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Show Monday rjune 4,2007 On the positive side, regarding Reverend Falwell into the wrong battles." Okay, perhaps the RevOPINIONS WRITER erend shouldn't have picked the Teletubbies as his enTalk about a brutal emies, but didn't he do any death. It's been a couple of good? The problem we, weeks since the Reverend the most recent generation Jerry Falwell passed away, shepherded into adulthood, but unfortunately the con- have is that the only legacy troversy that surrounded we see of Jerry Falwell's life his life has followed him has been that portrayed by to his grave. While under the media. This has prenormal circumstances this dominantly consisted of would be a time to reflect the aforementioned caron the goodness of his life, toons and his portrayal in FalwelTs death has provided the 1997 film,The People his enemies fuel for the fire. vs. Larry Flynt. Such deTake, for instance, the pictions would have us bepolitical cartoons. I recently lieve that Falwell was secGoogled 'Jerry Falwell and ond in line behind Osama Political Cartoons," and Bin Laden in the religionrespect for the dead was is -my-ploy-to-do-evil line. far from the search engine Through all the hoopla results. Most, if not all, ei- of Falwell's passing, one ther depicted the Reverend thing has gone unnoticed: finding himself in Hell, Larry Flint, the creator of getting rejected by God Hustler Magazine (who or finding heaven filled Falwell sued in the '80s with the people he sup- after Hustler ran a Camposedly hated, such as the pari ad stating the Reverhomosexual community. end lost his virginity to his Now this isn't to say his mother) became friends behavior should be con- with Jerry Falwell after the doned. Whether his views religious leader extended were right or wrong, he a hand of forgiveness. often went about them the Flynt discussed this in wrong way. As DESERET an op-ed in the LOS ANNEWS religion writerjerry GELES TIMES where he Johnston stated in an article recounted his history with published May 19, 2007, "I the controversial man. In saw a guy (Falwell) deter- the piece, Flynt recounted mined tofightthe good fight a 1997 Larry King interbut who kept getting drawn ByDaveGillesple view, which the two were scheduled to appear on. Flynt stated he "was expecting a fight," but Falwell came on and embraced him as though they had been lifelong friends. To his surprise, Falwell showed up at Flynt's office soon after the show aired, offering a truce. Two hours later, Flynt and Falwell discovered they actually weren't that different. "My mother always told me that no matter how repugnant you find a person, when you meet them face to face you will always find something about them to\like. The more I got to know Falwell, the more I began to see that his public portrayals were caricatures Of himself. There was a dichotomy between the real Falwell and the one he showed the public," Flynt told the LOS ANGELES TIMES on May 20, 2007. After ten long years, amidst a war of words and court battles spanning two very different ideologies, the two sat down with one another and found a friend. Photo Credit/ www. 1hecronflne.com Yes, still very different, but friends none the less. The Reverend Jerry Falwell passed away on May 15 at the age of 73. Was Fallwell a bit short- ings he so adamantly de- do good to them that hate Falwell did "turn the other sighted at times? Tinky fended? "But I say unto you, and pray for them cheek." And that is an exWinky might say so. But you, Love your enemies. which despitefully use ample we can all follow. did the man live the teach- bless them that curse you,..- you.";1 With Larry Flynt, Remembering those lost, and those who lost direction may be from "the way of beauty," can return to the jhe. crimes, we will per„ p e t i t e (through social in-_ path of internal harmony ''flue'nees) the climate that where person, nature and fosters a mind disposed to the gods coexist to exdesperate, empty killing. pand beauty in the world. A climate made of dePunitive measures are tachment, of social ranking foreign to their culture: as a means of valuing hu- They are peaceful, noble, man life, of blaming victims spiritual people. And the and perpetrating victims way of beauty is always alike, of seeking prosecu- open to each person. tion of the guilty over caring How would our culture and healing those injured. be if we were to internalThe Dine or Navajo ize these values and ways believe that each per- of looking at one another? son walks in the "path of No child grows up wantbeauty." When a person ing to be a gunman who commits an action that in- will kill innocent people. jures others, they see that No parent envisions her or person's spirit as being sick his child's future as such. and needing help, healInstead of a candle, I ing and understanding. hold a memory, another They believe that ev- memory for the 33 dead stuery person, no matter dents, for a young Korean how far removed their feet man who lost his direction ByCarmellHoopes-Clart happened to someone else amined fear, unacknowl- families as accomplices in GUEST WRITER Many mourn the loss of 33 college students, 33 people whose lives will not be realized in this turn of life's already-brief kiss. . A young Korean man was deeply disturbed, but by what? Why? How has the interrelation of individual and society, individual and institution, yet again culminated in horrific tragedy? I think about walking onto campus tomorrow. I think sometimes, as I am in different places, about how any one of us could walk out of the building before it exploded; could be late for class the day someone did the unspeakable; could turn left, instead of right, and miss the accident that ... and never realize it. But I can't stop thinking that the people involved, including the young Korean man, were all people we sit next to, listen to lectures from, hold hands with, cross paths with in the halls, year after year. Any life lost is one too many. Will we see a spate of anti-Asian, anti-immigration rhetoric or violence? Will we hear President Bush and others invoke the threat of terror within our borders, giving us an excuse to be afraid? Will we create an enemy, as if he or she is outside of ourselves, once again? Fear is funny that way. We become more afraid of fear itself. Amid unex- edged fear and ignorant fear, the enemy is oneYself. To respond to such violence and tragedy with fear, retaliationanddefcnsivencss is to carefully set the stage for tragedy to repeat itself. And what of the family who has lost a son to murder and suicide? The victims' families are allowed to grieve their losses. But the perpetrators' families are ostracized, demonized, blamed for the losses created by their sons, daughters, husbands or wives. We have no place for them in our society, in our narrow definitionsofjustice, loss and restitution. They must be made to pay somehow for the loss their loved ones have inflicted upon us. As long as we treat these in the way of beauty, for a young Bosnian Muslim who "survived'* the genocide and ethnic cleansing of his country, and the six people he shot and killed in a shopping mall in Salt Lake City, for the more than half of a million Iraqis who are dead, for the more than 3,400 American soldiers who are gone — this time around, for the more than half of a million people in Darfur, and all those people who are trapped, maimed, mentally ill, starving, violated. Unless everyone matters, unless they matter to us longer than the end of the newscast, tomorrow will tell us again what we have forgotten from last week, last vear or the last live centuries. LETTER TO THE EDITOR This letter is in response CHIN 1010 has been ofto an article-that appeared fered every year since 1990! on the front page of The ColIn 1990, the late Veonne lege Times on Apr. 16, 2007. Howlett (then chair of GenThe article was titled "Chi- eral Education) suggested I nese Fever Across Campus" develop courses in Mandaand the author was Lingling rin and integrate them into Zou. While the enthusiasm the curriculum, which I did. about the Chinese language I taught CHIN 1010 durprogram is a very positive ing fall semester of 1990. thing, wording employed by Lingling in her article sug- F. Dennis Farnsworth, Jr. gests that the classes are new: Professor of "This term, more classes Political Science have been developed, one farnswde@uvsc.edu beginning Chinese Mandarin (the standard Chinese) class and two intermediate classes, the Comprehensive Intermediate Mandarin and Writing Chinese class." The historical fact of the matter is that, except for the Comprehensive class, these courses have been in the curriculum for many years. The beginning classes (CHIN 1010 and 1020), as well as the intermediate classes (CHIN 2010 and 2020) have been in the curriculum for 17 years! 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