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Show I<65 I = OPINION .. I THE UNIVERSITY JOURNAL • SQUTHiRN UTAH UNIVERSITY• WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22; 1997 ' ,, ' SAV/; UERt CONGR£SC LETTERS JUST 1'IGCOVEP:b0 A8U9ES 6Y ff.It l,R,6, Hatred doesn't belong here • I must agree with Danielle McDanie l's Letter to t h e Editor on Oct. 15, concerning t he article written by Glenn Halterman. He seems to be one of those people who hates everyone. Through the fournal, the students of SUU have h ad to cndun: the contempt Mr. Halterman has for people with AIDS, women, and the arts, to name .1 few . It seems that no one 1s free irom his Sl'.orn except, of course, for M r. Ha lterma n h imself. I h ave to as k what is t he good of all this intolerance? Who docs it help to continue writing article after article f died w1th sarcasm and pessimism? Mr. Haltennan needs to open hie; eyes and sec that the world is a beautiful and diverse place. Hate never has and never will kad to anything worthwhile. Chris Madsen NC!\A: Loyalty to the game • Satu rday is the best day of For t hose who can't associate the week. I won 't sec if Kevin w ith th ese th ings, I urge you to Garnett is worth $ 123 million, pay more a ttenti on to college watch Shaquille O 'N ea l brick athlet ics. In Ireland, amateur athletics free th ro w s, o r even wit n ess h o w Mi ke T yson fares n ex t s u c h as Ga e li c foo tba ll and time he's without a muzzle. hurling a re the foc us of fans . Ins tea d, th e e njoy m ent of The re, flags, flares and fights are commonplace. N C AA a t hle ti cs Th e at hle t es will overwhelm me now with foo tball, the re are pla y in g for their countries, b as k e tba ll co m e famili es , fri e nd s March, an d various and n a t ion a lis t ic o ther sp o rts tha t televis ion doesn ' t pride, but th ey fa il to neglect . ce rtainly do n o t SUU can gain a play for m oney. N CAA athletics berth in the N CAA t0 urn a m c n t n e x t a rc n o t a ll tha t di.ssi m i la r. Th e spring fo r the first SUU -Web e r St at e t im e i n sch o ol h isto ry, t ha nks to '--------------' foo tball gam e t h is SUU ' s inclusio n in t h e Mid- yea r w as as exci t in g as t hey Contjne nt Conference. get. Co llege athl et ics a rc abou t We were in the middle of the schoo l pride, loya lt y thro ugh Weber State section m a k in g thi c k a nd t h in. It is like the fools of ourselves- this is what Iowa-Minnesota bat tle fo r th e college sports a re all abou t . little brown jug, the UC-Santa Unfortunately, many students C ruz Banana Slugs, th e Drake didn ' t k n o w SUU pl ay e d Re lays, t h e Tosti tos Fies t a Weber State. Fo r t h ose p e o p le, m a y Bow l, D icke y V a n d t h e Cindere lla's of Marc h, Army- recommend Sw1day 's lineup? N a vy, a nd th e Ro s e Bo w l M ike Larsen parade. PRO FESSIONAL STA FF AND DESK PHONE NUMBERS: Editor Lury Baker 586-775 1 Campus Editor Jim Robinson 586- 1997 Consulting Spons Edit on Ne il C ordner 586-7753 Brett Jewk es 586-7752 STUDENT STAFF AND D ESK PHO NE NUMBERS: AHoclate Editon JoAnn Lundgreen 586- 1992, 586-7750 Ben Winslow 865-8 225, 586-7750 Spons Editor C had La m b 865-8443 AP Wire Editor Kami Egan 586-7759 Copy Editor Tiana Tew 586 -5 488 Aru Editor Anna Tu rpin 586-5 488 Photo Editor John C uenler 586-7759 Advcn islng Monagc r Maggie Neii.en 586 -7758 As.,' t Photo Editor Keli H im 586-7759 Adnnising Dt11lgnu C emmie Cole 586-7758 REPORTERS' DESK 586-775 7 The Un fve,.<fry /ournal Is published every Monda y, Wednesday and Friday of the academic year • • • pu blicati o n o r South ern Uuh Un iversity, lu dcpanm cnt of commun lca1ion a nd th e SUU Stu dent AsSQclation. The views and op in io ns ex pressed in the /ourna/ arc those of ind ividu al writers and do not nccc ss.at lly reflect the opin ion o f the /ournal or any en tity of the un iv~rslt y, Lc.u crs rn 1hc cdito.r must he typed and inc lude the n am e and pho ne n u mber. On ly t he name w, 11 h e printed. Nam es will not be wu hhcld under i n y circums ta nces a nd the edito r reserves cduing rrivilc,tes. Lcttcn m ust he SU~J!illtl-d b y noon Fridays fo r Mo nday editions, T u esdays for Wednesday editi ons .a nd Th ursdays fur Friday cth u ons. Gri,vanu .,: An y rndiv1du:al with a Kricvancc agai nst the fournal shoulJ direct ~uch problem fi rst t ~) t~c cd ttor If unreso lved, that gnc vancc shou ld then be J ircctcJ tO the /ournal Steering Comm ltt l.'C, w hic h ,s chaired by Dr. Fra in C. Pearson, 586,7971. Unlvu•ily /oumol: Offices in SUU Technology Building 00.~. Mai l at SUU !lox 9384, Cedar C,ty, Utah 84 720 FAX (80 1) 586-5487. E-mail address: 1uurn al@suu.ed u ( )PRINT ED ON REC YC LED PAPER. PLEASE REC YC LE THIS COPY. I: JOSEPH SOBRAN COMMENTARY 1 ' ! ' Do we tout excuses or achievementsl Yes, white people are bad. That 's only a slight simplification of a preliminary conclusion of the President's Advisory Board on Race, fo rmed to conduct a "national dialogue " on race relations. Paul Bedard, writing in the Oct. l issue of The Wa shington Times, sums up the board's initia l findings: " In a report presented by Lawrence D. Bobo of Harvard University, whi te racism was portrayed as so great tha t b lacks, espec ia ll y those in the middle class, were moving to form a separate political party." With President Clinton himself in attendance, Mr. Bobo added that though whites think they are color-b lind, th ey continue t o s t e reo type blacks and Hispanics as " less intelligent" a nd " prone to violence." Wha t to do abou t this? M r. Bedard reports : " Mr. Clinton suggested one solution would be for the race board to take field trips to schools tha t have a dive rse minority base and use them as a 'laboratory' to prepare a cure for rac.i sm." Dedicated to diversity, the board's vi ews span the whole gamut of liberal opinion, from A to B. If yo u want t o h e ar a fi e rce de bate a m on g Lib e ra ls of a ll co lo rs o n h o w muc h white America should apologize fo r, just sit in on the b o ard ' s next sess io n . The pres ident h as scheduled a "town hall " for Dec. 2, probably somewhere in the Midwest . I can hardly wait. You can already picture it: Young Bill Clintons of the future will stand up to deplore the sins of their ancestors, to the thunderous applause of the diverse audience. Why is " dive rs ity" the favo rit e w ord of m onotonous people? The instant yo u hear it, your nervous system braces itself for a torrent of clichcs. Liberals are lucky the rest of us don' t demand reparations for decades of boredom . All ri ght, whites are evil. We invented slavery, bigotry, prejudice, stereotypes, racism and all that. Every problem of minority groups is ou r fault . If it w e re n 't for a fe w exceptions like Abraham Lincoln and Bill Clinton, the whole white race mjght be written off as irredeemable. There are several proble ms with this weary m e ssage, though. One is the question of whether it's true. Whi t es h av e inve nt e d m a n y thin gs , but slave ry isn 't one of them. We imported thatfrom Africa . Sl a ve r y is th e m ost imp orta n t " multic ultural " institution this coun tr y eve r adopted. But that's a minor point. The real po in t is m ore paradoxical and far mo re serious. T h e pa ra dox is t h a t t h e be li ef in w h it e s u pre m ac y a c tu a l ly seems t o be st ron ge s t a mong those w ho are alwa ys denouncing it. The liberal story line subtly im plies that only whites a rc ca pa ble of a w id e ra n ge o f things: achievem ent (including th e malign achievemen t of co nqu es t) , in ve n tion , a n d eve n m ora l responsibility. lf everything is the white man's fault, then t he w h ite m a n is th e un ca used ca use, the prime move r, while o ther races a re mere ly helpless, passive, in capable of th e dign ity of free acti on. T h e uninte nd e d m ess age con vey e d by th is m o nopol y of bla m e is t he fo rbi dde n t hought that though the white man may be bad, he gets things done. H e is st ereot yped, in effect, as a ma lign superman . To hear liberals talk, you would thin k that only the white man truly has free will, and th at all o the rs depe nd on him . In fa ct th e libe ra l agenda com es down to what whites sh ould do for nonwhites, who are deem ed unable to create their own wealth, deve lop their own sciences and build their own institutions. Nonwhite "heroes" are defined less in terms of what they achieve or create on their own than in terms of what they demand from whites. Instead of honoring nonwhite scientists, mathemat icians, doctors, inventors and poets, liberals always seem to be honoring "civil rights leaders." But can any race really take as much pride in a Martin Luther King and a Malcolm X as in a Shakespeare, a N e wton a nd a M ozart? Does an y child gain confidence from being taught that h e's a victim and the descendant of victims? Maybe the real " cure for racism " is to make fewer excuses and to insist on more achievement. fo seph So bran i s a n a tiona lly syndi ca ted columnist. |