On addiction

Re Gene M. Heyman’s article “Drug of Choice” (Fall 2009): Professor Heyman’s research seems to be part of the never-ending battle between nature—i.e., the genetic component—and nurture. The December 7 Newsweek, which arrived in the same mail delivery as BCM, offered this: Genes determine the temperament of infants, which temperament in turn determines nurture—behavior. In other words, your mother and your family history are responsible for your dis-ease of alcoholism.

Michael A. Kirk-Duggan, JD ’56
Raleigh, North Carolina

Photo I.D.

I am pictured on page 17 of the Fall 2009 article on Harry Markopolos, MS’97 (“The Man Who Knew Too Much,” by Dave Denison). You mentioned my name and title, but you did not mention that I am also a Boston College alumnus (Ph.D., history).

John H. Walsh Ph.D. ’95
Bethesda, Maryland

From August 2009 to January 2010, the writer was acting director of the SEC’s Office of Compliance, Inspections, and Examinations, which he now serves as chief legal officer.

Kenny’s kingdom

Re William Bole’s column on Kevin Kenny’s Peaceable Kingdom Lost (“Deal Breakers,” Fall 2009): On one level, Professor Kenny’s book is the story of the killing by a group of frontier settlers called the Paxton Boys of the last remaining Conestoga Indians who were under the protection of the Quaker pacifist authorities. This in itself is an interesting and little exposed part of history (and some historically important characters, including George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, turn up in roles outside of those for which they are better known). Yet the book draws out extra dimensions, as well. It raises questions about the nature of government—about proprietary corporate versus direct monarchy versus the early risings of democracy and the right to representation. Kenny also lays bare the practical difficulties of sustaining a pacifist philosophy: How can a fundamentally pacifist authority maintain law and order among its citizenry, and how can it protect its citizens from external threats, without the ability to bear arms?

Brian Malone
Newton, Massachusetts

William Bole’s Inquiring Minds column on Peaceable Kingdom Lost zeroed in on a period of American development that receives little acknowledgement in the classroom. Numerous religious factors contributed to our history. Mistreatment of native populations was frequently directed by church and state interests. Continued support for inquiring minds of the likes of Professor Kenny is an essential component of Boston College’s mission.

Matthew Chauncey, MA’72
Antrim, New Hampshire

Kevin Kenny’s Peaceable Kingdom Lost can be appreciated by historians and non-academics alike. The relations Kenny describes between natives and settlers in early Pennsylvania yield valuable insights and lessons for the present with respect to prejudice, intolerance, and man’s inhumanity to man. The book’s illustrations, maps, and portraits help to bring the past to life.

Joyce Freedman
Newton, Massachusetts

IREPM, Weston, STM

Many thanks for “Start Up,” Thomas C. Cooper’s Fall 2009 article on Boston College’s “new” School of Theology and Ministry (STM), formerly the Weston Jesuit School of Theology and the Institute for Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry (IREPM). As a Weston grad who followed the negotiations leading to Weston’s move to Boston College, I was happy to read that so much of what made Weston a distinctive place for learning has apparently survived. One of the great blessings of Weston during my time there in the late 1990s was the marvelous faculty, some of the best theological minds in the country—superb writers, talented teachers, helpful advisors, and valuable role models for Christian living. Many are at STM today: Daniel J. Harrington, SJ, Richard A. Clifford, SJ (the current dean), Francine Cardman, Janice Farnham, RJM, Margaret Eletta Guider, OSF, Stanley Marrow, SJ.

James Martin, SJ
New York, New York

This letter is prompted by the virtual disappearance of IREPM into STM, which was seemingly confirmed in “Start Up.” (For the record: I served as associate director of IREPM from 1976 to 1986 and taught there as recently as 2006).

In a fog of talk of “sacred theology,” licentiates, canonical this-and-that, and the master’s in divinity, gone missing is any mention of the IREPM Ph.D. in theology and education. There is, incredibly, no mention of the institute’s Hispanic ministry programs, its celebration of women’s spirituality, and its summer school, which each year imports the world’s finest theologians. And there is scant notice of the highly diversified, cost-effective master’s in pastoral ministry.

Padraic O’Hare
North Andover, Massachusetts

The author is professor of religious and theological studies at Merrimack College.

I was pleased to see, in “Start Up,” that the qualities that made IREPM a wonderful experience for me almost 20 years ago are present in STM. During my time at IREPM, the student body was made up of people from all over the country and the world, representing all states of life—clergy, laity, and consecrated religious. Tom Groome’s book Christian Religious Education: Sharing Our Story and Vision (1980) had an enormous impact on the catechetical community, and educators from schools, college campuses, and parishes participated in IREPM’s courses. The education was human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral. This integrated approach continues, enhanced at STM by the addition to the student body of Capuchin, Redemptorist, and Jesuit candidates for Holy Orders. That STM is one of six ecclesiastical faculties in the United States will give added depth to course offerings.

Susan Abbott, M.Ed.’92
Boston, Massachusetts

Another story

Seth Meehan’s interviews with veterans were excellent (“War Stories,” Summer 2009). You may be interested to know that Jim Walsh ’68 was a pilot in the Vietnam War who was shot down and became a prisoner of war. He has been a pilot for Continental Airlines for many years.

Brian Froelich ’68
Maplewood, New Jersey

Catholic high

As a former student at Rice High School, I was full of pride when I read the excerpt from The Street Stops Here: A Year at a Catholic High School in Harlem, by Patrick J. McCloskey (“Delivery System,” Fall 2009). During the year covered in the book, I was a senior. Our school was small, but it made such a difference in many young black and latino men’s lives. Reading the book gave me an opportunity to look at myself, to see who I was in high school—a wisecracking underachiever—compared with who I am now, an assistant principal at a Catholic school. And I’m not Catholic; Rice served students whatever their religious beliefs.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to share my success with the man who would have probably told me, “I’m not surprised. I knew you were going to do it all along.” Principal Orlando Gober died [in 2005, of complications from diabetes] before I got the chance.

Catholic schools get the job done. They give students structure and responsibility, and they do it for less.

Kawone Williams
New York, New York

I was in the cafeteria at Rice High School on the day in 1999 described in “Delivery System.” I was there when Orlando Gober strode in front of that group of freshmen and challenged them to overcome stereotypes and low expectations. Gober challenged them every day he was principal. He was their greatest advocate, their greatest friend, and greatest teacher. He would often tell the teachers during faculty meetings, “You don’t teach English. You don’t teach religion. You don’t teach math. You teach young men.”

The few teachers left from that era still deal in “remember whens,” still bring up the two-to-three-hour faculty meetings, the scolding Gober would give an adult who didn’t live up to his lofty standards: all for the students. His legacy lives on in the young men from that time who come back to visit on their college breaks, their vacations from work, their time home from overseas. Orlando would have been proud of the ones who, having done well in business, lend a hand financially to the struggling school, and the ones who have begun mentoring programs—often the students whom you didn’t think you were reaching while they were sitting in front of you.

John Shea
New York, New York

The writer is Rice High School’s English chair.

A profound sequence of events connects the Blessed Edmund Ignatius Rice of Ireland, the Christian Brothers, and the success of Rice High School. The penal laws that applied to British-ruled Ireland in the 18th century made it illegal for Catholics to receive an education. In spite of this, Edmund Rice began educating poor Catholics in Ireland. Later, a few men volunteered to join him in this cause.

The group expanded and became the congregation of Christian Brothers. Today the order has schools on five continents.

James J. Brogan ’65
Somerville, Massachusetts