[Vision2020] Good Old Climate

[Carl Westberg]

I sincerely hope the people responsible for the vandalism are apprehended 
and punished accordingly.   However, unless you have proof (and maybe you 
do) regarding who the perpetrators are, I think assigning blame to 
University of Idaho students is, in itself, unfair and judgmental.           
                                                                             
                                                                             
                                                                             
                          Carl Westberg Jr.


>From: Nate Wilson <natewilson@moscow.com>
>To: vision2020@moscow.com
>Subject: [Vision2020] Good Old Climate
>Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2004 12:05:36 -0800
>
>Dear People with Perfect Vision,
>Farewell. I have been lingering on this list for only one reason. So that, 
>at the end of the Christmas season, I might give you a final tally of 
>vandalism at New St. Andrews College. In my capacity as freshman Rhetoric 
>instructor (a position for which Dr. Gier finds me wildly inadequate) I 
>volunteered to become the official Christmas light fellow (a position for 
>which even Dr. Gier must admit I have superb academic qualifications). The 
>first instance of vandalism occured only two and a half hours after the 
>first lights had been hung, and before completion. Approximately three 
>weeks later the lights have been vandalized more than ten times with 
>between seventy and eighty strands of lights damaged, destroyed, or stolen 
>(a graph Mr. Courtney, please). Throughout the season damaged strands were 
>repaired, or replaced only to be once again vandalized.
>    Now before everyone piles on in unanimous condemnation of such actions, 
>I would like to come to the defense of the vandals. Apparently, they have 
>the courage of their convictions. Some people have enough guts to type a 
>snippy missive to this forum. Others have the courage to pay two dollars to 
>add their names to a list of people who don't like us. But the particular 
>war party that cracked their knuckles and got to work on the NSA Christmas 
>lights last night had enough courage of their convictions to actually risk 
>a felony vandal charge. Of course some people, who are always able to grasp 
>the main point at hand, will now object to my usage of the insensitive 
>phrase 'war party' but back to the issue at hand. I admire people who, when 
>they say 'Not in Our Town', really mean it. People who want to do what they 
>can to make us miserable here. People who are actually willing to admit 
>that they think it illiberal for anyone to let us have Christmas lights.
>    Of course the fracas of the last few months has had more than a few 
>ironies. Tolerance and diversity gurus have successfully created a climate 
>in which UI students feel free to vandalize the property of Christians. In 
>fact I'm curious if there have actually been any businesses downtown, 
>beyond "Christ Church Affiliates" that have been vandalized in the last few 
>months. In normal circumstances I would suspect such acts of kindness to be 
>more truly random. But lately, vandals have seemed more discriminating in 
>their tastes: multi racial businesses and a Christian college. At this 
>point I would like to invite Mr. Fox to insinuate that I tore down our own 
>Christmas lights in an attempt to grab some attention. After all, I have 
>Jewish blood, and we do that sort of thing. I would like to invite Andreas 
>to wink, wink, nudge, nudge, insuate something about anti-semitism and 
>Christ Church. If Wossname Graden would like to bring up the fact that we 
>will most likely be contributing to the murder of homosexuals, now would be 
>the time. Mr. London, I think asking the City Council to make it officially 
>open season on Christ Church members is an excellent idea with historic 
>precedent in any number of foreign countries throughout the last century.
>    But perhaps the greatest irony of all (even more ironic than Raul 
>Sanchez and people on this list using the words, tolerance, diversity, 
>theocracy, or research) came when members of the GSA explained, in informal 
>conversation, that Dean and Toni Helleckson, part owners of  Bucer's 
>Coffeehouse, were actually bigoted racists because they adopted Haitian 
>children. You see, they were saying that life in white American culture is 
>superior to life in black Haitian orphanage culture. And then they imposed 
>that view on helpless children.
>    That's what we've come to. Ideas grip. A climate of hatred is created. 
>Lights torn down, multi-racial businesses vandalized, official unpopularity 
>lists, and we're told that we're the threat. People are scared. We're 
>dangerous. You ought to have us put-down because we might bite the mailman.
>    To finally wrap things up, I'm glad we bring meaning and purpose to 
>your lives. That's what we're here for. Cheers.
>
>NDW

_________________________________________________________________
Scope out the new MSN Plus Internet Software — optimizes dial-up to the max! 
   http://join.msn.com/?pgmarket=en-us&page=byoa/plus&ST=1