PLEASE INFORM ME IF YOU INTEND TO EDITE MORE THAN A COUPLE OF SENTENCES OF THIS PIECE (that is, if yo intend to publish it at all…)
Editor:
In reference to the 4/7/03 “The Chronicle’s View” editorial, I have been attending the “U” for four years now and believe me; I have seen the chronicle in much better form when they are trying to express their “view”. What is most laughable about this particular case is that they give Fratkin their moral endorsement solely because she is a communications law professor, and oh yes, a doctoral student:
“What police officers didn’t know was that Fratkin is a communication law teacher and doctoral student at the U, and because she had a firm grasp on understanding her rights…”
By this standard of moral authority, why not assign the Bush Administration’s members and their foreign policies superior authority? After all, Condi Rice outranks Fratkin academically because she actually has a PhD. By the Chronicles logic, only those who are highly educated are informed of the laws, and only these individuals reserve the right to pass moral judgment. HA!
Getting more to the issues rather than the easy work of criticizing the Chrony, Fratkin needs to consult her history books. In fact, “the America [she] love[s]” does and has in fact made pre-emptive and unilateral strikes. Turn of the century Cuba ring a bell? In fact, this weekend, the Organization of American Historians spoke to this fact at their annual meeting in Memphis, TN. But let’s not stop at ignoring history.
Monty (in the online “The Chronicle’s View” forum-4/7/03) makes a powerful argument when he states that Fratkin, “Bought a flag for the sole purpose of de-faming it.” If she loves America so much, why is she just getting around to buying a flag? Not to endorse the proposition that if you are patriotic, you have a flag, but there are blinding signs of fair-weather patriotism here, (if you call defaming an American flag patriotic). What will happen to this flag when the war is over? Will she keep it hung in her yard, still defamed, or will it sit patiently in her garage until the next war in question? Or will she buy a standard, undefiled flag and present it proudly in her yard as long as her “assertive personality” doesn’t feel compromised?
If anti-war protestors are trying to wake people up to their reality, they are doing a poor, poor job of recruitment. They must learn from the failures of protests past because their current approach is more polarizing than constructive.
Brandon DickersonSenior, Political Science