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Letters to the EditorEditor, The Post, It is fall again and time for Ohio University students to flock to Athens and push out the real world for another year. While this is a necessary rite of passage for success in life, there should be a sworn affidavit signed by Post columnists that they know what they write about and present it in a mature, intelligent way. The columnist's excruciatingly stupid attack on Bush (Tuesday, Sept. 4) represents an opinion that lacks substance, and is couched in a smug and humorless style. While I'm not a supporter of our President by any means, I cannot stomach a writer getting away with a poorly thought-out opinion. Here are some clarifications for the columnist, in order of their misrepresentation: *The Kyoto Treaty was dead on the table for four years before Bush took office. If it was such a legislative miracle, why didn't our last President sign it? In fact, the only country to sign it before late last year and this year was (drum roll, please) Romania. Clearly there was a reason the rest of the world balked at signing the treaty. *Bush actually did take a stance on stem cells, and the fact that he didn't take a popular choice is irrelevant. Life isn't about making the popular choice. Because he didn't bite his lower lip and well up with tears doesn't mean it was a callous decision. *The columnist says, "His foreign policy approval ratings over there [Europe] are consistently in the teens and twenties, according to the Pew Research Center." Do we live "over there"? Incidentally, after July's G8+Russia Summit, most of the leaders attending had nothing but good things to say about Bush. *Can someone prove that Bush is in the pocket of "Big Business"? I haven't seen proof. One could have made the charge that Bill Clinton was in the pocket of "Big Hollywood" or "Big Environment." That charge is simply meaningless. *About Bush's vacation: Clinton is the most traveled President in US history, having "working vacations" in such politically relevant places as South Africa. *Bush has not dipped into social security and said he wouldn't. One shouldn't attack a man without a reason to do so. *Finally, our economy operates largely on its own, without a President's influence (FDR aside). There is a point when consumers simply stop consuming as much. To blame Bush for our slow economy (which, by the way, began in 1999) is as dumb as giving Clinton credit for its success. The columnist also takes the popular road and peppers his ignorant rant
with name-calling. I have yet to see a thoughtful, well-written
and researched column from the Post. The columnist and those like
him who think an opinion is all one needs should actually do some valid
research, and then arrive at a conclusion. If this is done, one
will find just how impossible it is to have a true black and white opinion
on an issue. It is time to stop sweeping generalities and inflammatory
words that are not only useless but baseless. James Yerian
The Post, I just finished reading the editorial entitled "Students Cannot Rush Diversity". I strongly disagree with the first line of the article. It reads "Although segregation is almost nonexistent..." In my opinion, segregation is unfortunately still very much alive. This is very evident even here at Ohio University. If you look around at groups of people who are hanging out on campus or around Athens, in general, you will notice most groups are divided up by race. Caucasian students are usually with Caucasian students, African-American students with African-American students, Asian students with Asian students and so on. I realize that OU strives to be diverse, but to think that segregation doesn't exist here is to turn our back to reality. I recently visited UCLA over the summer. The very first day I was there, I noticed how less of an issue race is in social groups, as compared to OU. I think this is a problem that the university should consider more actively. Segregation does still exist, even here at Ohio University. If we truly hope to fix this problem we must first recognize it. Segregation has not disappeared. It has only taken a new form. Jonathan Steele
Editor, The Post: If "Racial issues need brutal honesty," according to the columnist on Sep 7, then go to combat. Eliminate all words of race: black, brown, red, yellow and white. Why bother to say "African American" but not "Norwegian-Welsh-English-Irish"? Why identify anyone of our species with a race word? Isn't the meaning of race talk and language to identify the person's cultural background, not skin color? Culturally, some blacks are raised white, some whites are raised black, and some throughout the races. Some race terms are inaccurate, such as "Native American," whose ancestry is Asian (yellow). So what are we really saying when we identify our species in racial terms? Don't forget your high school history that showed – or should have showed, if it were accurate and forthcoming -– that Euro-white Roman Christians trashed and decimated the culture and lives of those humans who arrived in the Western Hemisphere first, the "Indians." Using racial terms only perpetuates racial problems. While I'm at it, don't ignore that even "new" gospel blacks featured recently on television news denigrate those of their "own kind" (as we say) who are atheist, humanist, or otherwise non-theist. Discrimination is multicolored. John Spofforth
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