The Rice Thresher

Location: http://the.ricethresher.org/opinion/2005/09/16/letters_to_the_editor

September 16, 2005 > Opinion > Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor

’Ridiculous’ column undermines Thresher

To the editor:

I find it ridiculous that the Thresher would publish Alison Morgan’s guest column (“Hysterical hippies only bring irrationality to politics,” Sept. 9). Almost nobody takes the crazies Morgan is writing about seriously. The fact that Morgan takes them seriously enough to write a column about them gave them unnecessary press and shed negative light on her. And the fact that the Thresher published the column undermined the Thresher’s legitimacy.

The Democratic Party is trying to work with Republicans for the improvement of our country and government. Democrats are not a bunch of hippies accusing President George W. Bush of being Adolf Hitler. Morgan is ignorant even to argue with the makers of the flyer because they are irrational to begin with.

Jacob Yunis
Jones sophomore

Columnist urging rationality misses fact

To the editor:

I welcome Alison Morgan’s call for rational debate concerning the American-led war in Iraq. Unfortunately, excoriating the straw men of pamphlets or bumper stickers contributes nothing to a rational discussion.

If we wish to approach the question of the war rationally, we must recognize some basic facts. Morgan claims the Bush administration has pursued its invasion and occupation of Iraq without violating the law. With all due respect, it is violating the law.

I offer only one example. According to the Transitional

Administrative Law in Iraq, Order 39 dictates the privatization of Iraqi state-owned companies and their sale to non-Iraqi entities. Yet both the Hague Regulations of 1907 and the Geneva Convention of 1949 are explicit about the illegality of an occupying power appropriating and selling occupied state assets. The United States remains a signatory of both the Hague Regulations and the Geneva Conventions and thus by federal law must abide by its international commitments. As our country is the internationally recognized occupying power in Iraq, Order 39 is illegal.

There is a small minority who advocate the wholesale abandonment of international treaties in pursuit of some vaguely defined larger objective. But this ignores the realities of the current geopolitical situation. By all means, let us have a rational discussion of our current policy of pre-emptive war generally, and our current policies in Iraq specifically. But to denigrate and mock those who are so deeply offended by our current polices that they resort to exaggerated rhetoric in order to further their cause suggests a failure to recognize the very real crisis in which America now finds itself in Iraq.

Carl Pearson
Visiting Professor
Department of History

Hurtful language does not help debate

To the editor:

I know Faraz Sultan’s article on the dissension surrounding the theory of evolution at Rice was an opinion piece, but I think he should have left out the condescension and insults (“Unevolving students hurt, embarrass Rice,” Sept. 9). I understood his main point and share his belief in evolution, but I found the way in which the article was written to be very off-putting. I don’t think referring to those who don’t also believe in the theory as “troglodytes” is an intelligent way to present the argument. Perhaps people wouldn’t have such a distaste for the secular elite if they didn’t have to deal with the sneers of such blooming pedants.

Grant Hayes
Lovett sophomore

Blame misplaced, levees misunderstood

To the editor:

In keeping with his plan to blame everything on the Bush administration, Evan Mintz goes so far as to blame ill “repairs” to the New Orleans levee system on the political party of his choice (“Disaster reveals failure of Republican leadership,” Sept. 9).

After Hurricane Betsy in 1965, the Army Corps of Engineers received the first of its federal funding and began building the levee system that has on countless occasions protected much of Southern Louisiana from its inevitable floods. However, on each of these occasions, we’ve found ourselves in front of televisions blaring hurricane predictions, not firmly trusting in the levees between us and the storm but praying for the right winds to avoid testing their limits, knowing Mother Nature would have her way.

Maybe better-prepared levees would help. But keep in mind while you scream from so far away for more levees — protecting the urban areas you so love — that southern Louisianians lament the loss of the marshland they call home caused by coastal erosion from the building of those levees. It’s this sort of problem, with no clear-cut solution, that cannot be solved by throwing money at it, despite how much Mintz wishes the Bush administration had done so. Of course, we could just blame it all on El Nino.

Devin Naquin
Hanszen junior

Opinion writers stay comfortably constant

To the editor:

In our confusing world of change and uncertainty, we often need something stable and unchanging in our lives. Some find their solace in the church, others in a hobby or routine. I find mine in the pleasantly predictable columns of Faraz Sultan and Evan Mintz. Although my logic exam tonight may surprise me, I can trust they never will.

Elliot Cole
Baker junior

Leebron should learn social skills, empathy

To the editor:

I would like to warn President David Leebron that in the future, as president of one of the nation’s best universities, he needs to work on his people skills.

New Orleans is the only place in the United States I call home. My family lives in the area. I am still a New Orleans resident. I was in New Orleans until the Wednesday before Hurricane Katrina hit. I got depressed and distraught at the images of my city underwater and desperately called friends and family to see if they were well or even alive. I wrote a call to action to get one place I love to help another place I love (“Rice’s hurricane response inadequate,” Sept. 9). And Leebron responded in a way that I felt was meant to shut me and other concerned alumni up (“Accusations of apathy unfair, unwarranted,” Sept. 9).

This is the second time he has responded similarly to alumni e-mails. The first was when he first came to office and there was talk that he was thinking of doing away with or changing the college system. I say “talk,” because that’s what it was. Alumni flooded his office with letters and e-mails demanding he keep things just as they were.

He responded with strong language such as, “I do hope that once you have had a chance to inform yourself reliably, you will join us in a productive discussion of how we can best realize a university with, in the words of Edgar Odell Lovett, ‘no upper limit’ in the years and decades ahead.” His letter to me on this issue was even more smug and condescending than his letter to me regarding Hurricane Katrina.

Leebron has to learn to be more humble and open to alumni concerns if his presidency is going to work.

Thomas Blaylock
Brown ‘02

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