Discordant Chorus Questions Visions for Bush Library at SMU: Will honor "worst President ever"?

[DeepModem Mom]

A Discordant Chorus Questions Visions for a Bush Library at Southern Methodist
By RALPH BLUMENTHAL
Published: January 14, 2007

HOUSTON, Jan. 13 — With growing faculty unease over plans to enshrine President Bush’s official papers and a policy institute at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, the process of creating the nation’s 13th presidential library is off to a familiar start: discord.

On Thursday, 68 theologians, professors and other faculty members present and past, citing complaints about President Bush’s “poor marks” on civil liberties, the environment, gay rights and the war in Iraq, sent the university president a letter questioning whether visions of the library were consistent with the school’s religious and academic values.

“According to George Bush’s closest associates, the half-billion-dollar endowment will be used by the institute to hire conservative scholars to agree to ‘write papers and books favorable to the president’s policies,’ ” said the letter calling for a campuswide dialogue on the affiliation....

His legacy and Southern Methodist’s role in preserving and advancing it is now a divisive issue at the 11,000-student university long identified with the Bushes, former residents of Dallas, who are Methodists. Laura Bush graduated from Southern Methodist and sits on the board of trustees....

***

At a meeting on Tuesday, close to 150 faculty members raised concerns about the project and formulated what became 35 questions for the university president, R. Gerald Turner, on the relationship between the university and the Bush library and policy center. The questions included, “How would the institute affect the intellectual integrity of S.M.U.?”...

***

A woman in Garland, Deborah Lewis, wrote The Fort Worth Star-Telegram that Dallas was already infamous for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy: “now it probably will be known for honoring the worst president ever.”...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/14/us/14library.html

[aquart]

1. Well, if any city deserves the honor...

[cfsteak]

5. if there was ever a hell on earth

My mom had a good phrase. She said the first night she pulled into Dallas, it was raining, that it was lightning. And they're coming into Dallas and she said if there was ever a hell on earth, it's Dallas County. She's right. She's right.
* Randall Adams, convicted murderer of officer Robert Wood from THIN BLUE LINE

[lligrd]

2. Bush Library - Must Be A Place Of Amusement

What a joke! Perhaps they should make it the Bush Bar instead. Or the Bush Asylum? Or maybe the Bush Correctional Institution? How about a Bush Zoo? Surely, any of those would be more fitting.

[Lisa]

3. they might as well put in a midway and an amusement park

Complete with rigged games of chance, and poorly-inspected rides.

[cfsteak]

6. It must have a slippery slide

To find out what it's like to get away with so much crap

[DeepModem Mom]

7. Hi, cfsteak -- welcome to DU!

[ToolTex]

4. Possibly the Bush wing of the Betty Ford Institute.

[Yukari Yakumo]

8. He should just station it at Oral Roberts. {nt}

uguu

[Yukari Yakumo]

9. He should just station it at Oral Roberts. {nt}

uguu