This week I have received numerous critical e-mails from my peers, direct threats from members of the senate and administration, and at least two calls for the resignation of the entire editorial board regarding the "inappropriateness" of last week’s The Bully Pulpit, an issue of the semesterly tradition of the The Student Life joke issue. So it was with a great sense of irony, and embarrassment for my college, that I met with one of France’s most prolific journalists and supporters of free speech, Serge Halimi, on Wednesday. Go to Letter

We received a letter to the editor this week from Johnny Lo ’01, Eric Freborg ’01 and David Chen ’01 intended to inform the Pomona College community about the new web site they are starting, www.theasterisk.com, which will, in their words, "provide socially responsible journalism, forums for public discourse, and, foremost a medium dedicated to fostering a cohesion of community." Go to Letter

I represented Clint and Hiromi Kurahashi, the parents of Yuta "Pete" Kurahashi who died as a the result of the Eucalyptus tree falling on February 23, 1998. The facts of the case as learned through depositions and written discovery demonstrated that the Pomona College Grounds Department was negligent in its care of campus trees, particularly its aging Eucalyptus trees. Go to Letter

This brings me to my first problem with the [joke] issue. The attacks leveled against the fictional DeRideo ran alongside similar attacks on actual people. The former type of attack is an attempt at satire, well-done for the most part here, but one that is totally undermined by the attacks on real people. Go to Letter

Rather than simply let you know that I was deeply offended, both by the remarks about my character and the general content of the [joke] issue, I would like to suggest the following: 1) A public apology from TSL’s editorial board and the ASPC to each of the individuals that was libeled in the issue. Go to Letter

Let’s not belabor the point: I am under the opinion that your last issue, the so-called "joke" issue, was incredibly lame. Personal attacks are never all that original, nor, I’m sorry to say, very cool, but they’re especially not cool when they’re not even funny. Go to Letter

Near the end of last semester, the Men’s Blue and White came under fire from members of the Pomona College community for a flier we posted to advertise our final concert. The flier featured an actor’s portrayal of an ancient Mongol warrior and the thought bubble, "No time to waste, must warn village." The situation quickly escalated, and we responded to an anonymous flier urging the boycott of our concert with another flier. Go to Letter

But the truth is that no matter how far away we are, we’re still Pomona students (though it’s sometimes easy to forget that out here, and easy for you to forget that out there), and it seems that Pomona is not making the most of having it’s student body scattered about the globe. Go to Letter