RE: “Conservatives want to get back to the good old days,” 9/24
Patrick Gibbons’ column stands as astounding evidence of the battle that conservative students face every day on college campuses.
As President of Advocates for Conservative Thought (ACT), I contacted The Hurricane about our Conservative Awareness Week (CAW), and in response, I was interviewed by reporter Courtney Patton on Monday, Sept. 20. Courtney and I talked for over an hour about CAW, the issues we were tackling, and what it means to be conservative. As a result, Courtney wrote a factually-based article titled, “ACT gets vocal on the issues.” This article, however, was only shown in the online version of the paper and not included in the printed edition. Instead, The Hurricane decided to include an opinion piece by Mr. Gibbons that was erroneous, disturbing, and irresponsible.
Mr. Gibbons’ article column contradicts ACT’s message and is an example of an uneducated hatred for the conservative philosophy.
Unlike Courtney, Mr. Gibbons did not talk to ACT to hear about CAW. Yet, his article was somehow found to be qualified to be included in the paper. In the piece, he makes assumptions of what it means to be a conservative, without taking the time to hear what conservative students really think.
Mr. Gibbons delivers a message of hate, while ACT’s intentions are to inform and educate the UM community. In an act that is beyond reproach, especially considering that there are members of ACT who are Jewish, Mr. Gibbons makes a comment comparing ACT to Nazis at the conclusion of his article. I fear Mr. Gibbons may have thought his comment to be clever; however, it was undoubtedly one made out of ignorance.
To foster the type of hatred that Mr. Gibbons was clearly trying to induce in his article is reprehensible, and I think The Hurricane needs to take into account its responsibility as a source of information and thoughtful opinion to the UM community.
I encourage readers interested in factual information to log on to www.thehurricaneonline.com and read the article titled “ACT gets vocal on the issues” to hear what ACT’s Conservative Awareness Week was really about.
Sarah Canale
President, Advocates for Conservative Thought
RE: “Hip-hop culture is rapping against American ideals.” 9/21
Kudos to Don Donelson for writing what a lot of people think, but are afraid to say, when it comes to rap music. I agree with most everything he wrote and have a few things to add myself.
Yes, hip-hop is a multi-billion dollar industry. To me, that’s just a sad commentary on our society. I’ve seen many interviews with Russell Simmons, and he’s no rocket scientist…he was just the first one to mass-produce the genre. People talk about the “political voice” the industry has, but where’s the credibility? Is it Al Sharpton leading the way to some riot or protest that involves reverse discrimination?
Hip-hop advocates also talk about the “positive” side of hip-hop, but what about all the infernal idiots who scream unintelligible lyrics into the mike about “get rich, quick fix” schemes involving crime, thugs and anti-social behavior? Why don’t they mention that aspect of the industry?
They’d probably say, “Well, white people just don’t understand the music.” No, we don’t struggle to understand the music, we probably struggle to understand why it must be accompanied by the violence, degradation and disrespect towards women (“bitches and hos”) and the overall negative message it sends to the young, black listeners. Other than Bill Cosby, where are the black community leaders (nationally and locally) who should be standing up and denouncing this behavior?
Maybe instead of the artists talking about “bling-bling, mofo,” they can address some real issues in their music.
Nah, that wouldn’t sell very many albums, would it?
Barry Landesman
Class of 1984