
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, April 16, 1990                   TAG: 9004160215
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

LETTER A PRETEXT TO LAMBASTE KNAPP

I WAS FASCINATED by your editorial of March 29 regarding VMI Superintendent John Knapp's letter to the alumni. It appears that you consider yourself endowed with a capability to read between the lines of a document for implication and intent, thus permitting you to ignore the text. Those of us who are not blessed (?) with such an ability and must, therefore, read the text got a completely different impression from yours.

The first six paragraphs of Gen. Knapp's letter spell out in a clear and concise manner the background of the lawsuits regarding VMI's all-male admission policy and state the institute's position and intended action on the matter. I fail to see how anyone could be offended by this.

The question of admitting women to VMI is a highly emotional one with many alumni. Since this is a matter to be resolved by the courts on the basis of the facts, emotional arguments serve only to cloud the issue.

The next three paragraphs of the superintendent's letter simply make a point of this. You may consider this to be insulting to the intelligence of the alumni. I do not. The alumni whom I know are a pretty hardheaded bunch who tend to think as they please and to say what they think.

The final paragraph advises the alumni of the composition of the committee appointed to inform the public of the institute's position on the matter of admitting women. How that can be construed to be an insult to the public, I do not know.

In reflection, your editorial leaves the impression that you were looking for an opportunity to lambaste VMI over its all-male admission policy and jumped on Gen. Knapp's letter as your chance. In my opinion, you succeeded only in making yourself and your newspaper appear biased and unreasonable. Incidentally, if it were premeditated, publishing that editorial on the day of Superintendent Knapp's inauguration was the ultimate in poor taste.\ EARL A. MILLER\ LEXINGTON

by CNB