To the Editor:
I'm glad that Dartmouth is coming to terms with its nightmares ("A Commencement Nightmare," April 19, 1995) because I was beginning to think I was the only one having them.
Just last night I had this nightmare where everything I took for granted was being torn apart by our nation's leaders. The federally subsidized student loans and the need blind admissions that brought me the past four years of education were all in question.
In a mockery of the pressing issues facing our nation's public education system, they worked on bringing back school prayer and taking away the lunch programs. Welfare was being cut at the same time as the taxes on America's richest. Affirmative action was being threatened. Environmental legislation was being dismantled piece by piece. And amidst all of the issues of the international issues facing the world, they made their first priority increasing sanctions against Cuba.
This onslaught continued, but the worst was that we, the "best and brightest of America," were more concerned about our graduation ceremony being moved to the football stadium. Even the threat to need-blind admissions at our own school was not worth more effort than, say, responding to a few of blitzmail petitions and, time permitting, a couple of letters to a politician. And then we asked the administration to rescind a graduation invitation to the one person whose signature could stand in the way of the dismantling of our education.
How can I celebrate our graduation if that nightmare has some basis of truth?
