With respect to Karen Ristau's visit to Pope Benedict XVI (Winter '08), may I mention that the pope recently condemned a U.N. resolution calling on countries around the world to decriminalize private homosexual acts between consenting adults, and that when the Canadian and Irish Parliaments did just that, they did so over strong opposition from the bishops there?
Closer to home, California's Catholic bishops were among the most ardent supporters of Proposition 8, the passage of which destroyed the marriages of 18,000 couples who were legally married prior to last November.
I don't know how much anguish and financial hardship the bishops imposed on those couples and their families, but I do know that gay teenagers are three times more likely than other kids to take their own lives, and that the most common cause of death for gay teens is suicide.
The next time Ristau visits His Holiness, I hope she'll convey to him the sorrow so many of us in academia feel, faced with the social injustice he and his colleagues promote in their blatant disregard for principles like separation of church and state and equal treatment under the law.
-- John Pollock, SJSU Professor Emeritus of English
Thank you for the photo and article regarding the SJSU women's swim team. The photo is a perfect example of beauty and health. In my opinion, swimming is conducive to the health of the body mind and spirit.
I recommend that the art department convert the photo into a poster for SJSU marketing purposes. Thanks again for starting my new year with a bright and positive story.
-- Ian "Scotty" Paterson, 1957 Business
Congratulations to Professor Julio Soto and his researchers (Science not Snake Oil, Winter '08) for thinking out of the box.
-- Alan Buchwald, MD Medical Toxicology, Santa Cruz
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