Bidding Farewell to a Real American Hero

To the President, Harvard Cooperative Society:

Enclosed please find a check for my outstanding balance as of my last received bill. Enclosed please also find my charge card, which you will notice I have cut in two. Although I first joined the Coop in September of 1959, when I arrived in Cambridge from Minnesota as a Harvard freshman. I wish to discontinue our association.

I was angered and saddened this evening when I walked through Harvard Square to see the huge poster in your window of Oliver North, proclaiming "Lt. Col. Oliver North: a Real American." Choosing to sell this poster showed bad judgment. Choosing to so proudly and prominently display it showed more than bad judgment--it showed gross moral insensitivity.

Colonel North has broken the law, and has openly defended lying to Congress to conceal his illegal acts. He committed his crimes in support of a bad lot of men who engage in widespread rape, murder, and torture. What other "real Americans" may we look forward to viewing in the Harvard Coop windows? Charles Whitman? Richard Speck? Ed Gein? Perhaps Charles Manson?

The Coop has more than a nominal connection with Harvard University. When I was a student, her motto was Veritas. But perhaps it's been changed to keep in step with the times. A commitment to truth no longer seems a quality of "real" Americans.

I'm sending copies of this letter to others who may wish to join me in discontinuing Coop membership. Robert B. Chatelle '63