Date: Tue Aug 22
MAILTO: Editor, USA Today
MBX: usatoday@clark.net
Subject: Citadel Washout
Dear Editor,
I read with disgust your editorial in the Monday (August 21) edition of USA Today. You placed the blame on the Citadel for Shannon Faulkner's inability to take the physical and emotional pressures of the academy.
Maybe you have should have noted that she was 20 pounds overweight, and the academy physician had recommended that she not be accepted. Politcal correctness trampled his recommendation into the ground, and now we see what we get when we combine a 110 degree heat index with a 20 pound overweight cadet. The judge and her lawyers should be thankful that she wasn't seriously injured.
You claim to have been nauseated by the sight of the Citadel cadets, dancing with glee at the "tragic misfortune of a classmate". Shannon Faulkner was not a "classmate", she was a politcal appointee. There was no "tragic misfortune"; Shannon Faulkner did not meet the school standards, and her resignation was imminent. It was only a matter of time. As far as the cadets dancing with joy, they have every reason to. The message has gone out, the Citadel will not lower its standards. A diploma from this school is, indeed, something special, and those young men who do make it have a lot to be proud of.
My wife, a woman who has spent 7 years in the military, summed it up best: "Shannon was so used to getting her way that she probably expected to get preferential treatment in the Academy".
Welcome to the real world, Shannon.
John Morales
Four Oaks, NC
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