Dear Editor,
The purpose of the La Verne Academy’s Monday noon lecture series is to offer the opportunity for faculty to present findings of their scholarly research and promote a thoughtful critical review and discussion of those findings from those present.
It appears that some of the remarks and inferences made to Dr. Cook’s presentation (“‘Palestine’ lecture sparks debate,” April 17) regarding the recorded impressions of Richard Catling, assistant inspector general with the Palestine Police in the 1940s, were neither accurate nor scholarly.
They assailed the validity of Dr. Cook’s findings without any substantiation and seemed to stem from an emotionally prejudiced perspective rather than an accurate and logical rebuttal of Dr. Cook’s conclusions.
As soon as a person’s personal political agenda takes precedence over a thoughtful and open dialogue built on facts, not supposition, the Academy’s lecture events lose their focus and integrity.
The wonderful thing about the academic environment at the University of La Verne is the provision of a forum where honest inquiry, discussion, and debate can take place based upon scholarly critical thought regarding any topic.
I believe our students were deprived of an opportunity to observe an intellectually honest dialogue regarding the information Dr. Cook presented based upon his thorough and thoughtful research from archives in both Oxford, England and Tel Aviv, Israel. Both attendees and the forum presenter deserve to participate in an intellectually rich environment of informed inquiry and discussion, even debate, but not waste time rebutting assertions based on personally distorted biases or prejudices.
Kent Badger
Professor of Health Services Management
