Letter to the Editor 2

Dear Editor, ‘ ‘ ‘ Upon reading Brandon Pfeffer’s column ‘There’s more to life than a Nobel… Dear Editor, ‘ ‘ ‘ Upon reading Brandon Pfeffer’s column ‘There’s more to life than a Nobel Prize,’ we were shocked and embarrassed by Pfeffer’s blatant ignorance and failure to grasp the depth of the Prize’s significance. ‘ ‘ ‘ Pfeffer begins by implying that Nobel believed he would end international conflict with the invention of dynamite, when in fact it was Nobel’s massive guilt over the destructive potential of dynamite that prompted him to create the Prize as a way to recognize man’s more noble achievements. Pfeffer discredits the Peace Prize for its ‘questionable nominees,’ including Mussolini, Stalin and Hitler. Had Pfeffer properly researched his column, he would have known that nomination requires only the support of one qualified individual. A list of such individuals, who range from government officials to history professors and former prizewinners, can be found rather quickly on the Nobel Prize’s Web site. None of these individuals are associated with the Nobel Foundation itself, and thus, it is the laureates selected from among the nominees, and not the nominees themselves, who reflect the opinion and sanction of the Nobel Prize as an institution. ‘ ‘ ‘ Pfeffer’s disdain for the 1994 Peace Prize, which honored the men who orchestrated and signed the first Israeli-Palestinian agreement in which any Palestinian faction recognized Israel’s right to exist, appalls us. The fact that those men have also performed horrible deeds during the longstanding conflict between Israel and Palestine does not negate the enormous achievement of the Oslo Accords, for which the Prize was awarded. Putting this gross lack of research aside, it was Pfeffer’s discussion of the scientific prizes that truly made us livid. Scientists are often wrong; It is part of the process of discovery. The fact that some scientific prizewinners turned out to be incorrect has no real relevance to the fact that at the time the prize was awarded, the recipients were doing highly significant work. ‘ ‘ ‘ In light of both Pfeffer’s column and Giles Howard’s recent abomination regarding STAND, it seems The Pitt News sees it fit to publish columns suggesting that anything happening outside the direct sphere of influence of this campus is not worthwhile. A student publication that’s major headline deals with sorority housing issues and that then lambasts the significance of the Nobel Prize using poorly researched facts, days after suggesting that student protesting of genocide on another continent is silly and futile, is an embarrassment to the University. Helen Parks and Kira West School of Arts and Sciences