Show Respect to West

To the editors:

Re: “Let Us Now Praise Cornel West” (Opinion, Jan. 15):

There are reasons why Fletcher University Professor Cornel R. West ’74 is a universally respected scholar, activist and lecturer. This list is long. These reasons are borne out by his appointments at our nation’s top schools, the unending requests for appearances, the marvel of his oratory, the wonder of his thought.

Through him ideas become verbally and nimbly alive. All but a bitter few of his colleagues can positively confirm his intellectual talent and academic merit. As his former student and grateful friend, I, along with countless others, can personally attest to his superhuman generosity, intellectual energy and kindness.

Cornel West has been a tireless advocate of justice and peace since before Ross G. Douthat ’02 was born, and it saddens me that a Harvard student can show such disrespect to a flawed, but great man.

Restlessness in the face of suffering has set Cornel West down many paths—some more useful than others—in a quest to see where he can do the most amount of good in the world. He deserves commendation, not scorn; feedback, not insult. Would that any of us be able to do a fraction of good that he has done in the world.

I for one am excited that Cornel West may come back home to Princeton, where he will be properly appreciated.

Elliot A. Ratzman

Princeton, N.J.

Jan. 15, 2002