On Thursday, November 22, 2007 11:04 PM, John McMillan
----- Forwarded Message -----
Dear Professor (Karl) Galinsky (of the University of Texas at Austin Classics Department),
Thank you again for the very nice E-mail reply note of June 5 that you kindly sent to myself from Rome, Italy.
In the period since I received that inspirational note from yourself, I have begun a friendly public-policy-minded E-mail correspondence with the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (see attached letter of mine that I wrote partly to celebrate Thanksgiving this year inside my apartment unit in northwest Austin, where I live alone).
I am very hopeful, Professor Galinsky, that some of the ideas contained in the attached follow-up letter of mine to an official of that Ivy League school will also appeal to yourself.
Congratulations again on your many fine accomplishments as a Classicist and former Classics Department chairman at The University of Texas at Austin.
Sincerely and Best Wishes,
John Kevin McMillan, a former administration-beat reporter for "The Daily Texan" who interviewed you on the telephone several times in the late 1970s.
11411 Research Boulevard, Apt. 325, Austin, Texas, 78759.
Phone: (512) 342-2295.
E-mail: mcmillanj@att.net
Note: forwarded message attached.
John Kevin McMillan
To: Dr. Vanda P. McMurtry,
Vice President for Government and Community Affairs,
The University of Pennsylvania,
Suite 418,
133 South 36th Street,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-3246
Office phone: (215) 898-1388
and (215) 898-5454
November 22, 2007
Dear Vice President McMurtry,
Thank you for your admirably idealistic signed reply letter of November 13, 2007, on behalf of your widely-admired Ivy League school in Philadelphia.
In regard to the proposed enhancement of the Brotherly Love theme for your city, I would also like to suggest that the University of Pennsylvania consider commissioning a Brotherly Love Statue to be erected on your campus. The proposed Brotherly Love Statute might exclusively highlight one or more of the most admirable examples of brotherly love from American and world history.
Your reply letter has reminded me of some additional brainstorming ideas that I hope might be useful to the University of Pennsylvania:
(1) Your university's Government and Community Affairs office might want to consider helping to develop new and innovative rehabiliation programs for persons convicted of a crime in Philadelphia, along with new and innovative crime-prevention programs for your city.
I offer this idea after recalling this Thanksgiving that one male acquaintance of mine in Austin recently commented to me that he regards Philadelphia as "a ghetto (sic) city," he said. He made that comment with an air of dismissal, suggesting that he would never himself want to ever reside in Philadelphia. It occurs to me that many Americans, whether rightly or wrongly, associate Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with a very large and low-income African-American male population, which those Americans also associate with a high crime rate, in their view.
(2) An "Integrity in Government" annual awards or honors program could help to remind all residents of Philadelphia and all other Americans, for that matter, that the very same city that Mayor Rizzo made infamous by his own alleged ties to the Mafia several decades ago is proud to declare in the 21st Century that the Philadelphia of today fosters a love of the law and a love of humanity by all government officials in your city.
(2a) University of Pennsylvania might want to promulgate to people throughout the United States some guidelines for helping to determine whether any cited business owner or private citizen is or is NOT affiliated with the Mafia or organized crime in any way. I mention this because it seems to me that all too many Americans in a cynical manner assume that "any American city with lots of Italian-Americans---Philadelphia, for instance---is a city where Mafia activities are widespread." In a similar vein, I have heard various Austin residents state to me at various times in recent years that "since Austin, Texas, does not have many Italian-Americans, there is no Mafia presence here."
Fairness toward the individuality of each and every Italian-American and Italian citizen is crucial, and it seems to me that knowing which questions to pose to or inquire about any given Italian-American or Italian citizen could enhance most Americans' level of confidence they they can safely and comfortably be fully inclusive of law-abiding Italian-Americans and law-abiding Italians through their own lifestyle and career and religious life.
(3) A proposed new study could help to identify strategies for lowering the crime rate on the public subway system in Philadelphia, and for boosting the public reputation of that subway system as being comfortable and safe.
(4) Since Philadelphia is famous in part for the delicious pretzels produced commercially by sidewalk vendors in your city, possibly Philadelphia could host an annual Philly Pretzel Cook-Off competition at which pretzel producers in New York City and elsewhere might be invited to compete with Philadelphia pretzel producers.
(5) In view of the philanthropic connotations of your city's very name, and of the philanthropic reputation of your city's noble founder, your university might want to consider establishing and maintaining a fully up-to-date bibliography and data base relating to any and all centers for the study of philanthropy, regardless of where those centers are based.
I offer this tentative suggestion after discovering through Internet research tonight that a directory of "Academic Centers Focusing on the Study of Philanthropy" can be found at the website address of: www.independentsector.org/programs/research/centers.html.
I was pleased to note, incidentally, that the University of Pennsylvania Center for Community Partnerships, with a cited address of 133 South 36th Street, Suite 519, was specifically cited in that online directory.
(5a) The University of Pennsylvania might want to sponsor an annual symposium, open to the general public, that explores trends in the study of philanthropy and in philanthropy, with an emphasis on American philanthropy.
(6) The University of Pennsylvania might want to consider assisting in the establishment of a Philadelphia Museum of Philanthropy. It seems to me that Philadelphia's grand tradition of fostering brotherly love and philanthropy would be well suited to a proposed new museum dedicated to that theme. I am also confident that prospective tourists to Philadelphia would be thrilled about the prospect of visiting a Philadelphia Museum of Philanthropy during their stay in your inspirationally idealistic city.
(7) I would like to respectfully mention that back in the 1970s, I read in the "Yale Guide to the Colleges," a guidebook written by journalists based at the "Yale Daily News" student newspaper at Yale, that The University of Pennsylvania had a reputation during that decade for being "the ugly sister (sic) of the Ivy League schools."
Since this image of your school, however unfair it may be, is still embedded in the memory of millions of Americans, including myself, possibly the University of Pennsylvania might want to each year sponsor a public symposium that exlusively explores the current leading strengths and potential strengths of your university as well as of Philadelphia.
(8) Your university might want to consider establishing or helping to establish or strengthen a Greater Philadelphia Higher Education Partnership that fosters greater dialogue and shared research projects involving researchers at The University of Pennsylvania and the public Temple University and other institutions of higher education in your metro area.
(9) Since Philadelphia is one of the very few cities in the United States with a first-rate and extensive subterranean subway system, The University of Pennsylvania might want to sponsor or cosponsor an annual public symposium exploring issues being faced by subway cities and subway systems and high-speed train systems in the United States and elsewhere.
The high-speed passenger train service extending into Philadelphia from outlying suburbs might be among the topics to be highlighted in a proposed symposium of that type.
Also, your university might want to assign high priority to hiring one or more additional researchers and professors with mass-transportation expertise relating to subways.
(10) I was told in 1984 by one northeastern resident, Dr. Lynne Layton, herself a former comparative literature instructor of mine at Washington University in St. Louis and herself a private-practice psychotherapist and literature instructor in Brookline, Mass., and Boston, respectively, during that period, that she herself greatly admired the harmoniousness among persons of a wide variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds that is fostered in Philadelphia, Dr. Layton told me over the telephone during a long-distance phone call I made to herself from my own residence at that time in a midwestern city.
I am hopeful that the University of Pennsylvania will consider sponsoring research aimed at exploring why it is that the incidence of racially-based hate crimes and of racial strife or racial or ethnic tension in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, may be significantly lower than in the vast majority of the heavily populous American cities. What might explain the secret of "Racial Harmony" in Philadelphia?
(11) To promote your city's contributions to the American cinema and popular culture, possibly the University of Pennsylvania might want to sponsor a "Philadelphia Film Festival" each year. Among the movies that could be presented at that film festival are "The Philadelphia Story," starring Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant (?), and a movie starring actor Tom (?) Hanks that is set in Philadelphia.
(12) The University of Pennsylvania might want to sponsor a study to determine how your very influential Ivy League school could help to foster the growth of the following salutary industries inside Philadelphia:
---the natural resource recycling industry;
---the energy-conservation industry;
---the land-conservation industry;
---the lifelong-education industry;
---the crime-deterrence industry;
---the non-profit philanthropy industry;
---the environmental-protection industry;
----the urban-planning industry;
----the solar-powered and wind-powered architecture industry;
----the alcohol and drug and tobacco treatment industries;
----the drug-testing industry;
----the creative hobbies and creative pastimes industry;
----the documenary film-making and educational film-making industry;
----the clean-talking comic entertainment industry, which can help to foster cheerfulness and optimism in the general public;
----the educational one-to-one tutoring industry, it being likely that Philadelphia has thousands of residents with enough expertise in one wholesome field or another to teach that subject on a one-to-one basis.
(13) The University of Pennsylvania might want to assist in the development of a treatment program for addiction to foul or obscene speech. It seems to me that perhaps one in every five American men and one in every four American male youths, at the very least, currently are addicted to foul or obscene speech; and the urgent need for a treatment program for obscene-speech addiction is painfully apparent.
(14) Since many Americans associate Pennsylvania with the inventions of Thomas Eddison, if I'm not mistaken, I wonder whether possibly the University of Pennysylvania might want to tap that theme by establishing a Center for the Study of Inventions or a museum relating to the various inventions that originated from Pennsylvanians, or, alternatively, pursuing an annual study relating to inventions that are believed to be socially responsible.
(15) One study I have never myself seen or heard about is a study of the various persons in any given metro area---Philadelphia, for instance---who have been or curently are employed as illicit-drug dealers. It seems to me that to help deter organized crime in that way, there is an urgent need for greater study about which persons are currently being drawn into a shockingly illicit career of that type.
I suspect that among low-income youths of Philadelphia who are African-American, a high percentage of them are told during that period of their lives that "the only means you have for making a decent living is if you agree to become an illicit-drug dealer." So possibly studies on how to strengthen the ability of African-American youths to say no to that type of "career-related" pressure in Philadelphia would also be very helpful.
Thank you in advance for giving consideration to this hastily-written brainstorming follow-up letter, which I wrote in part to celebrate Thanksgiving in a philanthropic manner.
Best Wishes to yourself and all of your colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania from one descendant of the Rev. William Brewster of the Puritan Colony who has never myself gone on a tour of your beloved city, though one passenger train in which I rode in 1984 or 1985 did make a brief stop in Philadelphia.... I only recall the train station, unfortunately, and I don't recall any other scenery from your culturally vital American city.
Sincerely,
John Kevin McMillan,
11411 Research Boulevard, Apt. 325, Austin, Texas, 78759.
Phone: (512) 342-2295.
E-mail: mcmillanj@att.net
cc: Professor Leo Katz, an Outstanding Professor of Law and crime-deterrence expert at the University of Pennsylvania.
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