What Lies Beneath 40 Years Later Signal Strength a Match Made in Academic Heaven Departments
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Contents Features: What Lies Beneath 40 Years Later Signal Strength A Match Made in Academic Heaven Departments: DoreWays In Class VJournal The Arts & Culture 1,000 Words S.P.O.V. The Campus A.P.O.V. Sports The Classes Vanderbilt Holdings Southern Journal Bright Ideas \ http://www.vanderbilt.edu/alumni/publications/contents_sp05.html7/27/2005 9:23:13 AM VMagSpr05_pg4-7.P2 4/12/05 11:55 AM Page 5 DoreWays From the Editor From the Reader Returning Wrong Words The magazine is now wonderful, [with] great articles, and very informative— n July of 1961, Professor Fernando F. Segovia boarded a plane worth reading. in La Habana, Cuba. His destination: the United States of America. For 41 years But why include that statement by Bush Cuba remained fixed in his memory, frozen in the chaos of revolution, with A forum for exchanging ideasA forum for exchanging on page 14 [Fall 2004 issue]? Granted, it is contemporary life in his former home experienced only through stories told an honor to have the president visit Vander- by others or realities created through his own imagination. For Segovia, bilt, and he expressed some excellent thoughts Cuba represented a complex mixture of sensory details and emotional turmoil. about Vanderbilt which could have been Many, probably most, of us can only imagine his experience. included. However, that statement you includ- II’m grateful for Segovia’s generosity in allowing Vanderbilt Magazine to help give ed has very little evidence to support [it], and voice to his story. For helping me understand—just a little bit—the experience of is probably incorrect. You should have checked an individual exiled who, in returning to the country of his birth, rediscovers his past, with your medical school and law school fac- who out of that rediscovery begins to hope that he can take part in what is to come. ulty about “frivolous lawsuits running up the His story is at once a memorial to the people and the country he loved and a prayer cost of medicine”—it is my impression from for that country’s future. It’s a story of a life lost, and it’s a story of a life found. It’s a the literature that malpractice costs [make story of humanity. up] less than 1 percent of the cost of med- “I walked through the city with ical care and are insignificant in explaining full remembrance of things and the rapid increases in medical-care costs. places, people and events, dates Dr.G.Octo Barnett,BA’52 and stories. I knew where to go Newton, Mass. and where to turn, what I would find and what had happened there. The Right Perspective I was in my city and among my I’m writing because I’m disturbed people, and my memory, physi- by the tone of three letters [“From the Read- cally triggered into action after a er”; DeMain, Fall 2004 issue, and Conner and long hiatus, gushed abundantly Smith, Summer 2004 issue] which, taken and endlessly.” together, suggest that you and your maga- With these words, Segovia zine should do something to revise its ide- begins the process of coming to ological stance, specifically, to move it to the terms with the emotional and right. physical geography of return- Divinity Professor Fernando F. Segovia returned in 2003 to his homeland of Cuba for the first time since depart- Don’t you dare do any such thing. And ing to his native country. And ing in 1961. Accompanying him was his wife, Elena don’t, for god’s sake, try to be ideologically with these words, Segovia gave Olazagasti-Segovia, senior lecturer in Spanish at Van- neutral. Because there is no such thing. me an entry into his struggle— derbilt. Segovia’s homecoming story begins on page 44. There are, however, important issues at and, I would argue, our strug- stake. Allow me to state the important issues gle—to lift Cuba from the confines of perceptions based on a past defined by revolution, as I see them: and allow it the opportunity to create a future. 1. Whether all Americans and their insti- “The living and the dead intermingled at will,”Segovia writes of his experience in tutions have the right of free speech, regard- Cuba.“I was young and old at the same time. In this enchanted and enchanting world, less of what they say, and regardless of when I could not but think of the future.” or how they say it; Ken Schexnayder 2. Whether or not we must be compelled to support a war based on a false pretext, i.e., that Saddam Hussein threatened the securi- Vanderbilt Magazine 5 VMagSpr05_pg4-7.P2 4/12/05 11:56 AM Page 6 ty of the United States. The people of Iraq, {Featured Letter} Perry Wallace one of the oldest cultures on Earth, have the As a member of the first graduating misfortune of living atop 13.5 billion barrels class of a public high school in the South to of oil reserves. In a world of rising oil demand be integrated (Oak Ridge, Tenn., 1956), the and ever-shrinking reserves, I’m afraid they’ve article about Perry Wallace brought back only begun to suffer for it; and memories of a black high-school classmate. 3. Whether or not we will continue to have Fred was also a basketball player who played our personal freedoms put under attack on in home games and only those road games the pretext of national security. The actions in which the opposition would allow him to of the 18 Saudi men who hijacked four air- play—one all season. He wasn’t a great play- Confederate Hall planes cannot be undone. But we must resist er, but a proud young man who had to suf- being controlled by fear. In the last election, Please poll the alumni to fer the same indignities of the times as did politicians on both sides used our fear in see how many think the famous Perry Wallace in the ’60s. order to manipulate our opinions, and politi- Fugitives of Vanderbilt would take As Perry Wallace, student athlete, found cians on both sides today continue to do so. their stand for “Confederate Hall” a mentor in Ron Brown, the later secretary But fear puts our personal freedoms under to remain on the building in con- of commerce, it is only fitting to mention direct attack. troversy. Thanks. that, like Wallace, Brown’s successor in the Thanks also to the writers of the letters I Jack D. Walker, A’49 Clinton cabinet was also a native of Nashville, referred to above. Their expression of thought Antioch, Tenn. a Vanderbilt varsity athlete (baseball) and moved me to write this letter. The struggle lawyer, Mickey Kantor (BA’61). for truth continues. Dr. Arthur E. Diamond, A’60 Patrick F. Feehan, BE’72 Melbourne, Fla Columbia, Mo. Gerald Holly I just wanted to thank you for the Uganda wonderful article you had in Vanderbilt Mag- Thank you for publishing Lisa azine about my father, Gerald Holly [Fall 2004 DuBois’ article “Singing for Survival: the issue, “The Eloquent Eye,”p. 28]. My family Music of AIDS in Uganda” in your Fall 2004 and I are so glad that no one has forgotten him. He was a wonderful photographer, whom continued on page 84 no one will ever forget. He was a wonderful husband, father and grandfather, and a won- Letters are always welcome in derful friend. I hope the young people who response to contents of the magazine. want to be photographers will look at his pic- We reserve the right to edit for length, tures as signs of how hard work and deter- style and clarity. Send signed letters to the Editor, Vanderbilt Magazine, mination can be an inspiration for life. VU Station B 357703, 2301 Vanderbilt Carol Holly Place, Nashville, TN 37235-7703, or Grand Ridge, Fla. e-mail [email protected]. 6 Spring 2005 VMagSpr05_pg4-7.P2 4/12/05 11:56 AM Page 7 VJournal A Civilized Greed life on campus Perspectives A bibliographer’s shopping sprees require a certain forbearance for ferocious dogs, officious inspectors and Sputnik-era transportation. By PAULA COVINGTON, MLS’71, MA’94 colleague of mine once out her White-Out to blot out my name. said that if the acquisition So, technically, I’m still in Mexico. Ah, well, of books for a university it’s a beautiful country, the people are so research library were com- friendly, and the books can be such bargains. pared to military maneu- vers, the acquisition of Latin Vanderbilt has a long history American materials could be likened to of collecting Latin Americana and a KEVIN MENCK Aguerrilla warfare. There have been many highly regarded program in Latin times when I thought that analogy was too American Studies. At Chancellor Harvie close for comfort. Branscomb’s behest, Vanderbilt in 1947 I’ve been collecting books for Vanderbilt developed the first Brazilian center in the where recent revolution has occurred. Once since 1976. As Latin American and Iberian United States. the dancing in the streets has ended, poetry, bibliographer for the Heard Library, my Trips to Latin America help us locate older fiction, treatises, political propaganda, mem- quest for books has taken me to Brazil, Colom- materials not listed by any booksellers oirs, and a profusion of other literature about bia, Guatemala, Cuba, and other Latin Amer- and identify potential library collections for the revolution emerge. And these are hard to ican countries. My colleagues are quick to sale.