We feel compelled to respond (in a manner of speaking) to Brad Lucht’s Oct. 10 letter, “Ashcroft promotes attack on pacifism.”

First of all, we are by no means ardent fans of our Attorney General. I (Mr. Crabtree) spent the majority of my formative years in the state of Missouri and was there during Ashcroft’s tenure as governor. I was as unimpressed with him then as I am with him now. Now that we all know nobody here is an “Ashcroftophile,” we have the following to say: Mr. Lucht, if you have a legitimate criticism of John Ashcroft (or anyone for that matter) let us hear it. But please stop attempting to sway the weak-minded with “condemnation by association” arguments and specious analogies. I suppose, if one had nothing substantial to say, and merely blind partisanship guiding one’s actions, loose analogies and asinine correlations are all one could hope to muster. It is truly a sad state of affairs if the level of academic discourse has devolved to such a level that juvenile name-calling passes for legitimate criticism.

Yes, the Nazis were bad news. No, our Attorney General is not a Nazi. If you don’t like Mr. Ashcroft, find a good reason for it. But until Ashcroft starts goose-stepping down the National Mall and wearing swastikas on his shoulder, leave the name-calling on the playground.

David Crabtree

Graduate Student

Mathematics

Jeremy Alm

Graduate Student

Mathematics