Saturday, February 03, 2007

WE WILL NOT BE SILENCED

The WMU College Democrats published a column in last Thursday’s Western Herald in which they called for “civil discourse” while doing nothing but making false and baseless attacks against the WMU College Republicans.

The untruths contained in their screed include the following. The Faculty Hall of Shame on our website is not a blog and does not contain any “slander,” “rumors,” insults, or “name-calling,” “vulgar” or otherwise. It is not a “burn book.” We never claimed that it is a crime to be a Muslim or feminist, or that Islam is “worse” than feminism. The word “crime” never appears in the document at all. We have never “spurned” civil discourse, as they have never offered it to us.

So what about their allegations of slander and rumors? We plead truth. All of the facts on our sheet are backed by documentary citations or eyewitness testimony.

We did indeed point out that one professor promoted feminism and Islam, but the College Democrats decided not to mention the highly relevant fact that she promoted them in class. She is free to promote her beliefs on her own time, but not while she is supposed to be teaching her students. When pointing out the unbalanced view of Islam that she promoted, we don’t consider this an insult, we consider it a fact.

The College Democrats seem to be laboring under the misperception that the purpose of the Hall of Shame is to list people we dislike or disagree with. It is not. Our purpose is simply to inform students and other interested persons. The criterion for membership is misuse of power over students for political purposes. This can include criminal acts, assaulting or harassing students, grading students based on political positions or activities, stifling dissenting viewpoints in class, or using class time or assignments for propagandizing for political positions rather than teaching the proper subjects of courses. Students who wish to take such courses can sign up for them, while those of us who prefer education to indoctrination can spend our tuition dollars elsewhere.

If our goal was to compile a list of liberal professors, we could simply take a faculty directory and cross off a few names. In fact, the majority of liberal professors teach their classes without propagandizing or stifling dissent. If the College Democrats truly believe in civil discourse, they should join us in condemning the handful of professors who attempt to suppress it.

While they talk about promoting civil discourse, their vitriolic and error-ridden attack actually tries to stifle it. Rather than honestly confront the facts that we have put forth, they attempt to intimidate us into silence. If they really believed in civil discourse, they could have contacted us directly, rather than launch a vitriolic attack in the Herald.

The Democrats are whistling past the graveyard. There is a widespread, persistent, ongoing campaign to stifle our speech on campus. Literally thousands of flyers promoting our events over the past few years have been defaced or stolen. The College Democrats have never issued any comparable condemnation on this attack on free speech.

The real “test of maturity” is to not throw a fit whenever someone says something you dislike. The College Democrats have failed that test.

We are always ready to engage in civil debate, but we will not hide the truth about the misdeeds of the left on campus.

There is one true statement in the Democrats’ column. The Faulty Hall of Shame can be seen at www.rso.wmich.edu/gop/hallofshame.doc. We encourage readers to consider the facts for themselves.

The College Republicans at WMU were recently named the best chapter in the country by the College Republican National Committee. We didn’t win this award by keeping quiet. This feeble attempt to suppress our speech will fail. We will not be silenced.

And we will never apologize for telling the truth.

College Republicans
WMU RSO

10 comments:

Matthew said...

I approve this message.

Anonymous said...

Man. If you're the best chapter in the country, liberals should be taking comfort. If this is the best there is, they've got their work cut out for them.

Matthew said...

PS, Al Fanken was great! Oh man his jokes were so funny! Thanks for bringing him to campus College Dems! Also, way to go with getting all those local politicians elected (obviously close local races are the only ones which WMU students can really impact). I'm real proud that you managed to kick Hoogendyk, George, and Upton from office; all that while bringing in great speakers!

You know, if all the College Dems were known for is slinging mud on the College Republicans, that would be one thing. It would make the College Dems look incredibly shallow that they'd rather pick petty fights instead of doing proactive work to make a positive impact on WMU. However, with all of the great speakers they brought in and close local races that they helped turn the tide to Democrat victories, it really speaks volumes about the group.

We certainly do have our work cut out for us.

Anonymous said...

Did I miss something? Did the College Dems get voted the best chapter in the country for Dems? Are they bragging about being #1? In other words, what on Earth are you talking about Matt?

Anonymous said...

I'm afraid you are mistaken in your rant, our group is called the College Democrats of Western Michigan University (get it straight). We elevate ourselves above you in many ways, one being a different name. Cheers!

Matthew said...

I was making a sarcastic remark illustrating that the College Democrats of Western Michigan University have accomplished little and I find it unfortunate that the first real "accomplishment" they've taken on has been a campaign to sling mud on the College Republicans. They could be spending their time and energy with pro-active projects to help their own cause, but instead they devote their energies grabbing at straws and trying to sling mud on the WMU CRs.

Go to the College Democrats of Western Michigan University site; they speak nothing of the big plans they had to bring in people like Al Franken, presidential hopefuls, or even projects their doing to get people elected and further their cause in the community. Instead, you read post after post in their blog attacking the College Republicans. My last comment was sarcastically pointing this out.

I'm sure this won't stop the College Democrats of Western Michigan University from taking as many cheap shots and low blows at the College Republicans as they can, but maybe it will encourage some of them to actually be pro-active with their energies instead of trying to cut others down.

Anonymous said...

Man if I hear one more b.s. line about how the republicans are being victimized when they brought Coulter here...keep ripping down your flyers guys, people definately care.

Anonymous said...

I hate when the republicans try and guise their takeover of a liberal institution with flimsy notions of trying to remain politically neutral. Come on guys, we know you want to keep your elitist ideals and your status quo. Just be honest about it. If you are going to do whatever is neccessary to keep us liberals subdued, at least have the courtesy to tell us the truth to our faces. The whole idea that we are immature and childish for reacting to this is absurd, your little response at the top of this post is a common tool of the right: doing something wrong, immature and childish, and then shifting the blame on others. Take responsibility guys.
Another thing, if you were so hell bent on the college remaining politically neutral for the sake of its students, why don't you have a list of overtly conservative teachers pushing their ideals on us as well. In the spirit of remaining neutral, I will be compiling a list of conservative teachers who abuse their power of tenure to brainwash meager and unassuming students to add to your now incomplete hall of shame. If you don't have both sides then, well, I guess you are just being political.

the college republicans are walking a fine line and without solid evidence, they will find themselves in a very actionable position.

Finally, Liberals get the shaft because they care about civil discourse and they are consdiered weak and ineffectual because they don't go to war because they can, and whenever they can or because they are too "sesitive and politically correct. In turn I give you [college republicans] a little wisdom from my (truly) conservative father to you "sesitive" conservatives: "GET OVER IT!" YOU ARE A STUDENT AT A UNIVERSITY OF LIBERAL EDUCATTION, if you have a problem with our liberal professors go to a christian/private college.

Anonymous said...

I just wanted to point out that the first person listed on the WMU College Republicans' Hall of Shame, Dr. Datta-Sandhu, just won the WMU Distinguished Teaching Award. In my mind, that puts to rest the allegations that she is some sort of horrid teacher. According to the press release, her former students and fellow faculty members had some very glowing things to say about her, her teaching style and her drive to see her students succeed.

Although I have not had the pleasure of taking courses offered by any of the instructors in the H.O.S., I can only assume given this most recent development, that most of the other character assasanations in the Hall of Shame are nothing more than a tech-savvy variation of "I didn't do well in that class because the teacher hated me" or "I knew what I was doing, it was the teacher that was stupid." In many years of tutoring, I've heard these as excuses more times than I care to count. They're rarely ever accurate, but I suppose if one wanted to extend the definition, this could be counted as "eyewitness testimony." So, until presented evidence to the contrary, I can only assume this is what the WMUCR's "eyewitness testimony" consists of, and in my mind should be discounted as such.

I am not against WMUCR's right to post the Hall of Shame. I'm all for freedom of speech. However, I thought you might like to know that you have thoroughly dissuaded at least one potential member (albeit a moderate one) from joining your ranks, and I would not be surprised if there are many more like me. Perhaps it would have bothered me less if the H.O.S. had said something like "these are the opinions of persons who took courses from these instructors," rather than attempting to pass it off as gospel truth by calling it "eyewitness testimony."

Anonymous said...

No one ever wnats to admit they didn't take the responsibility or effort to get a good grade.

and as for this hall of shame...

"Students come away from her [Dr. Datta-Sandhu] classes with a richer cultural appreciation of developing countries, as well as a better understanding of why politics must be structured in different ways across cultures with different and varied norms and histories."

Small round of applause for the republicans foot in mouth.

listen to "The Pot" by TOOL. You'll eventually understand the GOP