2008 Woodie Awards
Letter to the Editor
Issue date: 3/22/06 Section: Letters to the Editor
Dear Editor,
"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act". This is the quote that came to mind reading your piece about Jay Bennish. But I understand why such comparisons of Bush to Hitler raise such ire on the right. Put simply, the truth hurts. And perhaps that is why you omitted from your piece the fact that he stated during this lecture: "I'm not in anyway implying that you should agree with me, I don't even know if I'm necessarily taking a position. But what I'm trying to get you to do is to think about these issues more in depth and not to just take things from the surface".
If this instructor was so very off base stating his opinion, and his concerns so outlandish, could you please articulate for me the difference between the Fuehrerprinzip and Unitary Executive?
And if a teacher is forbidden from expressing his/her own opinion in the classroom, what is the point of having teachers at all? Robots are a ways off yet, but certainly we could come up with standard lectures for all subjects, record them once, and simply play them to every class. Oh, think of all the money (and potentially challenging thought and discussion) we could save! Conservatives would never need to worry about being challenged (gasp!) by opinions other than their own. Ignorance could once again be bliss.
--Michael Cullinane
"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act". This is the quote that came to mind reading your piece about Jay Bennish. But I understand why such comparisons of Bush to Hitler raise such ire on the right. Put simply, the truth hurts. And perhaps that is why you omitted from your piece the fact that he stated during this lecture: "I'm not in anyway implying that you should agree with me, I don't even know if I'm necessarily taking a position. But what I'm trying to get you to do is to think about these issues more in depth and not to just take things from the surface".
If this instructor was so very off base stating his opinion, and his concerns so outlandish, could you please articulate for me the difference between the Fuehrerprinzip and Unitary Executive?
And if a teacher is forbidden from expressing his/her own opinion in the classroom, what is the point of having teachers at all? Robots are a ways off yet, but certainly we could come up with standard lectures for all subjects, record them once, and simply play them to every class. Oh, think of all the money (and potentially challenging thought and discussion) we could save! Conservatives would never need to worry about being challenged (gasp!) by opinions other than their own. Ignorance could once again be bliss.
--Michael Cullinane