilians as a matter of policy. It was never a matter of strategy for the American rebels to bomb civilian religious processions, or to attack civilian children in front of schools the way the Iraqi “freedom fighters” have.

To somehow attempt to draw a line connecting Iraqi insurgents with American rebels from the 1780s is simply inaccurate, (or propaganda if you are aware of these facts and choose to ignore them) and is an insult to the overwhelming majority of Iraqis, both civilian and government, who are fighting these “freedom fighters”, as you call them, and dying by the thousands at their hands.

You are right about one thing, Mr. Binanz, the United States has been in an Iraq-like situation before. The more truthful comparison would not be the revolution, but the Civil War.

At the end of the Civil War a small ethnic minority who had once ruled over the majority in its lands-through violence, repression and intimidation-was deposed by the American army. That small minority worked to retain its former status by engaging in what we today would call terrorism. They wore hoods on their heads to avoid being identified, attacked civilians at night and terrorized the population. They also occasionally attacked American troops. They enjoyed the full support of other members of their minority, were able to hide among the populace and strike when and where they chose. After 12 years of struggle and mass riots and demonstrations in major cities such as New Orleans and Charleston, they were able to drive the American army out and impose their will upon the black majority.

If you want to make a historical comparison, that is the true one. And to all those who cheer on the insurgents, at least be honest and start burning crosses in your free time, anything less is simple hypocrisy.

Edward Bradley

Third year international law concentration