Everybody should take responsiblity
As we all know, lately there has been a noticeable increase of hate signs on our campus. From your own headlines which read, “Pride Network fight intolerance,” “Personalized hate,” “I got my pride ? no one can take it away,” to educational articles about the Chinese New Year and the Pan African Expo, it is undeniable that diversity-related issues are a hot topic for Campus Times.
However, while trying to righteously bring attention to these important and often overseen subjects, Campus Times has made a grave error, causing it to lose validity in the eyes of myself and many other students. In the Feb. 21 issue, your comic page featured a despicable display of ignorance and hypocrisy. By including the words “be like kike,” the whole nature of the already not-so-funny cartoon took on a whole new feeling.
Defined in Webster’s dictionary as “offensive slang used as a disparaging term for a Jew” and utilized by the Nazis as an aid in their mass murder of Jews during the Holocaust, the word “kike” is never acceptable, especially when trying to add levity to a cartoon.
Furthermore, as advertised by our campus senate, there was recently anti-Semitic vandalizing on campus that featured a swastika and the letters “KKK.” Either of these two blatant hate-laden symbols could be replaced by the word kike and the same amount of negative and offensive emotions would be conjured up.
I find it deplorable and disappointing that the editor of this newspaper let such a heated word stand, particularly during this current wave of hate on our campus. I am embarrassed for our school and feel that the half attempt of a retraction in this most recent issue is yet a further display of the lack of awareness of how much words can hurt.
We all want our campus to be free of hate and therefore we all need to consciously watch our actions and apologize when we offend others. This includes the Campus Times.
? Allison Grodin Class of 2004
Remember he is Jewish
Todd Hildebrandt’s editorial on the murder of Daniel Pearl, like many circulating in the national media, ignored one of the most basic issues of the case. It overlooked the simple fact that according to Pearl’s own killers, he was murdered because he was a Jew.
At least one of his kidnappers has already admitted that he and his colleagues were looking for a Jewish victim. Fahad Naseem, a suspect in the case, was reported as saying “[We took him because] he was anti-Islam and a Jew” (Washington Post 2/26/02).
Mr. Naseem is mistaken on one of these points, as Pearl was certainly not anti-Islam. In fact, he has been portrayed as rather sympathetic to Muslim concerns and was lauded for his evenhanded reporting. Pearl was, however, Jewish.
To many who have been following events in the Middle East, the fact that Pearl’s murder was fueled by anti-Semitism will hardly come as a surprise.
The media in the Islamic world’s many dictatorships, though unable to criticize their own governments, are more than willing to fill their pages with anti-Semitic caricatures.
Throughout the region, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 were blamed on either Jews or Zionists. Egypt’s most prominant newspaper, al-Ahram, flat-out said the attack was the work of “the Jews and the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad.”
Other newspapers have reported that no Jews went to work that day, that Jews were seen cheering the collapse of the World Trade Center, and numerous other lies. Nor does the outrageous litany of hatred end there. In December, the Saudi newspaper al-Watan ran a two-part series entitled “The Jewish Sense of Superiority in the World.”
Among its revelations were the secret plans of the Jews to ? what else ? “take over the world.” Given the daily and continuous exposure to articles that would make the Nazis proud, it is not surprising that Pearl’s killers used his Jewishness as justification for their murder.
Nor does Hildebrandt’s article suggest any sort of response to this heinous act. The United States must send a message that it will tolerate attacks on its journalists no more than on its financial institutions. This means that we must take action against the group that kidnapped Daniel Pearl. The evildoers (and despite the now-fashionable mockery of President Bush for his overuse of that term, that is exactly what they are), must be brought to justice quickly if possible, or swiftly and efficiently liquidated if it is not.
? Brian Gottesman Class of 2000
