‘Lack of definition leads to unclear message’
To the editor:I’m surprised that the Clarion’s editors didn’t edit Mr. Rutan’s recent op-ed, “Voter’s Need to Hold Officials Accountable, 4/22/03” for his glaring grammatical and logical errors. But I’m more stunned that the editorial board felt it necessary to publish such incoherent and unsupported bullet point tripe about the Bush administration and the recent war with Iraq. Rutan uses controversial and difficult concepts such as “the Bush doctrine,” nuclear proliferation, restricting liberties and pillaging social programs while painstakingly avoiding arguing or defining any topic that he penned. Instead, the author decided to write everything that was on his mind. The Clarion’s readers were left responsible to make sense of Rutan’s disjointed rambling.
I’m not saying that Rutan’s issues aren’t worth discussion; they are. But are we to think that nuclear proliferation, increased terrorism, an emerging “Bush Doctrine,” an obscure domestic agenda, and the destruction of WMDs are all worth less than a combined 500 words or Rutan’s one sentence paragraphs? One topic, if properly researched and argued, might have had enough substance for a well supported editorial. Maybe the editor could have done some proactive work by helping the writer focus on a single subject. Alas, the published product reflected poorly upon the writer and even more poorly on the newspaper willing to publish such nonsense.
I will take issue with one detail that Rutan failed to mention in his editorial: that nothing positive has come from the recent war with Iraq. I’m not trying to condone President Bush’s actions. Rather, I’m writing about the reaction of the Iraqi people to their liberation from the hands of a Stalinist tyrant. For the first time in decades, the Iraqi people have self-determination and the most basic human freedoms: the freedom of religion and the authority to create a government based on their traditions and customs. The pictures of Hussein’s statues crumbling, the Shiite worshipers making the pilgrimage to Karbala, and the meetings of different Iraqi factions in the effort to create a government, by and for the people, are beautiful indeed. We may not all agree on “just war,” but I do believe we can agree that we hope for the best for the future of the Iraqi people.
Ultimately, the administration’s ability to secure a bright future for a post war Iraqi people will be a determining factor of how we, as Americans, hold our officials accountable.
-Asher Knight Class of 2001
