Newspapers / The Guilfordian (Greensboro, N.C.) / Feb. 11, 1994, edition 1 / Page 5
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Jfebuarp X 11994 Voice of Reason S. Scott Spagnola Staff Writer Two weeks ago, a furor was raised on the campus of UNCG over a letter that was printed in the school newspaper, The Carolinian. The controversial letter was highly critical of Martin Luther King, Jr., and essentially denounced the de cision to make Dr. King's birthday a holiday. Shortly after the publication of the letter, the alleged author, Brian Nance, received threats over the phone. The numerous threats be came so troubling that the fresh man student had to be moved off campus for his own safety. As events became clearer, it was discovered that Nance was not the author at all. In essence, there was a Lisa Davis element to the whole thing. Someone had submitted the highly critical letter and signed Brian Nance's name to it. For sev eral days, the tension on the cam pus of UNCG was rather tense, and The Carolinian rushed to put out disclaimers on the letter. Campus security went into high gear to find the real author, who was discov ered to be an old nemesis of Nance's. Case closed. Or is it? There is one disturbing element about the entire episode that has gone essentially unquestioned. Greensboro News & Record col umnist David Deßuisson brought the matter to light in his Sunday column: suppose Nance had writ ten the letter. The university's re sponse to the threats against him went virtually unnoticed. Why wasn't there an uproar against the threats against Nance? Why hasn't the university con ducted an investigation into the source of the threats against Nance? It is a question of that old double Cbc #utlfortitan Editor-in-Chief. JoanMalloch Associate Editor. Karen Rowan Adviser. Jeff Jeske Writing Editor. Justin Cohen News Editor. Gail Kasun Perspectives Editor. j\shley Clifton Features Editor. Joe Wallace Sports Editor. JCiley Holder Copy Editing. Kinsey Gimbel Layout Caroline A. Wolfe Circulation Robert Withers Subscriptions Reagan Hopkins Advertising. Brian Lane Business Rich Ewell Photography. Rob Davidson, Daphne Lewis i Spagnola standard of political correctness. Because the views expressed in the letter were unpopular, there seems to have been an element of justifi cation for the threats against Nance. The message is clear: it's okay to speak your mind, as long as what you say is politically cor rect To date, the real author of the letter is rightfully being punished for his acts, but those who issued threats against Nance for suppos edly expressing an unpopular viewpoint remain untouched. This demonstrates once again the hy pocrisy of the Left. The only pro tected form of speech is liberal speech, or so it seems. In defense of the Left, or at least the Guilford Left, I will say that Guilford College is extremely fair in allowing voices of dissent to express their opinions. Next to UNC-Chapel Hill, Guilford is the most Left-leaning school in North Carolina, and the respect for dis senting viewpoints is evidenced by the existence of this column. Recently, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakahn spoke at the mod erately conservative campus of Wake Forest University. Universi ties across the United States spon sor speakers such as Farrakahn. His presence at Wake Forest pro vides an interesting contrast to the UNCG case. Farrakahn has re sergpectiteg cently been in the news because of the anti-Semitic comments of his top deputy. Farrakahn himself is well known for his anti-white, anti-Jew statements. He is a black racist. It seems that it is okay for Farrakahn to make openly racist comment and escape criticism, but when anti-King remarks are made, suddenly there are threats of bodily harm that are essentially ignored. The anti-King remarks in the "Nance" letter were not racist, but instead were misguided criticism of the late civil-rights leader. For the record, I do not support those criticisms of Dr. King. Imagine the uproar that would occur if UNCG or Wake Forest invited white rac ist David Duke to speak on cam pus. There would be protest after protest. Even the arrival of Jesse Helms would be enough to stir much tension, although Helms has never made a racist comment. This is the most disturbing trend of the political correctness double standard. When racists like Farrakahn speak, people are ex pected to "understand" his mes sage. When racists like Duke speak, people are expected to be outraged. Never mind the fact that both men preach words of hate, and are counterproductive and de structive to better race relations. One thing that cannot be ignored is King's message. I don't think that King would approve of Min ister Farrakahn's divisive rhetoric, nor would he approve of the per secution of dissenters. After all, King himself was a dissenter. When society excuses certain forms of bigoted speech, but per secutes others, a climate of resent ment and mistrust is created. Farrakahn has the right to preach his message without recourse, so too should those who dissent from the typical liberal orthodoxy. Ctittorlal Opinions expressed in editorials and letters to the editor do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff and editorial board. The editors reserve the right to edit all submissions for length, style, and taste. ismtmristeions The Guilfordian encourages submissions. Typed articles and letters are due by 6:00 PM., Monday. Letters are limited to 250 words or less and must include author's name, phone number and P.O. Box. Write to: Editor P.O. Box 17717 Guilford College, Greensboro, NC, 27410. Letters to the Editor... CHALLENGE ACCEPTED To the editor, but not really... In reference to Eric Parisi's let ter of last week, in which he ac cused me of ducking his challenge to debate, let me clear up matters for the record. First, I did receive a letter from Mr. Parisi in my mail slot in De cember. Since I do not live on cam pus, I rarely check my mailbox. The reasons for my failure to re spond are as follows: (1) As stated above, I rarely check my mail slot. By the time I got Mr. Parisi's let ter, it was in the midst of exams with only two days left in the se mester. Contacting Mr. Parisi would not be feasible. (2) Mr. Parisi never gave any specific is sues or issues that he wanted to debate. (3) Mr. Parisi never sug gested any forum or guidelines for a debate. These are the reasons that I never accepted his challenge. Just in case anyone thinks that these are lame excuses, let me give you a couple of points to ponder refut ing Mr. Parisi's claim that I might not be "brave" enough or lack the courage of my convictions to de bate him. In high school, I debated policy at competition tournaments across the United States. I was ranked among the top debaters in North Carolina my senior year, and I placed second in the National Forensics institute Policy Debate Tournament at American Univer sity in 1987. Furthermore, I have many liberal friends across the state of North Carolina that are involved in the North Carolina Student Legislature (an organiza- ~tatf Chris Behm Katherine Beldner Naomi Blass Will Brown Jason Caplain Bob Clegg Will Cooper Laura Daum Damian Deßallo Mignon Ezzell Mike Francis Courtney Frankhouser Staff meetings are held weekly in the Passion Pit, second floor, Founders Hall, Monday evenings at 8 o'clock. All are welcome. Cfte (gutltorbian tion I encourage every Guilford student to join); that would cer tainly disagree with the premise that I lack the courage to debate anyone. I don't say this to blow my own horn, but instead I write this to make it perfectly clear that I am not ducking Mr. Parisi or anyone else. I welcome his invitation if a forum can be established. I invite Guilforum, WQFS, the Student Union or anyone else to contact me and Mr. Parisi to sponsor such an event. All I ask is that Mr. Parisi come forth with the issues he wants to debate. It's all in his hands. Everyone knows where I stand, and I welcome the opportu nity to discredit whatever Left wing theory he wishes to defend. Furthermore, I am more than will ing to explain and defend any po sition that I have taken on any is sue. There is one final remark that I must make concerning Mr. Parisi's letter. He quoted me as challeng ing "some brave fool" to a debate. I did not make such a statement. What I did say was "some brave soul." I am not surprised by this revision of what I really said. Af ter all, the Left has been trying to rewrite the Reagan years; why should I be immune from similar distortion of the facts? It is typical of the Left to try and paint conser vatives in a bad light, (in this ex ample, condescending), but the truth is right there on page four of the Dec. 3 issue of The Guilford ian. I'm sure much of the inferences See LETTERS page 7 Nat Gray Kim Griffin Steven Grimes Chris Hosford Catherine Jernigan Brooke Plotnick Christian Scanniello Jon Simon Rachel Salzberg S. Scott Spagnola Louisa Spaventa 5
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