When I read Geoff Cutler’s column on the subject of the wounded soldier, the ROTC and the heckling students at Columbia, I was not taken aback either at the disruption at the event, the controversy or the opinions of the columnist.

However, I did think, why is this a surprise? It happened in New York City, a diverse, hotly opinionated and liberal community, at the least sedate, probably most activist Ivy League university.

To Mr. Jakucyk, who wrote that he liked the column (March 4), I’d like to say, “You’re right. We’re not in Kansas anymore.”

Our nation is divided on war as much or more than ever. I don’t know about the military, but we’re in a different climate, and it is sad that we can’t share anymore in the good-natured ribbing and camaraderie you experienced when you were in the Navy serving with birds of a different feather.

I do object to you calling the hecklers “asses,” similar to the Wisconsin senator who called the protestors “slobs.” Mild, perhaps — believe me, I’m no one to talk; I grew up in New York City — but didn’t we have an all-too-brief, before we got back to business as usual, national discourse on civility recently?

I also think it’s unfair to indict the whole Ivy League for “hating the military.” And saying that their reasons for banning the ROTC were “bogus” is maybe stretching a point.

I figure that whatever reasons they gave were designed to bolster their opinion that they simply didn’t want the ROTC on campus.

Harvard has just agreed to let ROTC back on campus. The article I read today said a major reason the Ivy League had rejected them was that while the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy was in effect it was discriminatory.

Bob Katrin

Southern Pines