A Well-Earned Salute to an Excellent Academic Institution

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Oct 27, 2003

Byline: INSIGHT

A Well-Earned Salute to an Excellent Academic Institution

I was checking Hampden-Sydney College's Website for upcoming alumni events recently and the home page had the Insight article "Educating Gentlemen" [Sept. 30-Oct. 13] featured. I was so impressed by Stephen Goode's eloquence and ability truly to depict the Hampden-Sydney experience.

Unfortunately, Hampden-Sydney often is overlooked as a sound opportunity by young men seeking higher education. I am certain that if more articles as articulate as Goode's were written about Hampden-Sydney then more young men would step up to the challenges that the college has to offer.

Thank you for taking the time to relay the beauties and strengths of a place that truly is one of the finest academic institutions in the nation. I will never forget the experience I shared inside the walls and "on the hill" at Hampden-Sydney. Your article will ensure that others will desire the experience as well.

Marty Fentress

via the Internet

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I thoroughly enjoyed your article on Hampden-Sydney. It certainly did the school justice. My son attended this college and was graduated in 1995. He still maintains communication with many in the administration, plus former teachers and classmates. In fact, he flew to Prague several months ago to visit one of his former professors who was teaching at the university there.

As a parent, I was a bit concerned when my son first entered the college, as most of the students were from the Southern parts of our country, and we are Northerners. But it didn't take long for my son to establish himself, and in his second year he was elected class president.

It is unfortunate that so many parents only think of the Ivy League for their children. As your article cited, Hampden-Sydney offers so many opportunities that a large institution never could.

My son loved his time at Hampden-Sydney and would not trade that education or period of his life.

Gayle Michael

via the Internet

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My son was graduated from Hampden-Sydney in 2003, and I know several of the men mentioned in the article. They are a good bunch, and I can't begin to tell you how pleased I am with the education my son received there.

Kenneth Townsend was a wonderful mentor to my son and is a brilliant professor. The faculty is incredible. It's surprising to me that the school remains such a well-kept secret. I suppose that is due to the fact that the world has moved off in another direction, at least for the time being.

Keep up the great work at your fine magazine.

Robert Luther Jr.

via the Internet

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Thanks for the great article on Hampden-Sydney. I have two sons enrolled there, a senior and a freshman, and I am very grateful that a college with such values exists to help grow them into responsible contributors to society.

Scott Whitehead

Williamsburg, Va.

Napoleon's Legacy Also Has Spread to Modern-Day Nepal

While searching for information about Mao Tse-tung on the Web, I came across Stephen Goode's article, "Napoleon's Legacy Leads to the Gulag" [Sept. 2-15].

He has provided excellent perspective by putting these figures into context, and I had a great time reading his review of the books by Anne Applebaum and Paul Johnson.

As Insight readers may be aware, Nepal has been experiencing a Maoist uprising for the last seven-and-a-half years, and it has claimed more than 7,000 lives. Let me present a few quotes from Goode's article that I find pertinent to the context of this uprising.

Applebaum: "Totalitarian philosophies have had, and will continue to have, a profound appeal to many millions of people." This is very true in the context of Nepal. An underdeveloped country, a conglomerate of different cultures, religions and languages, ruled most of its history by autocrats and experimenting with democracy for the last 13 years, it is engulfed by a totalitarian philosophy such as Maoism. The Maoists control more than 50 percent of rural Nepal, albeit in many instances with a conspicuous display of arms and threats.

Applebaum: "Nothing encourages lawlessness more than the sight of villains getting away with it, living off their spoils and laughing in the public's face." When the Maoists declared a cease-fire and came for peaceful negotiation in January, they tried to dismiss the murders they committed as minor details. In a sense they laughed in the public's face. In the hope that they were genuine about the peace deal, the government, media and civil society did not pursue these matters, and the Maoists again have resumed their tactics of terrorizing people.

Johnson: "The example of Britain and the Scandinavian countries showed that all the desirable reforms that the French radical brought about by force and blood could have been achieved by peaceful means." There is no argument that Nepal needs radical reforms, and the Maoists are building up their base with that very desire of the people for change. Nonetheless, that change could have been brought about by peaceful means. The loss of life, the crumbling economy, the disturbed and uncertain future of thousands of youths and the wound in the society far outweigh whatever, if any, gain the Maoists can achieve.