The mail.(Letter to the Editor)

I enjoyed Michael Ledeen's excellent and thoughtful piece on Bobby Knight ("The Real Bobby Knight" October/ November). Ledeen's depiction of Knight captures his character and personality far more accurately than do the mainstream media. One point that Ledeen drives home is that Knight's staunchest critics hardly ever apply the same criticisms to any other coach.

Purdue University coach Gene Keady, for example, is notorious for leaping from his chair, tossing his jacket on the court, and working himself into a state of rage that few coaches ever exhibit. But Knight, unlike most coaches, is politically controversial. That explains why Knight's critics have hounded him relentlessly while remaining silent about his colleagues.

 
Kevin Lamb 
Managing Editor, Human Events 

I am appalled by Michael Ledeen's preposterous claim that Bobby Knight was "subjected to a `Borking' as harsh and unfair as that experienced by any political figure in America," and that his downfall was the result of his unwillingness to kowtow to journalists or "political correctness." Journalists and the politically correct Left commit plenty of sins, but let's save such rhetoric for the real ones. It is true that Bobby Knight's virtues are considerable. But his own flaws brought him down.

Knight compiled a three-decade record of repeated failures to show the maturity and sportsmanship his position demands. For me his worst abuse was when he took his team off the floor during a game against the Russian National Team. He didn't like the officiating, so he preferred to forfeit the game. This gave Indiana University's student body an unforgettable lesson in sportsmanship.

 
James W. Fox 
Fairfax, Virginia 

Scott Gottlieb advocates the right of private individuals to be vaccinated against smallpox (SCAN, "Smallpox, Big Risk" September). The government currently prohibits this. He is wrong and the government right.