Incendiary insults do not support arguments
John Klein
freshman
This is in response to John Litle's Oct. 4 column, "Where's the Class?" Let me start off by wholeheartedly agreeing with him: That horrendous column was as low-class as the so-called low-class activities of certain persons and groups mentioned on campus. But setting aside the outrageous and ridiculous views asserted throughout the article, the immature and low-brow statements made to those groups and persons were not only low-class, but pointless. Explain to me for one second what that accomplishes beyond getting one avid reader fired up, and I'll be there to listen.
Now, I won't go so far as to insult Mr. Litle by saying that he himself exemplifies everything that he complains about, but only for a simple and specific reason: Change is not brought about by insult and degradation.
Even if the Stadium ushers were the insensitive, authoritarian Gestapo police that Mr. Litle depicts them as, it does no good whatsoever to call them "power-tripping, rent-a-cop wannabes," and if he wishes to go so far as to say that he feels "abject hatred" towards stadium ushers, I think a slight change in priorities and a visit to a ResLife counselor might be a more appropriate course of action for him.
Even if not allowing students to tailgate before games on campus could be called low-class, it does no good whatsoever to say that Father Poorman "strives for low-class excellence" and does his best to be "offensively demeaning" towards the student body with his policies.
Even if the NDSP was disrespectful to every single ticketed and non-ticketed person this past Sept. 11 (and mind you, I don't support this any more than the next person), it does no good whatsoever to say that they are the prime members of a group that exhibits the "lack of common human courtesy that we endure every day."
Are these actions low-class? Possibly. But writing these words in a newspaper simply to get a rise out of the people reading or to get attention without regard for respect or courtesy to the readers or the people affected and denounced, and seemingly without the slightest degree of thought put into the criticisms is the true definition of low-class.
Maybe I am nothing more than a happy-go-lucky, optimistic freshman. Maybe I have no idea what sort of unbearable torture it must be to wait a whole 10 minutes in line to get into the student section yet. Maybe I haven't experienced first-hand the terrible, evil injustice of a parking ticket or a tailgating citation. Heck, maybe I'm not accomplishing any more than Mr. Litle will, in the end, by writing this response.
But if nothing else, I will learn, experience and accomplish it with far more class.
John Klein
freshman
Dillon Hall
Oct. 4
All Viewpoint Stories for Monday, October 7, 2002
