Correspondence
O'CONNOR, JEREMIAH P. & GREEN, PETE & MAHER, JOHN & BLACKBURN, TOM & BELTH, Z. L. & COHEN, MADELINE S. & HOOKE, WALTER G. & MORRISSEY, DANIEL J. & McKENNA, (REV.) EDWARD J. & SAVANT, JOHN J. & Senser, Robert A.
CORRESPONDENCE To the Editors Like, wow! When Commonweal for September 8 arrived in the mail, I took one look and said "Wow!" My congratulations on the new design. JEREMIAH P....
...There is a difference between judicial rewriting of the Constitution, and an effort to read the words of the Constitution in the context of the Constitutional Convention, the ratification process, and the laws then in effect in the thirteen original states...
...Justices with agendas don't need to (Continuned on page 4) CORRESPONDENCE (Continuned from page 2) examine what an establishment of religion was in 1789 and is today in Great Britain, Norway, and Sweden, among other countries...
...Justices as legislators In his July 14 review of Richard Posner's Overcoming Law and Robert Nagel's Judicial Power and American Character, Daniel J. Morrissey asserts that Posner refutes judges like Robert Bork and Antonin Scalia, who embrace "fallacious theories" holding that judges can avoid making law while interpreting it...
...Employment perStatement of Ownership, Management and Circulation (act of August 12, 1970: Section 3685, Title 39, United States Code...
...So I am not hidebound on the subject...
...Although "Management Awareness Sessions" were often required, vast changes in the workplace were to be noted even in those early days of Title VII...
...Robert a. senser Reston, Va...
...And the hat...
...I certify that the statements made by me above are correct and complete...
...I look forward to reading Commonweal...
...sonnel soon learned that a policy change wasn't enough to change the make-up of the applicant flow, because those potentially affected had learned from experience that their applications would be denied or discarded...
...He knew that any step toward its legalization was a step to-(Continued on page 29)CORRESPONDENCE (Continued from page 4) ward totalitarianism...
...B. Paid Circulation: 1. Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors and counter sales: 755...
...E. Total distribution (sum of C and D): 19,085...
...The rulers are making only a superficial accommodation with the capitalist world, meantime exploiting its resources of all kinds, including the latest technology for security forces, to maintain and revitalize a repressive statist regime...
...During those decades, I was employed by three different national firms...
...C. Total paid circulation: 18,360...
...If citizens today consider the death penalty undesirable, they should elect legislators who will abolish it...
...JOHN MAHER Chicago, III...
...We may argue, for example, about the morality, deterrent effect, or justice of the death penalty...
...So also with Supreme Court decisions on church-state relations...
...Average number of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: A. Total no...
...Posner, Morrissey says, recognizes that judicial legislation is inevitable and "should be acknowledged as an appropriate instrument to achieve social ends that are responsive to human needs...
...Today I read the entire issue in one sitting...
...PETE GREEN Yonkers, N.Y...
...D. Free distribution by mail, carrier or other means, sample complimentary and other free copies: 762...
...of issues published annually: 22...
...If justices can decide that the Constitution permits whatever they consider to be "responsive to human needs," our fundamental law becomes less meaningful than "The Jabber-wocky...
...9. The purpose, function and nonprofit status of this organization and the exempt status for Federal income tax purposes have not changed during preceding 12 months...
...If only one person were making such decisions, the arrangement would be recognized as a dictatorship...
...Next, we waddle Like your new look very much...
...Most large employers responded favorably and, by imaginative departures in recruitment, brought thousands of those previously denied into the mainstream workplace...
...Not only do we return the sentence to its essential svelte...
...Vietnam Embraces the Market" [August 18] was colored by its title...
...JEREMIAH P. O'CONNOR Wollaston, Mass...
...The framers embodied them in a document that they intended to live and grow with our country and to be fitted to the experiences of each succeeding generation...
...B. Annual subscription price: $39...
...2. Returns from news agents: 548...
...1. Title of publication: COMMONWEAL...
...Such a man ought to be beatified, or, at least, not passed over in any discussion of euthanasia as government policy...
...Daniel Callahan's review of Michael Burleigh's book, Death and Deliverance, was most prob-ing and provocative...
...Total (sum of E and F should equal net press run shown in A): 21,148...
...Known bondholders, mortgagees and other security holders owning or holding 1 per cent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages or other securities: None...
...C. Total paid circulation: 19,137...
...Pope Pius XII rewarded von Galen with a red hat in the consistory of 1946, but he died soon afterward...
...media references to that sad, courageous land...
...REV...
...In that connection, I didn't like your cartoon of Castro on the contents page...
...He is correct that judicial review-the authority of courts to declare legislation unconstitutional-is ostensibly an undemocratic check on pure majority rule...
...Like the day Chaplin added the moustache...
...A visit to any major airport on a weekday will demonstrate the changes, if one but observes the flight crews and briefcase-carrying executives rushing to their destinations...
...WALTER G. HOOKE Cambridge, N.Y...
...I especially enjoyed Richard Alleva's movie reviews...
...And it is our particularly American hope that (despite some misturns) their judgments will ultimately be true to our highest ideals and even, perhaps like all human wisdom, "divinely inspired...
...B. Paid Circulation: 1. Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors and counter sales: 700.2...
...Actual number of copies of a single issue published nearest to filing date: Total number copies printed (Net Press Run): 21,148...
...What if, when essaying inclusivity, we were to echo the plural "they," "their," "them" (since "gender" assumes plurality) with some such forms as "dey," "deir," and "dem...
...Office use, left over, unaccounted, spoiled after printing: 825...
...Vietnam's flirtation with "capitalism" lacks at least one basic ingredient that capitalists (and many noncapitalists) hold dear: a respect for private property in law and practice...
...Hence: "Everyone should assert deir independence when dey feel some demagogue is threatening dem...
...And those guiding precepts of our society, like liberty and due process, weren't frozen in 1787...
...It is astonishing only to those ignorant about the regime that still rules Vietnam...
...The contrasts are better...
...But those issues do need to be examined...
...Whether because of his noble lineage or his willingness to be a scapegoat for a notoriously uncourageous hierarchy, Bishop von Galen wrote a pastoral letter denouncing Nazi euthanasia policies and managed to have it read from the pulpits of Munster at all the Masses one Sunday...
...The First Amendment's clause forbidding establishment of an official national religion has been held to bar state payment of teachers in religious grade and high schools but to allow government grants to religious colleges and grants to students in religious colleges...
...Above all, let's not return to the days of affirmative action only for white males under forty-five years of age...
...they are inconsistent with each other, with governmental practices, and with the Constitution...
...In 1964, the National Association of Manufacturers conducted informational sessions in twenty-two cities, and then published talks given at these sessions along with the text of the new law in a book titled A Tale of 22 Cities...
...In its Gothic cathedral rested the tomb, never without candles and fresh flowers, of its wartime bishop, Count Clemens Augustinus von Galen...
...Instead, public and private resources are pouring into Vietnam in a steady flow from many "capitalistic" countries, including the United States, as well as from international agencies financed in part by American taxpayers...
...Or a stop sign reminding us to cease denying equal rights to a large percentage of our population...
...They will nag you and rag you until math, logic, and sweet reason don't seem to be worth the pounding any more...
...A doctor on the team found this treatment "astonishing...
...G. Total (sum of E and F should equal net press run shown in A): 20,458...
...CORRESPONDENCE To the Editors Like, wow...
...On rereading, I realized that the article's narrative and commentary do not really develop the two issues raised in the headline...
...Just their mix will tell the story...
...John }. Savant San Rafael, Calif...
...we've had enough of that kind of thing...
...Mail subscriptions: 18,437...
...Editor, Margaret O'Brien Steinfels, 15 Dutch St., New York, NY 10038...
...tom blackburn Haverhill, Fla...
...And Joseph D. Policano's essay on Castro's Cuba is quite balanced and lacks the nose-thumbing we so often find in U.S...
...I was told an interesting story...
...7 pluses, 1 minus Your invitation to comment on the new format is charming, witty, irresistible...
...EDWARD J. MCKENNA Riverdale, III...
...As Callahan points out, in 1942, at the height of Nazi power, the German hierarchy and people were aware of Hitler's euthanasia policies...
...The result has been to prop up a faltering economy and bolster a discredited regime through which the Communist party still exercises monopoly power over almost every area of Vietnamese life...
...D. Free distribution by mail, carrier or other means, sample complimentary and other free copies: 725...
...I introduced them to one newspaper's Sunday magazine...
...Z.L...
...That would happen only if Vietnam's financial pipelines from abroad suddenly closed down...
...That is why affirmative action, in the form of reaching out to the previously denied, was required...
...Sometimes this grim reality is apparent even to travelers from abroad, as when recently a team of U.S...
...Managing Editor, Patrick Jordan, 15 Dutch St., New York, NY 10038...
...it means anything and nothing...
...2. Mail subscriptions: 17,605...
...DANIEL J. MORRISSEY Hanoi's ploy My initial quick reading of Raymond Schroth's "Hanoi's Victory Undone...
...It is crisp, clean, and easier to read...
...Matter's letter raises several large issues...
...Divinely inspired and pure of heart, they know that the Constitution means whatever they want it to mean, and that their decisions will "achieve social ends that are responsive to human needs...
...2. Date of filing: September 28,1995.3...
...One might think so touring the many vegetable stalls and other vendors lining the streets of Vietnam...
...E. Total distribution (sum of C and D): 19,899...
...When he saw his cathedral again in 1945, his health was broken...
...Rather than look for guidance on the future of affirmative action to political figures in Washington bowing to their political action committees, a call should be made for a major meeting to learn the views of those in industry, religion, the professions, education, and labor who face the real world daily...
...BELTH Hempstead, N.Y...
...Though it was approved on July 2, 1964, Title VII had an effective date of July 2,1965, to provide covered employers a year to review their policies and make whatever changes were required to conform...
...So: Congratulations on your darker print, better line-spacing, the beautiful contents page, the placement of reviewers' IDs with the reviews instead of at the end of the magazine...
...The reviewer replies: Mr...
...4. Location of known office of publication: 15 Dutch St., New York, NY 10038.5...
...It was a test of sincerity whether employers sought out recruits in churches, neighborhood organizations, and similar milieux...
...Readable, worth reading I do like the new look of the magazine...
...Location of the headquarters of general business offices of the publishers: 15 Dutch St., New York, NY 10038...
...An anti-Nazi bishop I appreciated Daniel Callahan's thorough review [September 8] of Michael Burleigh's Death and Deliverance: Euthanasia in Germany 1900-45, but would like to add a footnote rising out of a visit several years ago to the beautifully restored city of Munster...
...But in fact the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is dedicated to the "socialist market," and enforces it by rigid discipline, including many still existing forced labor camps...
...A. No...
...He was placed under house arrest for the duration of the war...
...Playing with words In his Notebook, "Word Maestro at Play" (July 14), Robert Hoyt has earned his cybercertificate-and made my day...
...he found a (nonexistent) "penumbra" in the Constitution granting a right of privacy that protects the decision to terminate a pregnancy...
...And the stick...
...Specifically: 1. Has Hanoi's victory really been undone...
...Second: Technically, ragged right margins make good typographic sense...
...Richard Haas, Business Manager...
...F. 1 Office use, leftover, unaccounted, spoiled after printing: 699.2...
...Until the adoption of the 1964 Civil Rights Act-especially its Title VII, barring employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin-these three major employers all practiced a type of affirmative action, but it was designed for, and almost wholly restricted to, white males under forty-five years of age...
...Though Justice Blackmun's compassion extended to those found guilty of capital crimes, not so to children in the womb...
...Frequency of issue: published biweekly except Christmas, New Year's and monthly July and August...
...Then I will subside...
...But the Constitution itself is premised on certain moral ideals that transcend the transitory preferences of political majorities...
...doctors and scientists, on an official humanitarian visit, found their personal belongings and their scientific materials confiscated by Vietnamese customs officials...
...7. Owner (if owned by a corporation, its name and address must be stated and also immediately there under the names and addresses of stockholders owning or holding 1 per cent or more of total amount of stock): Commonweal Foundation, 15 Dutch St., New York, NY 10038.8...
...Returns from news agents: 550...
...He is a wonderful writer...
...copies printed (Net Press Run): 20,458...
...Professor Posner's and Dean Morrissey's view shifts the power to determine how society shall be ordered from constitutional conventions, Congress, and state legislatures to the courts, ultimately to at least five of the nine members of the Supreme Court...
...Another game, "Word Squirm," is my own desperate effort to escape the deplorably awkward though gender-sensitive "he/she," "his/her," "him/her" constructions that can clutter a graceful sentence like oil derricks atop the Acropolis...
...Let the games commence...
...First, small magazines can't afford the luxury of a whole page of contents that any flipping reader can find for himself, especially when most of the contents are on the cover already...
...From experience, though, I can assure you that all the math, all the logic, all the sweet reason in the world will not convince most readers that they, the readers, actually like ragged right margins...
...For over 200 years our society has looked to the justices of the Supreme Court for this "constitutional vision...
...The execution of criminals during the lifetime of the Constitution's framers and rati-fiers, however, refutes former Justice Blackmun's contention that the death penalty is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment...
...It has even been shown, I believe, that ragged rights make the columns more readable...
...I subside...
...in the process, we canonize that basic American Brooklynese so long denied respectability...
...Although we have learned from recent confirmation hearings that judicial selection may be just as political as presidential elections...
...Didn't know how much you needed it till now...
...MADELINE S. COHEN Mt.Vernon,N.Y Ragged rights enrage Two comments on your format changes...
...Given this state of affairs, Title VII was simply a traffic signal on the long highway toward the goal of equal opportunity in employment...
...Perhaps Hoyt will himself devise a word game for us-"The Joy of Lex...
...Your other cartoons are delicious...
...Today, many of these men and women of previously denied groups are now in very responsible professional and management positions...
...What Title VII wrought In contrast with most of the scholarly (and convoluted) articles on affirmative action so prevalent in the media these days, this is simply a report on hiring practices that I have experienced in more than forty years of personnel and labor relations work...
...6. Names and addresses of publisher, editor and managing editor: Publisher, Edward S. Skillin, 15 Dutch St., New York, NY 10038...
...His infectious gamesmanship brought to mind Chesterton's observation that one sign of high civilization is the capacity for "tremendous trivia...
...There is no private property in land, and most of industry is still owned and controlled by the party/state bureaucracy...
...2. Has Vietnam embraced the "market...
...One of these employers for years had a written guideline in its policy manual restricting employment to white males within specified age ranges for all positions (including clerical, since females were not eligible for promotion into supervision or management...
Vol. 122 • October 1995 • No. 17
