Category | Op Ed

In response to “Non-apologetic Perdue refuses to appease” and “You either are or you aren’t.”

Published on April 9, 2007 by The Sentinel

     What is this bliss, this joyful wonder? “The Sentinel,” that bastion of
free speech, has been rockin’ socks and droppin’ jaws with a string of
great new publications featuring such intellectually arousing, almost
factual editorials as: “Non-apologetic Perdue refuses to appease,”
highlighting the author’s near mythic ability to dismiss white
privilege, and “You either are or you aren’t,” a beautiful little ditty
advising readers to support the troops by keeping them in harms way or
succumb to Satan’s socialist whims by asking to bring home the friends,
neighbors and family.


   

    Let me entreat the poor, mentally abused yet loyal
reader to analyze Will Duncan’s resent statement that free speech
shouldn’t be supported if it creates vandalism. This is interesting.
Apparently, speech turns from good to bad when it turns from innocuous
to attention grabbing. It is true that it is not the position of most
of the left to support violence or vandalism, but there are no
representatives allowed to step to a position with enough publicity to
deliver the message Duncan wants, nor do we see him offering any
apology for murders [an act a little bit worse than burning the flag]
committed by factions of his alignment [the United States
administration.] This is typical of the high caliber writing displayed
so far this semester. We’ve been encouraged to restrict health care to
the poor due to their lack of purchasing power compared to their
richer, whiter counterparts, to ignore Darfur, that Al Gore represents
the entire environmental movement and that we should continue to fight
a war in Iraq no matter what.

    This support for the staying of the course promoted
by Duncan and his unfunny, Mad TV referencing, cohort Burnett is no
doubt despite the 72 percent of American troops who wanted out of Iraq
in 12 months in a poll conducted late last year. Many polls indicate
that Americans and Iraqis are both ready to see the occupation ended.
But what does this mean to Sentinel writers? They’ve no need for facts
or figures. They’ve yet to use any in articles so far. Don’t they
deserve a certain amount of respect for their resolve in this
anti-fact-apalooza, a resolve stronger than the currents of the mighty
Atlantic which carried boat after boat of African slaves to Georgian
shores? That, of course, is a little historical tidbit for which the
Georgian government need not apologize given their poor grasp of U.S.
history and a total lack of understanding of the movement asking for
official apologies. Give Burnett a “So What If Our Entire Economy Was
Built on the Blood, Sweat and Tears of Kidnapped African People, and I
was Lucky Enough to Enjoy the Benefits of such Barbarism without any of
the Dirty Work,” high-five for the brilliant piece.

Nick Zeller
Senior
Sociology