Letter to the Editor...

We are writing to express our concern about the reference to Adolf Hitler in the "Faces on Campus" feature that appeared in the Bilkent News edition of January 3.  That a student should first think of Hitler when asked the question, "Who would you most like to have been, had you lived in the past?" should not pass without comment. We find it morally distasteful to treat the genocidal ruler as just another object of youthful fantasy and fun, in gross disrespect to those members of our community who are Jewish, Roma, gay or who belong to other groups whom Hitler and his government singled out for extermination. Such treatment is alarming to all of us who strive to cultivate at this university a cosmopolitan climate where people of different national, racial and religious backgrounds can learn from each other.  After all, how we talk about history is -- in however whimsical or incidental a context -- above all a measure of our respect for others.

William Coker,
Visiting Assistant Professor (CCI)

Ayşe Çelikkol,
Assistant Professor (ELIT and AMER)