Design, Intelligent or Not

Doesn't really matter, according to one of my all-time favorite profs.

Ralph Lowet taught German at Hershey Junior College back in the '50s. (He later chaired the Foreign Language Department at California State U.) He was also a classical scholar and acknowledged expert in medieval German literature. A quiet, unassuming Jew, his short stature belied the enormity of his heart and intellect.

"Doc," who had escaped from beneath Hitler's thumb several years before coming to Hershey, also served as advisor to the student newspaper I edited (and occasionally used as a bully pulpit). Once, after I'd poked fun at a fellow student in print, he admonished me with the following words:

"Hear me please, my young friend," he said. "It is fine to express your displeasure. But some things you must never insult: A person's color, or nationality, or kin, or religion."

Fortunately, that's a short list. Most everything else, I reckon, is fair game.