One More Shot

To the Editors of The Crimson:

I was very disappointed by Michael Abramowitz's Parting Shot." It is true that Harvard tends to isolate us from the real world, but some people, like Mr. Abramowitz, are much more isolated than that. After four years, they are unable to see Harvard life in other than the tired stereotypes the Crimson does its part to foster. I liot House is not full of little Podhoretz's, nor, probably, has it ever been. Eliot does indeed have more than its share of students with conservative views, but for those of us who consider ourselves "liberals," (and that's with a small 'I'--the self-conscious "Liberal" Abramowitz misses is better off dead) Eliot has one advantage. We don't fade in to the gray background of future campaign aides, Senate staffers, and Post editors crowding other Houses--and the Crimson--sort of like "snow" on a TV set. We can count on engaging in arguments with intelligent, thoughtful people who happen to be conservatives. Not all voted for Reagan to protect daddy's horse farm. This insulting stereotype is bad enough by itself, but when it is promulgated in the pages of the The Harvard Crimson a great wrong has been committed. This month freshmen are choosing among the Houses, and it makes me angry that many intelligent, talented students who could contribute to the diversity of Eliot House will decide to live elsewhere on the basis of mindless hearsay like Mr. Abramowitz's comment. There are many of us here who don't have military interests in Central America, won't work for Morgan Stanley, and wouldn't have dreamed of voting for a man as right--wing as Walter Mondale, and we'd love to have some company. Padraic J. Kennes '85