Sing, Muse

I enjoyed the gloss by David Gill, SJ, of the Iliad as a poem for the ages (”The Great Poem,” Winter 2008). I too struggled with the poem during my high school years, Liddell and Scott’s Greek-English lexicon in hand, rend(er)ing it into a most unpoetic English. Richmond Lattimore’s translation (1951) helped me appreciate the onomatopoeia that my horrendous pronunciation would not allow me to capture. But the whole of the poem, its passion and its humanity, escaped me until I got into anthropology, long after my undergraduate years were over.

As a young graduate student, I was watching Dead Birds, Robert Gardner’s 1965 documentary about the Harvard-Peabody Expedition to the New Guinea Highlands, when, instead of Dani warriors lined up along the no-man’s land between two feuding villages, I saw Menelaus and Hector, Achilles, Patroclus, and Aeneas, the Myrmidons and Dardanians. The passion, the lines of glistening warriors taunting each other, the single combats, the women and children cheering from afar, all brought the Iliad, its characters and situations, rushing back to me.

My present appreciation of the poem stems from that epiphany (though I’ve since learned that Gardner’s film took liberties with the events it portrayed). I have read the poem differently ever since, my understanding tempered by the knowledge that it was originally sung and psychologically worn by the people who experienced it.

Tom Riley ’65
Fargo, North Dakota

The writer is dean of the college of arts, humanities, and social sciences at North Dakota State University.

It was a special treat to read Fr. Gill’s article on the Iliad. I took the liberty of sharing it with several members of our new core curriculum faculty group. We read Homer during freshman year at Sacred Heart, so Fr. Gill’s thoughts were most timely, and the faculty members were pleased to have his perspective.

David G. Rice ’66
Fairfield, Connecticut

The writer is associate vice president for academic affairs at Sacred Heart University.

I want to congratulate David Gill, SJ, on his fine article. Reading the Iliad in his class was a pleasure, and I know that many portions of that great book will never leave me. Now a lawyer in private practice with a civil litigation firm, I love what I do, and I have never regretted my degree in history and classics—it helps me each day. I hope that students continue to follow their hearts and interests and study the liberal arts rather than simply choose a business degree solely because of the perception (or misperception) that it will make them more marketable in the modern workforce.

John Mahon ’01
St. Louis, Missouri

Backgrounder

Re “Bad News Bearers,” by David Reich (Winter 2008): As a reporter, I am glad that the introduction of new media has shaken up the monopolistic tendencies of our major media outlets. The Rolling Stone reporter Timothy Crouse discovered that journalism responds to change very slowly: In his 1973 book, The Boys on the Bus, Crouse writes about covering the presidential campaign of 1972 from the perspective of the journalistic bubble.

For an enhanced understanding of war reporting, I recommend Philip Knightley’s The First Casualty: The War Correspondent as Hero and Myth-Maker from the Crimea to Iraq. Published in 1975, with chapters added in subsequent editions, Knightley’s book traces the history of war reporting from World War I through Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf War, Yugoslavia in 1999, and post-9/11 Afghanistan and Iraq.

Gene Roman ’82
New York, New York

A superfan’s notes

Ben Birnbaum’s article “Hard Traveling” (Winter 2008), about the 2007 BC football season, was a nice wrap-up to a very good season, and a reminder that Boston College has established a highly respectable Division I-A football program while maintaining an average graduation rate among the nation’s highest. As a big fan of BC sports (sometimes to the chagrin of my wife, Becky), I had a lot of fun watching the team win some pretty big games—against Virginia Tech and Clemson during the regular season, for example.

Success in college football is the product of three simple ingredients—athletic ability, effort, and play calling. The Eagles’ 11–3 record resulted from a combination of all three, but each game was an unusual mix of these requirements. Note late-season setbacks at Maryland and at home against a very weak Florida State team. Success next year, under second-year coach Jeff Jagodzinski, will be measured by the coaching staff’s ability to adjust play calling to beat strong ACC competition, at home and on the road. I trust they’re working on how to establish a reliable running game.

Arnold Sookram, ’91
Seattle, Washington

Presidential memoirs

Re “Executive Privilege” by Tim Czerwienski (Winter 2008): When the UGBC presidents and vice presidents of the past 40 years gathered on November 30 and December 1 for a “reunion,” I was especially interested in hearing about the times when UGBC chose to become involved in the societal issues of the day. And I was amused to learn of the repeated problem posed for generations of UGBC administrations by the student fee assessed in support of PIRG, the public interest research group started by Ralph Nader. I decided not to mention that I was the one who had invited Mr. Nader to campus to sell the students on this fee—which had seemed like a good idea at the time.

My own UGBC term, which followed my membership on the five-student strike tactics committee in the spring of 1970, was enriched by proximity to adult leaders of conscience. University President W. Seavey Joyce, SJ, for example, chose to live with students in Haley House to better understand his undergraduates. He took a stand not to call in the police as BC students joined their peers at 500 schools across America in closing their campus down. Fr. Joyce kept what some felt was an unforgivable social contract with those students who opposed the war in Vietnam.

At the reunion, many of my UGBC predecessors and successors spoke of how their experience positively influenced their career choices—yet none of us went into electoral politics. Through the stories they told, it was clear that they had felt blessed by their fellow students—with an opportunity to put their principles to work and with a unique window into the best and worst of human nature.

Timothy Anderson ’73
Hull, Massachusetts

The writer was UGBC president in 1971–72. He is the president of World Computer Exchange, which reuses donated computers to connect Third World schools to the Internet.

We, the people

Re Nancy T. Ammerman’s article “Whose Voice? Surveying the Membership of Voice of the Faithful“: Being Catholic means that we believe “we are the Church”—each baptized individual. Members of VOTF take this responsibility seriously and are working to transform the Catholic Church into a healthy, morally accountable, and transparent church. To be successful we must inspire more Catholics to embrace this baptismal responsibility.

The Catholic Church has always been filled with people of every socioeconomic level and viewpoint, all rooted in the love that Christ taught us. Leaving the Church and forming a new church, as the progressive Baptists studied by Ammerman did, is not appealing to most Catholics, because to us the Church is not just a set of rules, but rather the people of God. VOTF has consciously chosen to work within the Church for change that brings us closer to following Jesus.

Surveys indicate that young Catholics are drawn to the social justice aspect of the Church. There was a time when the Catholic Church was a moral beacon and led the world in pursuit of just causes. However, the clergy sex abuse crisis and the manner in which it has been handled by the bishops is a visible example of how the Church has lost its moral compass. To transform the Church, the culture of secrecy and clericalism must be addressed. As Cardinal John Henry Newman said, “The laity is the force that has kept the Church faithful to the truth.” This is our job, and we must not fail, if we are to have a healthy Church to leave to future generations.

Mary Pat Fox
New York, New York

From 2006 to early 2008, the writer was Voice of the Faithful’s president.

Got a match?

As the cofounder of a new matchmaking group, Catholic Moms Matchmaking, I was intrigued to see that another BC graduate had started a successful matchmaking group of his own (”Hello, Delhi,” Winter 2008). Hats off to Anupam Mittal on his great success with Shaadi.com. I don’t know that our new group will hit two million active participants, as Shaadi has, but after a recent article about CMM on Catholic Exchange, we received a thousand hits in one day and gained nearly 80 new members. The Internet has made being a matchmaker a whole lot easier, not to mention a lot of fun.

Leila Miller ’89
Phoenix, Arizona

Editor’s Note: BCM has been informed by the family of Thomas Devlin that his name will be added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C., for police officers killed in the line of duty. A patrol officer and emergency medical technician with the Boston College Police Department from 1983 to 2004, Devlin died last year at the age of 51 from a lung ailment resulting from exposure to military-grade tear gas released by person or persons unknown in the ventilation system of Edmond’s Hall in 1988. (See “For Boston,” by Cara Feinberg, Summer 2007). The ceremony is scheduled to take place during a candlelight vigil on May 13.

BCM welcomes letters from readers. Letters may be edited for length and clarity, and must be signed to be published. Our fax number is (617) 552–2441; our e-mail address is bcm@bc.edu.