Universities don’t dismiss opposition
Steve Baggs’ political cartoon of Feb. 26 rang a bell with me. It shows a panel labeled “University Assembly” patronizing a peanut gallery which they judge “way too stupid” to have an informed opinion on U.S. foreign policy.
But in fact, the cartoon panel reminds me more of the Bush administration than of the assembly. To judge by official responses to peace protests, Bush, Cheney, Powell, Rice and Rumsfeld think that those who disagree with them are ignorant, stupid, evil, cowardly, or wrong — either not understanding the threat that Saddam Hussein poses, or supporting it.
Universities aren’t in the business of making such simplistic dismissals. We argue, question, subject hypotheses to experiment, disagree and advance knowledge through debate. The resolution opposing the war has been under discussion for three months now; those sponsoring it assume that people do have an informed opinion, and are ready to express it in a vote.
A vote on the resolution is not an order to everyone on campus to agree with what the resolution states, or get out or shut up. As in any election, no matter which side wins, the other side still has its own opinions and positions.
How ironic, though, that we who oppose a war pressed upon us by an administration elected by a minority, should be construed as arrogantly imposing our views when we disagree with the party in power.
Gina Psaki
professor
romance languages
Is America a republic or an empire?
The pending resolution against an invasion of Iraq will not silence the voice of “pro-war” students, faculty or staff on the University campus because the resolution does not take one side of a two-sided debate. Rather, the resolution opposes an invasion of Iraq “at this time.”
The Bush administration has not made the case for war, and until it does, it is the responsibility of the citizenry, including public institutions, to hold our commander in chief accountable to the people. President George W. Bush told Americans in his State of the Union address that the war was brought to us on Sept. 11, 2001, but he has been unable as of yet to connect Saddam Hussein to the attacks.
None of the hijackers came from Iraq, and Saddam and Osama Bin Laden are ideological enemies. However, because Bush seems to have no “smoking gun” that would put this debate to rest, and has replaced evidence and logic with fear and misinformation, the University has the obligation to sound the alarm and reveal that the emperor has no clothes.
The American public must ask itself — are we a republic or an empire? Are we willing to let one man lead us into a pre-emptive war that could further endanger Americans and irrevocably tarnish America’s image abroad because he “thinks” Hussein “might” someday pose a threat to the United States?
At 3 p.m. today, the University Assembly will have the
opportunity to say “no.” As one of the few voting student members of the University Assembly, I will vote for this resolution.
Levi Strom
senior
sociology/political science
SUVs are bourgeois
oppression machines
The problem with the owners of massive SUVs is not just that they are consciously driving a vehicle that takes up multiple parking spots, blocks other driver’s views, requires an obscene amount of gas to go a short distance and are so big they limit the driver’s view of small children, pedestrians and bikers, putting them in a life-threatening position.
The problem is that these owners are often the elitist upper class who can afford a vehicle that protects only them during a collision with another vehicle. These ego-stroking megalomaniacs seem to think that their life is worth more than the lesser-well-off, middle- or lower-class family who can only afford a small Honda Civic to get around. Well, you owners of SUVs may not feel guilty about taking up an extra parking spot, but you will when your oversized, too-tall bumper plows through the unreinforced upper half of that small Civic, which was meant only to take blows from a standard, lower-placed bumper, and you seriously harm or kill the non-elite occupants inside.
Andrew Whitmarsh
senior
English