Letter to the Editor: Man, Tell the Truth (Vol. 66, Issue 10)

To the Editor, 

While reading the last issue of The Commentator I was surprised to find an opinion column placed in the News section of your paper. Yair Sturm’s article, “Cardozo Groups Honor Clinton,” (April 3, 2001, p. 16), opens with what is apparently Sturm’s opinion, that former President Clinton, “would hardly seem the ideal candidate to receive tribute from a law school.”

While my first-year studies keep me very busy, I wanted to take a moment to point this out. While the controversy surrounding President Clinton's visit might be news, the opinion of one student about the nature of that visit is not. As I said on Fox News, the International Advocate for Peace award is not given to lawyers for their work as attorneys and is not, in fact, limited to attorneys.

Whether or not one believes former President Clinton was a good president, a good lawyer, or a good man is beside the point, and completely irrelevant. The fact of the matter is, (and this is not an opinion) President Clinton spent much of his eight years in the Oval Office working toward peace in many regions throughout the world. If Yair Sturm was at Clinton’s speech, he would have had the privilege of hearing, firsthand, many of the efforts made by our 42nd president.

I look forward to reading future issues of what I have always regarded to be one of the “best reads” of college newspapers.

Sincerely, 

Benjamin J. Mantell CSL ‘03