My Letter to the Indiana Daily Student (IU's student paper)

[theorist]

This is in response to this:
http://www.idsnews.com/story.php?id=27808

Let me know what you think. Suggestions are happily welcomed!

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I commend the editorial staff of the IDS for publishing a balanced analysis of House Bill 1531, but I must comment on the real partisan nature of this legislation. I urge all students interested in this matter to visit the web site of the Students for Academic Freedom (SAF), the organization behind the bill: www.studentsforacademicfreedom.org.

The leader of the SAF is David Horowitz, editor-in-chief of the conservative news outlet www.frontpagemag.com. In a 2004 documentary titled “Roots of the Ultra Left”, produced by the Leadership Institute, Horowitz states, “Modern liberals are socialists, they’re not liberals. What are they liberal about besides hard drugs and sex? Everything else they want to control in your life. That’s true of the Democratic Party. It’s true of the British Labor Party. They’re socialists. That’s their religion.”

It is clear that this group, led by Horowitz, is radical in any sense of the word, and his concept of the “liberal” is not a mainstream one. Furthermore, they have not established the need for the legislation they have proposed, nor have they established the validity of the myth of liberal indoctrination in higher education. I abhor each Hoosier voter reading this to write your state representatives in Indianapolis to stop HB 1531.

As students, we are free to roam the academic landscape that has been laid down by those before us. We are charged with the task of leaving it better than when we found it. To those who do believe that a bias permeates through Indiana University, please strive to become professors and grace future students with your views. Academia should not be constricted by partisanship, and it is your right to experience and perpetuate this virtue.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Graduate Student

[salin]

1. The only thing I would add

would either be at the end of the second paragraph - or a new paragraph as a transition. Emphasize the falacy of the statement that democrats or liberals are socialists (which advocates a centralized economic system where the government controls most industries.) For 20 years the meme has been spread from the right that liberals are "socialists and commies" - with no connect to what those systems suggest and how far away US liberals are from those systems. Clarify why that is a radical (or better, a ridiculous) assertion before moving on. Sadly, many younger Americans have only heard the rightwing rushesque rhetoric and have incorporated it (unthinkingly) into a false equation.

Nice letter - let us know if they print it! :toast:

[theorist]

2. Thanks. I'm trying to be as welcoming to the average Hoosier.

I know a lot of people in Bloomington, not just students, read the rag. :)

Unfortunately, I've only been here for about a year and a half, so I'm not sure if I was successful.

[salin]

3. I am a native

albiet a prof brat native, but still a native. Sometimes one has to be explicit in the argument - but one has to be also very rational in expressing the explicit argument. Hoosiers are strongly pragmatic. Rational arguments resonate - and for those who disagree (except for the die hards who will always disagree) it can get folks to stop and think. Cool thing about B-ton is that it is not just the U related folks who are liberal. In part I think it is due to years of discourse (often non-emotional) that gets folks to think about statements, positions and arguments - it keeps folks, even those who are more conservative, more "moderate" as they are always exposed to the other side of issues and tend to see things more complexly than seems to be the case of the GOP nationally. Yes there are a handful of really crazy, rightwingers in the community (who are very vocal) but they are outnumbered. I have worked precincts during primaries for a number of years and the republican "officials" are always very moderate/independent in their thinking (spend 13 hours with folks at the polls, in an election setting, and you can pick up whether they are rabid partisans or rather sane thinkers). Just my impression as a native who has been in and out of the state (east and west coasts and Michigan) over the years.

[Patriot Acts]

4. Well done..

....Hoosier here, I'm in Bloomington as well. I don't think there is a need to water it down too much, as "the average Hoosier" could care less about what happens at the "liberal" university. I hope the faculty and staff of IU protest this bill with a vengeance.