Youngstown loses Chen Chi, a great artist and friend

Youngstown loses Chen Chi, a great artist and friend
EDITOR:
We recently learned of the passing of one of the most famous artists in the world, Chen Chi, who died in Shang Hai at the age of 93. Those who knew him best came to realize that this internationally celebrated watercolor painter had a favorite place to be, a city called Youngstown.
Chen Chi first fell in love with our town when he visited the city in the early 1960s at the invitation of the late physician and art patron Dr. John McDonough. Through the years, Youngstowners eagerly collected the paintings of Chen Chi, and The Butler Institute of American Art, in hosting numerous exhibitions of his extraordinarily beautiful paintings became his "home" museum. And while his native China had honored him with every award imaginable, and even created a Chen Chi museum in Shang Hai, it was Youngstown, Ohio, that was always in his heart and mind.
In fact, he visited us so often that Chen Chi sightings were always amusing to hear about. One phone caller to the Butler asked, "Am I losing my mind, or did I see the famous artist, Chen Chi, at my neighborhood supermarket?"
We often teased him that he was as popular as a rock star. He teased back that he actually loved to paint rocks and stars. The international art world will miss a fantastic talent; Youngstown will miss a wonderful friend.
LOUIS A. ZONA, director
The Butler Institute of American Art
Youngstown
Top tier scientists at YSU
EDITOR:
It is disappointing to read opinions of YSU in The Vindicator that are grounded on outdated or ill-informed impressions despite the many recent successes of YSU faculty in world-class scholarship. I refer to the Sept. 11 letter expressing agreement with an Aug. 28 column by Bertram de Souza, both of which imply that the research quality of the faculty at YSU is much less than that at "tier 1" institutions like Ohio State and MIT. The letter writer illustrates his point by saying that surely a Ph.D. physicist wishing to pursue nuclear research would never choose to come to an institution like YSU -- only people interested solely in classroom teaching would come here. Presumably the latter individuals should be happy with much lower pay than those going to "tier 1" universities. Fortunately for YSU and its students, this either-or concept is far from the truth.
As chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, I am compelled to respond. Youngstown State University has an internationally recognized nuclear physicist performing world-class research right here in the Valley. Dr. James Carroll has been a faculty member in our department since 1995 and has worked on energy storage and release in long-lived isomers with great success. His research program has brought in more than $3.3 million in external funds to YSU in the past seven years. His group has published 41 peer-reviewed articles in a field in which YSU is a clear leader. His undergraduate students have participated in experiments in Japan, Germany, Canada, Russia and the United States, including national laboratories and YSU's own X-ray effects laboratories. They work alongside top scientists from around the world, who are amazed they are merely undergraduates -- these types of experiments are normally reserved for graduate students at any other institution. It is a credit to Dr. Carroll that he is able to do such high quality research without graduate students and at the same time provide a truly unique educational opportunity for undergraduate students in our Valley.
We should all be equally proud of Dr. Carroll's efforts and those of many other faculty across campus who excel in both research and teaching, in and out of the classroom. Other examples from my own department include the well-funded astronomy work of Dr. Pat Durrell with the Hubble Space Telescope and the long-standing collaboration of Dr. Michael Crescimanno with faculty at Harvard and MIT on laser cooling.
WILLIAM G. STURRUS, chair
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Youngstown State University
Dirty rat or fact-checker?
EDITOR:
I am once again disheartened by the level of political discourse as evidenced by last Sunday's letter, "President Bush's bashers can't help themselves." In his first sentence, the writer characterizes those who are critical of some of the policies and decisions of the president as "coming out of their little rat holes" to bash President Bush, accusing them of being "undeterred by the facts."
Which "facts & quot; are they undeterred by? The fact that when advised by an aide on Sept. 11, 2001, that our & quot;country is under attack & quot; our decisive leader sat for a full seven minutes looking like a deer caught in the headlights before deciding that the news he'd just received was more important than participating in an elementary school reading class?
Maybe it's the fact that the president sent our military to attack a sovereign nation on the basis of false claims of an imminent threat from non-existent weapons of mass destruction. Could it be the fact that President Bush bestowed on George Tenet the Medal of Freedom for presiding over one of greatest intelligence failures in history? How about the fact that the president pushed through a tax cut that overwhelmingly favored the richest of those among us, passing the burden of paying for his ill-advised war on to our children and grandchildren?
Maybe it's the fact that evidence shows Iraq was not a participant or supporter of Osama bin Laden's terrorist activities until after President Bush taunted these animals to, "Bring it on." Could it be the fact that since the macho jumpsuit photo-op on the deck of an aircraft carrier with a "Mission Accomplished" banner, more young sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives and Moms and Dads have died in Iraq then before the mission was accomplished?
Maybe another of facts by which we are undeterred is that after four years, Osama bin Laden has not been captured "dead or alive, & quot; primarily because our foolhardy excursion into Iraq has siphoned hundreds of billions of dollars from the real war on terror.
Certainly President Bush cannot and should not be blamed for everything bad that's happened to our country in the last five years. However, he has appointed a number of incompetent people to important positions while remaining out of touch with the plight of the average American.
One of the things that used to set our country apart from others was our willingness to allow others to hold opposing opinions without trying to dehumanize them or accuse them of lacking a sense of patriotism. The rhetoric of the last election, which obviously continues today, in which agreement with the administration's policies is the true test of a person's patriotism should be a cause for concern by all of us.
ROBERT F MOLLIC
Liberty