Category: Opinion

By JOHN ETCHEMENDY

HARVARD�S and Princeton�s recent announcements that they will soon end the early admission programs they now use to choose part of their freshman classes have garnered a great deal of attention, including editorials urging other institutions to follow their lead. It is a shame that the publicity, so abundant in its praise, has been so short on facts and clearheaded analysis.

In the past 10 years though, my father, who has always been politically conservative, has not only become more so but also more outspoken.

At the same time, I spent four great years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a fifth studying abroad. The people I met in Madison, the intellectual environment and my time abroad rapidly turned me into a sponge for new ideas, values and the nuances of culture. I gradually became more liberal on most issues.

Slowly, conversations with my dad heated up. We rarely argue, but he often e-mails me conservative columns raking Democrats and the mainstream media across the coals. When I get inspired, I reply with my own thoughts or the counterarguments of national columnists I respect and agree with.

Column by Walter Dickey.

Among the most important questions in post-Sept. 11 America is how to draw the balance among civil liberty, the rule of law, and national security.
An appropriate balance must take both the Bill of Rights and the danger to national security seriously.

But rather than thinking seriously about the tradeoffs at stake, the political class in America has too often resorted to a form of “gotcha” politics, with forces on each side of the aisle accusing the other side of indifference to either security or liberty, and leaving it at that.

As it competes in the sweepstakes for America�s most promising high school seniors, the University of Wisconsin knows it cannot be content to merely offer world-class professors and a humbling catalogue of fascinating courses.

While Madison’s plan for Halloween identifies the reduction in dangerous levels of intoxication as a goal for 2006, noticeably absent are any specific strategies. There were 468 arrests last year, including 206 for underage possession of alcohol. Detox was filled to capacity, with hospitals admitting the overflow. Police officers were taunted, had objects thrown at them and police horses were slapped.

Madison, Wis. – Enterprising candidates can score easy points with state voters this fall by reminding them that the University of Wisconsin hires conspiracy theorists as lecturers, pays accused administrators to do nothing, and squanders millions of dollars on computer systems that don’t work.

TO end her opinion in American Civil Liberties Union v. National Security Agency ââ?¬â? the case that enjoins President Bushââ?¬â?¢s warrantless surveillance program ââ?¬â? Judge Anna Diggs Taylor quoted Earl Warren (referring to him as ââ?¬Å?Justice Warren,ââ?¬Â not ââ?¬Å?Chief Justice Warren,ââ?¬Â as if she wanted to spotlight her carelessness): ââ?¬Å?It would indeed be ironic if, in the name of national defense, we would sanction the subversion of … those liberties … which makes the defense of the nation worthwhile.ââ?¬Â

They still are not identifying themselves, but the “Dane County Danes,” who hoisted their country’s flag over Bascom Hall for five days last week, are willing to tell how and why they did it. In an e-mail from “Danmark Bascom” they responded to my query:

“The flag is there for three reasons,” write the Danes. First, they say, is “solidarity and friendship with the United States.” Second, to “honor the Scandinavian heritage in Wisconsin.” And third, they say that back in 1957, Norwegian students raised their flag on Bascom Hall “while singing the Norwegian national anthem.”

We are all aware of the controversy surrounding University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Kevin Barrett�s interpretation of 9/11 and other activities that he claims the Bush administration was purported to have been involved in.

The Danes no longer control the UW-Madison campus, but it was a good run while it lasted. Last Thursday morning the flag of Denmark was flying on the pole high above Bascom Hall, underneath the U.S. and Wisconsin flags. Campus facilities workers couldn’t get it down until Monday.

The flag was rigged with heavy-gauge plastic ties to the pole, and not the flag rope, making it tough to remove. A group calling itself, “The Dane County Danes” has taken credit for the prank. According to Physical Plant director John Harrod, written on the flag was: “In remembrance of our Norwegian cousins in Madison on 17 of May 1957 and to show our support for our American friends.”

Harrod says they had to create a long pole rigged with a cutter to remove the flag.

“Our Danish friends are certainly enterprising,” concedes UW Communications’ Dennis Chaptman. “However, we would have preferred if they would have brought a kringle instead.”

A University of Wisconsin-Madison teacher made headlines recently for stating his belief that the U.S. government, Dick Cheney in particular, masterminded the terrorist attacks of 9-11.

Maybe Im just overeducated, being able to read both Sports Illustrated for Kids and the back of a cereal box and all. But it just cant be true that more than a third of the country believes in both ET and Kevin Barrett.

Provost Patrick Farrell writes that a recent Journal Sentinel article did an admirable job of exploring the complex topic of how the University of Wisconsin-Madison manages admissions and enrollment in order to provide a high-quality educational experience for undergraduate students.

However, the article may have left a misimpression that the university seeks to accommodate less-qualified students from elsewhere in the country at the expense of Wisconsin residents. This is not the case.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=482163
Arecent Journal Sentinel article did an admirable job of exploring the complex topic of how the University of Wisconsin-Madison manages admissions and enrollment in order to provide a high-quality educational experience for undergraduate students (“More students, fewer spaces,” July 23).

If you harbored a crackpot conspiracy theory about … let’s say, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks … but pretty much kept it outside your workplace, your employer wouldn’t have much to say about it.

But if you used your job as a soapbox and even went so far as to subject your employer to shame, ridicule and financial repercussions, you might expect to be disciplined. At least, that’s how it goes in most of the world.

Not so at the UW-Madison, where lecturer Kevin Barrett has been pushing his luck like there’s no tomorrow. Barrett is the part-time teacher who uses his course on Islam to spout his theory that the U.S. government orchestrated the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that left 3,000 dead, damaged the Pentagon and destroyed the World Trade Center. A column by Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council.

At least state Rep. Steve Nass can shoot straight.
The Ozaukee County Board just shot itself in the foot. And now it’s encouraging every other Wisconsin county to do the same.

Ozaukee County supervisors voted 18-11 last week to cut $8,427 out of its budget for university services.

Op-ed column by UW-Madison sociology professor Joe Elder notes that it took half a century to achieve the fragile peace between Israel and Lebanon that preceded the recent outburst of extraordinary violence and asks: Is the U.S. really insisting on another half-century of tragedy before calling for a ceasefire?

Chancellor’s speedy recovery

UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley was spotted in a coffee shop without crutches or a cane the day after his knee surgery last week, joking that his goal had been to best the knee recovery record of athletic director Barry Alvarez.

Asked about his surgery, Wiley admits the two can’t fairly be compared. His was outpatient via orthoscope for a torn meniscus, not the knee replacement Alvarez necessitated in 1999. But he says Alvarez’s high-profile recovery spurred him on.

“When people told me it would take weeks to recover, I joked that Barry was walking almost immediately, and I intended to do the same. As it happened, my ‘prediction’ was true, but I doubt I have ever beaten any of his injury/recovery records!”

The best news is that Wiley says his knee “is now much better than it has felt in months.”

Consider Downtown Madison. Within blocks of one another are the city police department, the county sheriff’s office, the Capitol police and UW-Madison police. There’s a Secret Service office, U.S. marshals, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and, over on the West Side, the FBI. In addition, Madison’s many surrounding towns and suburbs have forces of their own.

If you drive down the Beltline, you never know which police agency might pull you over.

Mayor Dave Cieslewicz wants to send the rowdiness of Madison’s Halloween celebration to the graveyard.
To inhibit rioting, reveling and other incendiary forms of drunkenness this October, the mayor will gate and charge a $5 entry fee to State Street.

Opponents of the plan say that charging and restricting entry to public property challenges the right to assembly. They also claimed it prices individuals out of the celebration.

Columnist Steve Chapman says that even at private colleges, alumni, donors and other interested parties are inclined to question the value of academic freedom when it leads to lunacy.

The tension erupted into open hostilities recently at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which discovered that one of its instructors has an unorthodox view of recent history. Kevin Barrett, who teaches a course on Islam, thinks the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, were “an inside job” masterminded by the Bush administration to justify U.S. aggression in the Middle East.

I’d like to think that we have survived an endless stream of theories in the classroom – from President Franklin D. Roosevelt allowing Pearl Harbor to be attacked (Ã?¡ la 9-11) to the fact-light, race and ethnicity lectures that do little to offset bias and segregation nationwide as vocalized recently by President Bush at the NAACP convention.

What seems to be of greater concern is the accepted practice of talking about issues as if there are only two sides: One is right and the other is selling a pack of lies.

Fortunately for Kevin Barrett, UW-Madison apparently discovered that he is a fair teacher and does not indoctrinate his students. But, unfortunately, the administration’s response since then has been remarkably tone deaf.

If the university does not reverse course – which it can, easily – the present melee will continue to escalate and, even worse, occur again.

We sincerely hope this is the last editorial we have to do on UW lecturer Kevin Barrett, his beliefs on the incidents of September 11th and his qualifications to teach at the University of Wisconsin. This should be a done deal already.

Mayor Dave Cieslewicz must have had a late night visit from the ghost of Halloween past.
How else to explain his sudden about face?

For the last few years, he’s been Mayor Ebenezer Scrooge, shouting “Bah, humbug!” to Halloween and warning visitors to stay away – far, far away – from State Street.

KEVIN BARRETT, a lecturer at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, has now taken his place alongside Ward Churchill of the University of Colorado as a college teacher whose views on 9/11 have led politicians and ordinary citizens to demand that he be fired.

As a member of the UW Board of Regents, I have received e-mails and phone messages protesting the university’s decision to allow lecturer Kevin Barrett to teach a course on Islam culture and religion, given his views on the Sept. 11 tragedy.