OPINION & EDITORIAL
Letters to the Editor: May 3, 2002
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Friday, May 3, 2002
James P. Kent’s Thursday column, “The Death of Humor,” could not have been more wrong. Since this terrible scandal hit the church, the majority of newspapers in the country, run by anti-Catholic liberals, have been publishing comics similar to the one by Adam Rust mocking Catholic priests.
The crisis in the church is serious and should not be taken lightly. Mocking priests, who we Catholics believe represent Christ on Earth, ranking even higher than the angels in heaven, is not remotely funny. Humor should have its place in lightening up certain situations, but this is not one of them.
Furthermore, The Badger Herald should cease worshiping the license of the press. I am not trying to defend the actions taken by individual priests. One saint, in fact, said the lowest places in hell are reserved for corrupt priests. Nor do I advocate political correctness, which is so prevalent in our society.
But while the Herald is certainly not alone in its perverse sense of humor regarding immoral priests and has the constitutional right to print these comics, it is disappointing to see them justify publishing material like Rust’s comic under the protection of the First Amendment. The Herald, and all other major newspapers, should be more tactful about what they publish.
Anthony Carver, UW sophomore
On May 2, the Badger Herald ran a full-page advertisement paid for by the UW Alumni For Life. This anti-choice organization opposes embryonic stem-cell research in Madison. The Herald advertisement calls the important biomedical work “killing people” and compares UW to a concentration camp. As a Herald reader and UW student, this is not an organization I want represented in my student newspaper. I support biotech advancements at UW, and I don’t appreciate the publication of this anti-choice propaganda.
Rachel Abbott, UW sophomore
As an art educator, I encourage children’s creative expression. However, I understand I am partly responsible for the way in which I initiate and frame this expression. Art education is a means of developing a child’s creativity, critical thinking and confidence. Encouraging a child to create and then displaying a child’s creation is all done for the benefit of the child, never the adult.
While the intent behind Al-Awda’s art exhibit at Espresso Royale Café featuring work by Palestinian children may be to demonstrate to the Madison community the horrors envisioned by children living in the occupied territories, the context in which these images are framed deflects the purpose of asking these children to create. Hanging on the walls of an American chain coffee shop, these images are presented like photos in the media, asking the viewer to assume the supposed truth these drawings convey. While it is important to represent to the Madison community the injustices experienced by children living in the Middle East, specifically when there is peaceful intent, this should not be done at the expense of a child’s creativity or in the vain of representing a sort of “reality” of the situation.
Hanging the work in a coffee shop in middle America is not asking the viewer to be critical of what is being represented and how it fits into a larger context of the Middle East conflict. Instead, the work hangs like wall décor; invariably satisfying a viewer by its rather amateur representation of the wrongdoings committed by the Israeli Defense Force, inciting a viewer to be offended by the anti-Israeli, anti-Semitic sentiment of some of the pieces, or confusing the viewer in the displacement and misrepresentation of the children’s art. I, for one, as an artist, an art educator and a Jew, am offended and confused by the café’s current display.
Julie Weitz, UW graduate student
I have been attending this fine university for four semi-productive years. Now that I am in the home stretch of my college career, I have realized one thing: Student government is completely pointless. For your political-science-major types, I’m sure being on ASM is an excellent career-builder, but for the general population of this university, it offers very little.
The reason I bring it up now is after reading the stupid argument over seg fees in the Badger Herald Feedback Thursday by a few people who think what they are talking about matters. It doesn’t. I don’t care what happens to my seg fees.
People should pick an issue that matters, not whether WisPIRG or the Multicultural Student Center get a buck and a half of my seg fees. Only like 10 percent of the student population cares enough to vote, and most of those vote only because they know someone running. The student government should be done away with, or at least have any responsibility taken from it.
Eric Berg, UW senior
Congratulations on defending Adam Rust’s cartoon. It’s nice to see The Badger Herald continue its long tradition of being Rust’s chief apologist.
Rust has proven, on numerous occasions, that he is humorless and must resort to shocking an audience to get any attention whatsoever (recall last year’s cartoon about KKK members). As a practicing Catholic, I was horrified by the comic’s message. To attack an entire population of priests based on the actions of a few disturbed individuals is irresponsible.
In this university, journalistic integrity is nearly dead. Both papers are equally guilty of failing to deliver the students fair and truthful news. Rather, they resort to cowardly activities normally reserved for the likes of Bill O’Reilly and Rush Limbaugh. Solutions to such problems as the Catholic Church’s pedophilia scandal lie in open discussion.
Hopefully, the Herald can create a true campus forum where ideas can be intelligently discussed and turn away from the gutless tabloid it has become. As for Rust, I personally invite him to attend a Catholic mass with me so he may get a sense of what the priesthood and Catholicism truly are.
Brodie Marthaler, UW sophomore
