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To the Editor:As a Mac alum, I am mindful of oppressed peoples. But it appears Mac has overlooked a group that is entitled to the same support as others who suffer abuse or neglect: homeless and disabled people, usually older men, accused of being pedophiles.

I worked in a homeless shelter and discovered many older men who, refused accommodations elsewhere, fall into depravity because of an uncaring and unforgiving society. After all, it wasn’t their fault; it’s the system’s fault. It’s society’s oppression.

We all need to take responsibility for what’s happening to these social victims. Mac students should be volunteering in the secluded houses these poor guys are forced to live in. Public high schools, if they have any sense of their social responsibility, should be requiring students to perform community service by reading to and comforting these men.

America is ignoring these people, and it’s important that this injustice be removed. I challenge Mac students: if you haven’t thought of this before, you haven’t fully examined your conscience or assumed the full measure of guilt it is your duty to bear.

If the college does not encourage dialogue on this issue, students there should consider confronting Mac’s president at his office or at his home. He has one; these convicted pedophiles do not. How much longer must they suffer?

Roger S. Peterson ’67
Rocklin, California

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To the Editor:

Even though 9:00 a.m. is about halfway through most students’ weekend slumber, we’re encouraging you to take advantage of a dialogue on community change and exchange tomorrow. We’re only asking that students, faculty, and staff climb out of bed and trudge through the frigid Minnesota winter to chat with fellow members of the Mac community. This year’s Change and Exchange will afford an opportunity for engaged conversation with a diverse group of people. What more could you ask for?
Thankfully, there is no precipitating event this year. No politically incorrect party or similarly objectionable circumstance spurs us to convene a conversation. Rather, we do it out of the goodness of our hearts. We feel it is imperative to be proactive and constructive in building a dialogue on important and uncomfortable issues.
We’re privileged to live in a vibrant community which supports students, provides social activities, and supplements our liberal arts education with co-curricular learning and civic engagement opportunities. Let’s take advantage of the place where we live and the people around us. A wonderful community such as Macalester is not self-sustaining, and thus we encourage this act of conscious stewardship on the part of students as well as faculty and staff. See you tomorrow morning.

Josh Jorgensen ’08
Franz Meyer ’09

Dialogue on Community Change and Exchange: An Opportunity for Faculty, Staff and Student Discussion will be held between 9:00 a.m. and 12:00 noon Saturday, February 2nd in the Kagin Ballroom.