March 2001		Vital Signs A Passport to Cairo Forecasting the Bush Years	Letters Sports E Line Classes Q&A First-Person Alumni Passages Huskiana From the Field
	A colossal failure As a young Vietnam veteran in 1969, I returned to Northeastern to study criminal justice, on my way to a twenty-five-year corrections career. Before graduating, I worked as a correctional officer at various Massachusetts prisons, including Walpole. Judging from “Trials by Fire” [January], not much has changed there during the last thirty years. I was blessed with a wonderful career that included moments of excitement and danger. After serving as warden or deputy warden of no fewer than eleven state prisons in half a dozen states, by the time I retired as Mississippi’s commissioner of corrections I had come to realize the utter futility of America’s prison system. It is a colossal failure in any sense of the word. Nowhere do we as a society admit that failure more than when we impose the death penalty. I was responsible for carrying out several executions during my career. The sense of frustration and loneliness a warden experiences under such circumstances can only be appreciated by the condemned prisoner. After retiring in 1991, I wrote a book about my prison experiences, Death at Midnight: Confessions of an Executioner. I described how, just before one execution, I was leafing through the inmate’s prison file. I suddenly stumbled across something I had not noticed before—the inmate’s third-grade school photo. I sat motionless, tears welling in my eyes, wondering what went so wrong. There must be a better way to deal with our worst problems. So to Pam Griffith and all other NU law students toiling for clients everyone loves to hate, keep fighting for those nine-year-old kids who end up on America’s death rows. Don Cabana, CJ’72 Professor, University of Southern Mississippi Hattiesburg, Mississippi Why the lovefest? I am embarrassed to be a graduate of Northeastern. I cannot believe the university and its president paid tribute to the most corrupt, egotistical president the United States has ever had. President Clinton disgraced the office of the presidency. He was impeached and admitted to lying in a court of law. He was probably guilty of obstructing justice but won’t be charged because of the plea agreement signed his last day in office. His license to practice law in Arkansas has been suspended for five years. He was plagued by numerous scandals before he took office, while he was in office, and now even after his departure from office. Allowing Senator Ted Kennedy (no stranger to scandal himself) to introduce the now former president at the lovefest in Matthews Arena sends the wrong message to young, inexperienced students—that message being, as long as you believe in liberal causes, your morality doesn’t matter and “the ends justify the means.” One could grant NU a little leeway for giving Clinton an honorary degree in 1993. His degree of corruptness was not as evident then. But this tribute was ludicrous. I am so disappointed that I am seriously thinking of terminating my contributions to NU alumni causes. Frederick R. Medugno, LA’57 San Diego, California In memoriam I was saddened to learn of the death of Catherine Allen, the former dean of Bouvé College, on November 2, at the age of ninety. In addition to her role as Bouvé dean, Dr. Allen had also served as professor and special assistant to the president. Catherine was a special lady and a remarkable role model for me. Her Southern hospitality was the hallmark of her management style. Folks still reminisce about her great gatherings at the Warren Center (I am only sorry we never did perform our accordion duet). Her interest and concern for the university never wavered even after she retired. In her own way, she was “Catherine the Great” of Northeastern University. Suzanne Leidel Director, Conference and Event Planning We welcome your letters and reserve the right to edit them for space and clarity. Send them to: Letters to the Editor, Northeastern University Alumni Magazine, 360 Huntington Avenue, 598CP, Boston, MA 02115. Fax: 617.373.5430 World Wide Web: <www.numag.neu.edu/magletters.html> E-mail: <sp@ur.neu.edu>