Letters: Frescoes have lasting impact; Missing pieces in pro-choice arguments

Frescoes have lasting impact

I was pleased to see the article in the June 16 edition about the conservation of the land grant frescoes in Old Main. I wrote my doctoral dissertation on Henry Varnum Poor under the direction of Harold Dickson, who conceived the idea of the frescoes and was instrumental in commissioning Poor. (Dickson was also responsible for commissioning Heinz Warneke to sculpt the iconic Nittany Lion.) It is good to know that the university continues to recognize the importance of the frescoes and is committed to their preservation. Not well-known today, Poor was listed in Time magazine as one of the “top ten artists” in the United States about the same time as the first phase of the frescoes was painted in 1939-40. E. P. Richardson, one of the most influential American art historians in the mid 20th century, called the land grant frescoes “among the finest” of the hundreds of murals executed during that period. Because he was enthusiastic about the project, Poor came to Penn State for a fraction of his standard fee. He also made the unusual stipulation that Old Main was to remain open so that the students and the public could watch him work. He attracted a large audience, and in 1940, the Thespians paid him a tribute with an original play entitled “Poor Mr. Varnum” in which characters in the frescoes came to life. The play is long forgotten, but it is reassuring to know that the land grant frescoes will endure and continue to make the lobby of Old Main an extraordinary, special place.

Missing pieces in pro-choice arguments

As someone who reads everything I can regarding the abortion issue, I was interested to read the two pro-choice letters that were published in the June 17 paper. The first, by John Harris, was long, flowery and elegantly written, but included meaningless phrases like “children are not befallen of nature but socially electively chosen.” While sounding intellectual, this effort was in fact really intended to confuse and obfuscate, blinding the reader to simple facts.

The second, by Karen Stoehr, took a different tack. This author was refuting a pro-life letter by Baptist pastors that was in the CDT a few days ago. She argues that — because Baptists have religious positions about women with which she disagrees — they cannot then have a constitutional right to have an opinion about abortion. Again, this is an argument meant to confuse the reader and distract from the core of the issue.

The only actual question about abortion is one that is almost never mentioned in any pro-choice argument: Is it ethically and morally acceptable to take the life of a preborn child? Or not?

Letter ‘Orwellian offense against truth’

I find Walter Uhler’s letter last week to be appalling and an Orwellian offense against truth. I know Mr. Uhler is a good and decent citizen, and an expert in the Slavic field, but I think he has been listening to too much propaganda from Russian state sources, which lie on Kremlin orders and are punished for veracity. I’m sure his background as a negotiator with Gorbachev is impressive, but Russia invaded Ukraine, not the opposite. Putin’s war is wreaking destruction and murder on Ukraine’s territory, not Russia’s. Zelenskyy is a hero to most of the world because he clearly represents the will of most of Ukraine’s people, even those who speak Russian. The Maidan Square revolution was not a “coup” but a popular revolt, following a massacre. It toppled a Russian puppet because he was a tyrant like Belarus’s. Zelenskyy was a comedian in private life, not an “oligarch.” The oligarch of oligarchs is Vladimir Putin, who controls vast personal wealth and showers it on his obedient friend-oligarchs. He is also a pitiless murderer of anyone who crosses him. It is reasonable to say that NATO should not have expanded, but that happened because of Russia’s lamentable imperial and Soviet-era history, not because NATO seeks to invade or destroy Russia. Finland and Sweden were perfectly happy to be neutral countries; it is Russian behavior that forces them to seek NATO’s shelter.