Dershowitz Devises One-Sided Debate

To the editors:

That Winthrop House Master Paul Hanson acted courageously in signing the Divestment petition should be as clear to those who did not sign it as to those of us who did (Op-Ed, “A Challenge to House Master Hanson,” Sept. 23). Professor Dershowitz, however, has chosen an easier path, by embracing President Summers’ belief that signing the petition constitutes “an action which is anti-Semitic in effect, if not in intent.” Dershowitz, who has elsewhere made it clear that he believes the signing to be an act of anti-Semitism, may assert whatever he likes, but when he does so he cannot then demand, or expect, the attendance of those he so charges at the sort of Star Chamber he proposes. In that he would bring his assertion with him as a premise to and focus of any debate with Hanson, Hanson is clearly right to refuse this encounter, just as 50 years ago those charged with harboring certain thoughts, no more refutable than this one, would have been wise not to appear in a different “House,” had they the ability to resist doing so.

Richard F. Thomas

Sept. 23, 2002

The writer is professor of Latin and Greek and chair of the department of the Classics.