Prejudice shouldn’t be brought to campus
I completely agree with Ms. Wethern’s column against bringing Ann Coulter to campus.
I dislike segregating myself to one side or the other but for the sake of argument, I have some conservative views.
Ann Coulter is one of the reasons why I hesitate to name a side because she blackens the name of Republicans everywhere.
Have the College Repub-licans even read her articles? Why would anyone want to associate with her hatred? She is blatantly prejudiced against anyone who is different from her and calls this propaganda being a good Christian and model American.
I suppose then I am un- American because I believe terrorism knows no color or nationality.
I suppose then I am a bad Christian because I don’t blindly trust my president like he’s God’s gift to the United States.
I suppose I’m one of those “ugly feminists” because I respect the past struggles for freedom of speech and civil rights (Ms. Coulter, care to acknowledge this?).
And I suppose Ms. Wethern and I don’t understand why anyone would spend $20,000 to broadcast Ann Coulter’s mudslinging and pestilence on our campus.
So many other things could benefit from $20,000 – why pay someone to tarnish our university’s name?
– Elizabeth Phillips, Junior, Spanish, [email protected].
Column wrongly portrays Coulter’s views
In her column last Friday, Erin Wethern stated that she “refuse[s] to allow [her] tuition money to fund hate.”
Apparently she believes that Ann Coulter is comparable to a leader of the Ku Klux Klan and should be barred from speaking at the university. Frankly, her column makes much ado about nothing.
Ms. Wethern states that Ms. Coulter is racist and sexist.
I would point out that Coulter is an entertainer. Just like a comedian, she does what she knows will get a response.
Her comment that women should not vote because they vote Democrat is no different than someone quipping that middle class men should not vote because they vote Republican!
To take it as more than a joke is simply pathetic. Ms. Coulter’s actual beliefs are readily apparent to anyone willing to do more than a cursory Google search.
Ms. Wethern is also indignant that Coulter is slated for shortly after Women’s History Month. If anything, however, Coulter should be an inspiration to women everywhere.
She is very well educated, very confident and highly celebrated and sought after. She is the self-made woman!
More important is the precedent Ms. Wethern is willing to establish. If someone like Coulter can be barred on the grounds that she is a partisan speaker being brought in on club funding, then I have a right to protest clubs showing the work of “documentary” makers like Michael Moore.
However, to paraphrase John Stuart Mill, the only way to arrive at truth is to be exposed to all viewpoints.
They will either temper your arguments and strengthen your resolve if you were right all along, or cause you to reconsider your beliefs.
So to those who oppose bringing Ann Coulter to campus – what are you afraid of?
– Brain Kutzley, Junior, History and Political Science, [email protected].
Use Coulter’s presence to challenge ideas
It’s not my nature to become involved in disputes on these pages, I do so with more than a little fear of reprisal.
The nature of discourse in our society has deteriorated into attack now, think later. I am saddened by its coarseness.
I am writing in response to the column which appeared in the October 6 edition of The BG News.
The opinion columnist on that day objected to bringing Ann Coulter to campus. While I defend this person’s right to object, the manner in which she does so is designed to stop debate at this university rather than to promote it.
The column indicated that because Ann’s ideas were outside some unspecified norm that they are apostasy; the ideas should not be discussed and the person uttering them must be punished.
Calling someone a bigot, denying their gender, and worse in any exchange does little to enhance the sharing of ideas. The methodology in play in the Friday editorial is the topic of Ann Coulter’s latest book “Godless the Church of Liberalism.”
The book has little to do with the separation of church and state as suggested in the column and a great deal to do with the absence of tolerant discussion in our social and political discourse.
We trust our students to make decisions about where to live, what to eat, what majors to pursue and where to work. I believe that we can trust these same students to develop their own opinions with regard to how they will order the society that they are about to inherit.
The students cannot be well prepared for the world outside if they are exposed only to those ideas deemed fit by self-appointed censors.
Mr. James Carville was on campus this past Saturday. He is noted for his caustic partisan remarks. I am certain he said things that hurt some feelings and angered many. Mr. Carville’s ideas will rise or fall on their merit. We as a community are richer for having heard them.
Ann Coulter’s ideas will add to the diversity of thought in this place.
Use her ideas to challenge yourself, to challenge what you believe. You are also welcome to challenge what Ann Coulter has to say; but, please, do not censor her simply because you are in disagreement.
We are a community of ideas only by adding to the diversity of those ideas will we all mature and grow. The words she will present to us will rise or fall based on their own merit. Please let us hear them.
-Lawrence H. Bajor, Faculty, College Republicans Advisor
