<p>isme,</p>
<p>I agree that Harvard has really done a stupid thing here and that the transfer applicants deserved much better and have every right to feel agrieved. However, your letter loses credibility and comes across as way over the top when you link their disappointment to the trauma caused by war, death, disease, starvation, etc. I know you say that you are NOT linking to those things, but it’s clearly a case of praeteritio - the rhetorical device of asserting somethng by claiming not to assert it (Politicians use it all the time: “I won’t say that my opponent is a wife-beater who cheats on his taxes…”).</p>
<p>If you really aren’t likening the transfers’ disappointment to all those dreadful things, why mention them at all? Stick to the topic at hand. I think the letter would be stronger and be taken much more seriously without that stuff.</p>