Pot? It's the kettle
In Austin Kinghorn's Firing Line ("YCT responds," Sept. 30) he railed against the "hypocrisy" of affirmative action and condemned SMU's "censorship" of the YCT. While on the subject of hypocrisy, perhaps it is worthwhile to examine its manifestations within the ideology of the YCT itself.
Kinghorn claims he is disgusted by "racial preferences." Recent events make such an argument on his part especially ironic since, as we well know, the YCT distributed "wanted" posters of Zaman because he is Pakistani. And we know how they are, right? Assume that a white student, affiliated with the Army of God and discovered to have been making bombs in his apartment, forged transcripts and disappeared. I doubt that the YCT would have made any "wanted" posters.
Also, Kinghorn's fellow Young Conservative, Bryan Pravda, has publicly endorsed monitoring international studies programs by a federal board, which could potentially expurgate courses with "anti-American" content. What else is Pravda demanding but academic censorship? In practice it will have little to do with bias in itself. Should professors in those departments that tend to tow the party line be more free to conduct classes in a way that they see suitable?
The college-as-factory view that the University should produce students servile to American interests undermines education. Besides, I must sit through classes taught by "biased" conservative professors.
Rightists grope for threats to America, yet they need look no further than themselves. If anything, this hypocritical ethnocentric mentality espoused by the YCT has created our real woes.
Matthew Wackerle Government senior
Flag wavers wanted
Federal funding of area studies was rightfully challenged because there is no intellectual diversity on college campuses in America, especially in the field of Middle Eastern studies, where only a small minority of professors openly support American policies.
Middle Eastern Studies is dominated by Edward Said's post-colonial theory, which says that, in the words of the Hoover Institution's Stanley Kurtz, "it is immoral for a scholar to put his knowledge of foreign languages and cultures at the service of American power."
Said is one of the most-taught authors in the field of Middle Eastern studies. Because of the predominance of post-colonial theory in the classroom, pro-American voices are excluded. When was the last time that you heard a professor say something positive about the current administration's policies? Who among our faculty openly supports the United States-Israel relationship? I know of no professors who speak out in favor of American foreign policy, but I know of many who openly disagree with it. We at the University cannot get a good education if we are only hearing half the story.
Academic freedom will not be threatened by this new legislation, but will instead be promoted. The United States government finally was convinced of this and is doing something to fix the problem of academic bias. Middle Eastern studies faculty nationwide must understand that they are blinded by their own prejudices and therefore fail to accurately explain or anticipate major developments in the Middle East.
The new legislation is already drawing much attention. Rarely does area studies make headlines, but now it is. If debate about the future of area studies is encouraged nationwide among college professors, then the legislation will have achieved its goal of promoting intellectual diversity, which right now, is nonexistent.
Daniel P. Rubenstein Middle Eastern studies sophomore
Hurrah for the melting pot
In response to Alan McKendree's October 1 Firing Line, "Race mania:" The words of Martin Luther King ought not to be twisted. Dr. King sought a society in which a person's worth would not be determined by his race - not a society in which the cultural differences between ethnicities which bring such wonderful variety to American society would be steamrolled out of existence in favor of some sort of bland quasi-WASPness. Mr. McKendree and those who agree with his line of thinking should take this into consideration.
Thomas Keith Classics senior
A few facts on Texas
Not being an authority on Louisiana, I am nonetheless skeptical it is a "centrally planned state" economy burdened with excessive regulations and business taxes like Arpan Sura says in his puff piece of Bobby Jindal ("The governor's race in the Bayou State," Oct. 1).
Jindal is supposed to reform this and clean house (with big polluters and Christian-right money). The model for Louisiana is supposed to be Texas, he implies.
I'm wondering what part of the Texas economy was "liberalized" in the '90s, leading to a boom according to Sura. Does he mean the banking deregulation that lead to a financial collapse of almost all Texas banks in the '80s?
As for research and education, I don't think Sura knows his Texas history. Education in the state drew most of its money from (surprise!) business taxes on oil production and machinery that allowed the state to avoid an income tax. After the oil boom busted in '83, a business franchise tax of 0.5 percent was set up (which SBC and Dell manage to evade). Until recently, a tax on telecom companies funded computer equipment for libraries and schools.
Also with a powerful congressional delegation, Texas easily got pork barrel, federal research money (NASA, UT) that often is free research for businesses. All of this trumpeting of Texas and American "free markets" often forgets this. And let's not start on agriculture ...
Anand Bhat Biology sophomore
Hopping on the bandwagon
Kudos to Jeff Zell for his enthusiasm for the beginning of baseball's postseason. October is a sweet time of year for the game, and it's nice to see someone give it its due props. Unfortunately, I must shed light on a horrible mistake in his analysis. To me, giving the New York Yankees any kind of positive ink (like predicting a three-game sweep of the Twins) is unforgivable. How many other chumps sit back and say things like "all right, that's my team" or "see, I told you so" when the Yankees, a disgusting collection of overpaid traitors, gang up on the rest of the league. Hey Zell, why don't you start rooting for the phone company while you're at it?
Bobby Holland Accounting senior
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