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Alumni Architects

I read with interest the story on the new nursing building [“Letting In The Light,” Summer 2011] and think the building is a terrific addition to the campus. An element of the story that would have made it even more U-related was missing, however. At least five members of the design team are graduates of the School of Architecture.

Two other U of U projects, the nearly completed Museum of Natural History and the first phase of Rio Mesa, are designs created by U grads, all members of the local firm of GSBS Architects.

Keep up the good work.

John Becker BS’66 MS’76
Salt Lake City

Kudos for Rio Mesa

[Writer] Susan Vogel totally captured the spirit of Rio Mesa and the field course and the architecture students and camaraderie [of Rio Mesa, “Experiencing Rio Mesa,” Summer 2011]. The setting is spectacular… and Continuum photography caught the light and the rocks and those wonderful students.

I giggle at the flurry of e-mails I’m getting, such as from [U of U Associate Instructor] Steve Trimble: “And you’ve got to use the Eric Clapton line on every piece of PR from now on!”

Know for sure that folks read Continuum. It’s nifty, cover to cover, and the Web access works great.

Genevieve Atwood MPA’91 PhD’06
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Geography
University of Utah

Thumbs Up for E-delivery

I am so glad to see Continuum online where it should be! I hate delivering your beautiful magazine and then going back the next day and seeing it in the trash. I hope that in this day of the campus going green and cutting expenses, you will continue sending it on campus via the Web or e-mail.

Dee Peterson
School of Medicine Mailroom Supervisor
University of Utah

Déjà vu All Over Again

It was intriguing to read the discussion between U of U law professors Wayne McCormack and Amos Guiora about the point at which jihadist religious exhortations become illegal “incitement to violence.” [Summer 2011’s “From ‘Fiery Rhetoric’ to ‘Fire in the Theater!’ ”] I, for one, got a bit more introspective than usual when Professor Guiora quite reasonably suggested, “I propose that law enforcement conduct monitoring and surveillance of religious extremist faith leaders who are inciting [violence] in order to both warn the latter and, if need be, facilitate prosecution.”

Although the good professors were discussing modern-day jihadists, and not Latter-day Saints, there is definitely a sense of déjà vu here. I recall Apostle William Smith describing the religious exhortations to the Saints a century ago from the LDS pulpit: “[Y]ou do solemnly swear in the presence of Almighty God … that you will avenge the blood of Joseph Smith upon this nation, and so teach your children; that you will, from this day henceforth and forever, begin and carry out hostilities against this nation, and keep the same a profound secret now and forever. So help you God.” (Apostle William Smith, Arguments Before the Committee On Privileges and Elections of the United States Senate In the Matter of the Protests Against the Right of Hon. Reed Smoot, A Senator from the State of Utah, to Hold His Seat, 1905, p. 231.)

Maybe it really is true that life is all about learning to live with ambiguity.

Michael J. Barrett JD’73
Ashburn, Va.



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Please send letters to editor Jason Matthew Smith, jason.smith@ucomm.utah.edu, or to 201 Presidents Circle, Room 308, Salt Lake City, UT 84112.

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