Here is the response which I received from Professor Francisco Gil-White. (I've made a couple of insubstantial edits in terms of what I wrote, but all of his responses are intact. I'm happy to forward the unedited email to anyone who wants it.)
I wrote to him because I was very disturbed by unsupported generalizations made about the U.S. school system. It certainly did not reflect my experience growing up in the late 70's in public schools and attending college in the 80's -- not that I, on the other hand, expect that everyone had the same experience as me or that my experience is indicative of what the system is in a broad sense. I firmly believe that drawing such conclusions and making these claims without some type of supporting evidence does a grave disservice to the individuals who sacrifice to serve as educators in our country and to people outside of our country who will develop perhaps a distorted picture of who we are as a nation. Brenda ------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 13:48:05 -0400 To: "Brenda J. Walker" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> From: Francisco Gil-White <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Marxism Thanks for your letter. Comments below. (Incidentally, I have updated the original letter into an essay that you can find at: http://www.psych.upenn.edu/~fjgil/usfpolicy.html At 09:40 PM 10/23/2001 -0700, you wrote: >Dear Mr. Gil-White: > >I am sure that your letter to Nightline has become the topic of much debate >among many people, not only at the water cooler but also at the keyboard. > >So I am certain that you must be swimming in a significant increase of email >due to the letter's circulation on the internet. You are quite right! But it has been fun. > >Are you a Marxist? Ha ha. Nope. I am a libertarian. I LOVE the free market. Libertarians are very suspicious and skeptical of the concentration of power in government hands. Marxists LOVE the concentration of power in government hands. Since I am criticizing abuses of power and secrecy in the executive branch, it is unclear why one should infer that I am a Marxist. Nothing in my email rails against the free-market. On the contrary. The US government distorted international markets by using the US military as a bargaining tool for rent-seeking American multinationals. That was at the beginning of my complaints (the overthrow of Mossadeq and the installment of the Shah, who gave us all of the Iranian oil). ___________________________________________________ Office Phone: (215) 573-2622 Cell: 267-971-3070 Fax: 215-898-7301 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.psych.upenn.edu/~fjgil/ Assistant Professor of Psychology University of Pennsylvania 3815 Walnut Street, Suite 400 Philadelphia PA 19104-6196 Fellow Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict MEXICO home: (52-5) 259-2461 or 8328 <<Life is either a daring adventure, or it is nothing>> Helen Keller ____________________________________________________ ------- End of forwarded message -------
