I, too, have some “striking memories” of the spring of 1970 on Northwestern’s Evanston campus. However, mine don’t jibe with those of the student and professor types you interviewed for your article .
I remember attending a statistics class one evening at the old math building when the professor announced we had to leave the building because a crowd of “concerned” students was going to burn the building down. That was certainly an intelligent way to get our attention!
I was mad. Maybe it was because I was paying for my education myself and maybe it was because I didn’t quite get the connection between supposedly opposing a war and burning down my math building.
I remember spending many hours that night discussing their actions with these radical student/prof. types, and what struck me most was how much fun they were having. It was immaturity running rampant.
Now that they’re older and more mature, it would seem they would like to justify their behavior and have us think they were serious.
I still don’t buy it.
Tom Smith, Class of 1971, Whitefish Bay, Wis.
BARRY BASHING
I have just read “What it Means to be a Guy” and all I can say is: Do us all a favor and save a tree: Let Dave Barry get a real job.
You wasted seven pages on what doesn’t even qualify as filler: Just more Gender Feminism and male bashing.
Douglas J. Heffley, National Congress for Men and Children, Morrison.
WHO’S A PUNK?
The April 2nd cover article, with the headline “Cyber Punks,” was off-base and misleading. Deeper research would have revealed that cyberpunks are not “yesterday’s geeks,” are not “today’s gurus” and are definitely not the “high priests of the new world.” “Cyberpunks” are to “hackers” what “yippies” were to “hippies,” politically savvy and worldly manifestations of the alternative culture.
Cyberpunks believe they can take on the technical establishment in roles ranging from benign sociological watchdogs (trying to avert global oppression) to anarchists (retaliating against corporate greed by wreaking havoc on computer systems) and as terrorists (ready, willing and able to take out “the enemy” by shutting down their computer systems).
Cyberpunks have the potential to be the most potent force ever to challenge authority effectively. The guys written about in the article are actually part of that authority and that establishment. As such, to authentic cyberpunks, they are the enemy. To misuse the term trivializes who and what cyberpunks are, and misleads a public trying to understand and navigate this already confusing new universe.
Gregory O’Shaughnessy, Wheeling.
Editor’ note: Cyber Punk was a term used not by the author of the article but by the editors, in the headline on the cover of the Magazine.
JUDGMENT CALLS
Like Deborah Oetjen Vohasek, whose letter about “Wild Nights,” the story of Ms. Vavoom and Derrick was published on May 14, I am more shocked by the responses to the article than by the couple profiled. This may come as another shock to Ms. Vohasek, but her response was disturbing as well.
Why do people insist on passing judgment on other people’s lives? This is a pastime that has reached epidemic proportions, if the letters about this well-written article that have been trickling into the Magazine for the past half year are any indication.
It is no wonder there is so much unrest in the world if, aside from the host of problems that we all face, we go out of our way to become personally offended about how each and every person chooses to spend his or her evening . . . and rudely tell them so.
I hope the Chicago Tribune Magazine continues to share stories of a variety of lifestyles with those of us who are interested. Those who are not should perhaps choose something else to read on Sunday mornings . . . or something else to do on Sunday afternoons than share their judgmental opinions with the world.
David M. Buscher, Chicago.
CROSSWORD SOLUTION
A final word anent the Sunday crossword puzzle:
A fountain pen and a bottle of white-out are all that is necessary. For 20 years, this has proved satisfactory.
Case closed!
W.T. Springborn, Batavia.
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The Magazine welcomes letters from readers. Letters must include a signature, address and daytime phone number. If selected for publication, they may be edited for space and clarity.
Send letters to The Editor, Chicago Tribune Magazine, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Room 532, Chicago, Ill. 60611.
