Fanatics: Group uses student funds to court extremism
http://www.alligator.org/pt2/060328eddy.php
This article brings back memories of a little group I was a part of in 2004 with Peter Gruskin and Seth Oranburg (see Filibuster, Gruskin's illegal termination, DS-Plot File). Filibuster was a group that aimed to foment discussion between various groups on campus, our first event aimed at holding an event between two sides, six groups consisting of the Pro-Arab side (Arabic Cultural Association, Islam On Campus, & Nakba 48) and a Pro-Israeli side (Jewish Student Union, The Israel Project, & Gators For Israel). When negotiations with the Pro-Israeli side broke down, talk started to circulate that we were anti-Israeli, our event was boycotted, Peter was fired, and that was that.
I have never been a fan of clamping down on the first amendment, because I am an American. Similarly, I honestly don't care if the speaker in question from the New Black Panter Party was anti-semitic (a term incorrectly used to describe those anti-Jewish). I am not for certain if the speech's contents were taken out of context but even so, I am disturbed that the Alligator would dare shine the spotlight on VISA, create a highly BIASED poll, and attempt to divide the African American and Jewish communites. THE RADIKAL is opinon-based and in my OPINION I think this is nothing more than payback for the Marlette comic that resulted in widespread dissatisfaction from the Black & African American communities, respectively.
"That Shabazz is an extremist is beyond any doubt. For example, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation, he has previously said Jews were responsible for what he calls the "African holocaust."
If this is in fact true, it's ridiculous hands down, but the man has a right to his opinion, fanatic or not, and organizations using A&S Fees have an obligation to bring speakers or plan events that will enrich UF Students, that enrichment may come in many forms, it may teach them or it may teach them to discern fact from fiction, either way it boils down to freedom of expression.
He heads an organization whose Web site calls for, among other things, the immediate release of all black inmates from prison and the protection of the inner city from "white takeover."
Have you Ms. Editor ever lived in the inner city? I have logged some serious time in inner-city classrooms and I can tell you that conditions are squalid and depressing. Your article fails to indicate the disproportionate numbers of young black men in the penal system, it fails to make mention of the economic disparity of the inner city, it fails to mention to a lot. I don't condone racism but I believe it will always have its place in any society, racism is one of many expressions of ignorance and I don't believe we'll ever fully eradicate it, we just need to learn how to TOLERATE it and co-exist with each other like civilized beings. I'm a person that speaks his mind and honestly, I don't think y'all give a damn about the Jews, I see revenge on this PIECE, but that's just my opinion...you write a bullshit article and then put out a biase-ass poll question and you're going to try and make things real rough on VISA.
Folks....why can't we REALLY try and bring back The Gator Times...I'm really starting to dislike this paper, it's writers, and most especially it's editors.
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Online voting ups turnout
THE USE OF INTERNET VOTING IN SFCC ELECTIONS DOUBLED TURNOUT.
http://www.alligator.org/pt2/060328internet.php
SFCC is not UF, the stakes here are higher, and after what I saw or read about in this last election, I'm beginning to agree more with James Argento and President-elect John Boyles. Back when Michael Schuster was speaking of "the integrity of the [paper] ballot," I readily dismissed it as partisan-based rhetoric...today it seems to address a very serious concern. Intranet voting left much to be desired (in its second attempt) and full internet voting may in fact be even more chaotic.
Although the system has worked at SFCC, UF Student Body President-elect John Boyles said the decision to use Internet voting is not an easy one - and that there are security questions to answer.
"It's done [at SFCC], but not necessarily at UF," he said.
Agreed Mr. Boyles.
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Weiss and Mierley settle into their new SG positionshttp://www.alligator.org/pt2/060328office.php
As the new gatekeepers of almost $12 million in student money, Josh Weiss and Lauren Mierley have pressing odd choice of words
Nothing too out of the ordinary here, but why mention the ProTem first? I never here Cheney and Bush did this, it's usually Bush and Cheney but maybe the writer is dyslexic or whatever, it's cool..did I spell that right? Who cares.
"As I was saying at the [Senate] orientation yesterday, I'm not going to stand for partisan politics back and forth," she says.
Well I don't know when you said it, but I wrote it in the blog a few days ago, so I'm really hopin you will do just that. Plus, from al the drinking I hear the Impact folks do, I doubt they'll be much "back and forth" politics as I'm sure the Opposition leaders will be taking swigs of listerine during session. (LMAO....p/s I find tales of public officials getting trashed non-stop at the Swamp and boasting about it on blogs to be highly unprofessional and I think those that do it, have no respect for the job or the students, that goes for all of you.....quit drinkin your dinner and get to work, cuz your elected officials not members of Motley Crue).
"It's kind of like that starting point where you have the whole world ahead of you," she says. "I know I want to go into corporate America - GE, IBM - a big-name company."
No...please no mentions of corporate giants that outsource most of their jobs overseas. :-(
The lofty goal seems tailored for Mierley, who is a National Merit Scholar, a member of the Florida Blue Key leadership honorary and a past director of marketing for Gator Growl, UF's pre-Homecoming pep rally. Still, the Delta Gamma Sorority sister willingly shares credit where deserved.
BUSTED! You mention anything corporate and the Bohemian-wannabes at the Alligator go to work. Mierley has been dubbed an FBK, Greek, and soon they will probably try to give her the Rachel Bird treatment and imply she's an airhead because she's successful and Greek, don't believe me? These folks do it every year.
POLL : Did VISA misuse student funds by inviting Malik Zulu Shabazz to speak?
(Umm...you just spent an entire article telling them he did, why ask?)
1 comment:
1). "Louis Farrakhan, and the Nation of Islam (NOI) which he heads, have a long, well-documented record of hate-filled and anti-Semitic rhetoric. Over the years, NOI ministers and representatives have regularly expressed anti-Semitic, anti-white, anti-homosexual and anti-Catholic sentiments in their speeches."
Source: http://www.tau.ac.il/Anti-Semitism/asw97-8/usa-int.html
2). "Many of those people involved with Adolph Hitler were Satanists, many of them were homosexuals--the two things seem to go together."--Pat Robertson, "The 700 Club," 1/21/93
Source: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/7027/quotes.html
3). "Buchanan frequently draws ire for his contentious anti-Semitic statements and Holocaust revisionism. In a now infamous 1977 column, he wrote: “Though Hitler was indeed racist and anti-Semitic to the core, a man who without compunction could commit murder and genocide, he was also an individual of great courage, a soldier’s soldier in the Great War, a political organizer of the first rank, a leader steeped in the history of Europe, who possessed oratorical powers that could awe even those who despised him … Hitler’s success was not based on his extraordinary gifts alone."
Source: http://www.campusprogress.org/tools/282/
Pat Buchanan has run for president, he's a somewhat popular political leader in ultra-conservative circles, tv politicos have him on all the time to hear his opinion, but the man is known to be anti-Semitic, the man is Catholic.
Louis Farrakhan is Muslim and has made his rejection of Christianity, its customs and its leaders very well known and he has been repeatedly accused of being racist and Anti-Semitic. Still, Minister Farrakhan led the Million Man March, is highly respected in the African American community (not for his personal views but for his hardwork in the community).
3). Pat Robertson is a Protestant, he doesn't seem to hate Jews (though his cohorts have made several ramakrs that could be considered Anti-Catholic, however, Mr. Robertson has made it abundantly clear that he hold homosexuals in extremely low regard, extremely low). But, Pat Bobertson is a highly respected leader in the Christian Movement and his show (The 700 Club) boasts of over 1 MILLION viewers a night!
Pat Robertson, Louis Farrakhan, and Pat Buchanan are all name mixed with some form of hatred or another, yet they are household names, and none of them would be turned down an opportunity to speak at UF. Bottom line is, racism is with us and always will be. We cannot, as AMERICANS, clamp down on free speech and turn the mic off on the people we deem to be politically incorrect.
Think about the Black police officer that has to help lead a Klan rally...imagine how much he must hate the white robed men and how he must hate having to literally defend them from angry mobs wanting to rip them ones. But THAT is what makes AMERICA,AMERICA, because that officer is indoctrinated with freedom, a freedom we don't hear too much about b/c mainly us liberals talk about how horrible things are here, when in reality they're still pretty damn good.
The same way a black police officer called to the line of duty, must protect a despicable gathering such as a Klan rally, so to must we allow and tolerate events that may or may not be agreeable with what we believe to be true, educated, civilized, and proper.
There is no doubt that the speaker VISA brought was off his rocker and an "extremist," but its free speech. And I'm furious at the Alligator for using their shitty rag to try and blow up a story, push around VISA, and become the defacto enforcers of the Alligator Act (a spin off of the Patriot Act, lol) and try to distort public attention and lead students around like herds of cattle.
The Alligator article was one-sided (never giving VISA a chance or looking at another possible point of view) and the poll was just a complete farce.
I'm just as sorry as the next guy that racism has to exist, but we live in a free society where all ideas (even the stupid ones) have to respected, that is one of the foundations of this great nation and we must strenuously defend it on every level, everyday, forever.
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