Anti-Semitic Acts at USC

With regard to your article (March 22) on the incident involving anti-Semitism on the USC campus, I wish to say that I was saddened beyond words, but not a bit surprised that things had not changed since I was a student at USC nearly 20 years ago.

I had somehow hoped that the heartache and insensitivity that I experienced going through rushing at that campus would not exist when my own children reached college age (which one of them has).

Being rejected from belonging to a group of people that you seemingly feel at home with is dreadfully heartbreaking and demeaning to an adolescent.

Being on the other end of this bigotry must give the person doling it out an enormous feeling of egotism or power. Certainly, if any one of these people were on the receiving end of such condescension they would at once realize its poisonous effect.

It took me many years to recover from the realization that bigotry is alive and well, not just at USC, but everywhere. I am trying to instill in my three children the idea that life would be terribly stifling if we all were exactly alike in looks, color, dress, and ideology.

Why can’t the next generation experiment with the possibility of learning to appreciate those who are different than they are?

Congratulations to President James H. Zumberge and USC for the disciplinary role they played in the incident on campus and may those responsible learn from their narrowness and superiority that they now look very very small.

JUDI DAVIS WELCH

Pacific Palisades