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Letters to the editor concerning speaker Santorum

Letter to the editor

Published: Sunday, February 15, 2009

Updated: Monday, February 16, 2009 21:02

Santorum has right to speak despite diversity views
Just a few short months after the University of Nebraska-Lincoln withdrew the invitation to professor and education expert William Ayers, former Sen. Rick Santorum will speak at UNL on Feb. 17.

Santorum is well-known for blaming the Catholic priest sexual abuse scandal on "liberals," for calling out the impoverished victims of Hurricane Katrina who didn't leave their homes, for his certainty about the existence of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and for equating homosexuality with bestiality, incest and polygamy.

As defenders of academic freedom, we support Santorum's right to speak, even though we find his views on diversity to be contrary to the inclusive intellectual community we aspire to achieve at UNL. In fact, we welcome the opportunity to debate with him. We only wish those who opposed Professor Ayers had had the same opportunity.

If political organizations such as the Intercollegiate Studies Institute and the Lancaster County Republican Party can bring a notorious politician like Santorum to campus to air his views, surely academics should have been able to bring renowned education expert Ayers to discuss research methodologies.

Aimee Allard
Bob Belli
Robert Brooke
Stephen Buhler
Tamy Burnett
Josh Call
Joy Castro
Janel Cayer
John Chavez
Lyndie Christensen
Frances Condon
Emily Danforth
francis davis
Barbara DiBernard
Alison Friedow
Krista Ferguson
Chris Gallagher
Maura Giles-Watson
June Griffin
Lenora Hanson
Melissa homestead
Aaron Hillyer
Maureen Honey
Sarah Huppert
Jeannette Eileen Jones
Mike Kelly
Greg Kuzma
Kathleen Lacey
Amber Harris Leichner
Susan Martens-Baker
Vicki Martin
James McShane
Deborah Minter
Amelia M.L. Montes
Ruth Nisse
Paul Olson
Anchalee Panigabutra-Roberts
Megan Peabody
Kenneth Price
Stephen Ramsay
Joy Ritchie
Gregory Rutledge
Julia Schleck
John Schulz
Alex Stamm
Shari Stenberg
Mary K. Stillwell
Sandra Tarabochia
Grant Tietjen

Santorum's views should not support limiting of constitutional rights
The Committee on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Concerns at UNL supports academic freedom. We believe that respectable and open debate on social and political issues supports the university's mission to enhance the "diversity of ideas and people" and engage with "academic, business and civic communities throughout Nebraska and the world." Historically, individuals who dissented with Mr. Santorum's views have been ejected from his events (for example, in Delaware in 2005; the ACLU won damages for the dissenters in 2007).

Bringing someone to campus that holds views that are inconsistent with many professional stances (Psychology, Psychiatry, Medical) like Mr. Santorum's, are inconsistent with some of the rights guaranteed by the constitution and UNL's nondiscrimination policy. He is not being brought in by a faculty group for academic discussion; he is being brought in by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute to discuss "who our true enemies are." One of Mr. Santorum's claims is that the moral relativism of "leftists'" was responsible for the Catholic sex abuse scandals.

We support Mr. Santorum's right to his viewpoints. We disagree, however, that his views be used to support limiting rights guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution, such as the right to equal protection under the law and the right to privacy. We believe our human and civil rights are guaranteed by the Constitution and should not be determined by popular vote. We are disappointed that there has been little attention paid to the controversial viewpoints of a speaker who advocates for limiting the equal rights of a segment of the U.S. population and limiting the privacy rights guaranteed by the constitution.

The Committee on GLBT Concerns and the Queer Student Alliance

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11 comments

Anonymous
Thu Feb 3 2011 13:04
Rick Santorum was rightly voted out of office. He is not what America needs as a spokesperson or lawmaker - he is an extremist and and a promoter of division, we do not need more of that. Anyone who is extreme in their positions is entitled to their opinions but we do not need them in Washington influencing our legislation. A woman's right to choose, like it or not is the law of the land and those who terrorize women who go to clinics for an abortion, or those who work there, should be prosecuted. Conservatives want liberty and freedom except when they don't. Some go so far as to murder those who are not breaking the law - and there is no outcry from the right against that. Why not?
Slim
Thu Mar 19 2009 15:15
My big concern about sending my son or daughter to UNL is the lack of tolerance for views that go against the grain of the liberal agenda that is prevalent at our state universities and until our university systems rein in this liberal theocracy, as a parent my child will be held to higher intellectual standards...

There are two sides to every tail. I am libertarian and a constitutional constructionist. I don't agree with everything coming out of the RNC right now, and haven't since the moral majority crowd installed their presence in the party, I didn't not agree with Bush his lack of willingness to use the veto pen to keep funding for the war.

But to me in these times, we have a president and an unchecked congress who have spent more in 2 months then Bush did in 8 years.. My take on Santorum is he has good points and bad ones. But to close your ears and minds from opposing views is things liberal accuse conservatives of daily.

Our country has serious issues AS THE RESULT OF EXCESSES in DC.. Excessive caused by forcing social agenda, rather then making sure we adhere to the "original intent"..

Twila
Mon Feb 23 2009 10:40
Justin, you've been poisoned by ideology, which means (among other things) you can't think anymore. You can only toe the party line. Please come back to the human race. Maybe the Wizard will give you a heart.
A. Khan
Sat Feb 21 2009 02:24
The last thing we need these days is creeps like Santorum going around spewing hate speech and pretending it is "politically incorrect speech" protected by the Freedom of Speech guaranteed by our constitution. He is sowing the seeds of hatred for all who follow Islam.. including the 6 million of us who are Americans! I would understand your commitment to this perversion of the right to "Freedom of Speech" if you were to invite David Duke and other hate mongers to deliver equivalent filth against non-whites and Jews. But you won't do it because it is wrong.. and you know it. Why is it that you cannot understand that promoting hatred against Muslims is no different than promoting hatred against the Jews or any other group for that matter. The decision ot invite Santorum should have been subjected to the same test!
Justin
Thu Feb 19 2009 22:02
The man's a creepy moron, Harbison; a national laughingstock. UNL is diminished by his presence. And it's a bit rich to accuse me of peddling falsehoods when you've confirmed every factual aspect of what I've said. He slept with a dead fetus. It doesn't matter what you call it, or why - he's a creep. But keep defending him, by all means.
Gerard Harbison
Thu Feb 19 2009 16:59
I know about the story because Karen Santorum wrote a book about her experience of having a baby born at 20 weeks and die two hours after birth -- a baby you call a 'dead fetus'. How Justin knows about it I have no idea; probably some garbage version of the same story he read on a leftist website. I happen to be neither religious nor in favor of banning early-term abortion, and obviously I therefore don't agree with Santorum on many of his socially conservative views. But I despise the sort of foul, false, scurrilous nonsense Justin and others have been posting about him.
Justin
Thu Feb 19 2009 14:13
Indeed, Harbison. So why do we know about that story?

Because Santorum used it to make a political point. So what does that make him?

Gerard Harbison
Wed Feb 18 2009 19:08
Senator Santorum's wife miscarried at 20 weeks. A 20 week old fetus looks like a very small baby. I've spent some considerable time in a preemie nursery and I've seen living babies born not very much later in gestation. I'm sure both he and his wife were grief stricken by their loss, and they dealt with the grief in a way they felt was appropriate. It was a baby to them. I've known women who miscarried at even earlier stages of pregnancy, and they were comparably devastated.

Anyone who would make fun of that grief, or use it to make a political point, is one sick little puppy.

Adam G
Wed Feb 18 2009 16:47
So, we have an a-- hole politician (oxymoron I know) who has some views that many feel are a bit out of the realm of reality and we have an a-- hole professor who also has some crazy ideas about the world and happens to have some connections the the current POTUS.

Here's the difference:

The politician tired to express his wacky views by running for office and passing laws. The professor tried to express his opinion by setting bombs and killing a few people.

You don't see a difference?

Justin
Tue Feb 17 2009 14:11
Harbison you're talking about a man who slept with a dead fetus. (True story!) A man who compared men and women in loving homosexual relationships to those who commit bestiality and necrophilia. A man who blamed the victims of Hurricane Katrina for... well, he wasn't quite clear exactly - apparently not having been born with an SUV is enough to earn you the enmity of Rick Santorum.

A man called one of the "20 most corrupt Congressmen" of 2006 by ethical watchdog organizations. A man who delusionally declared that WMD's had been found in Iraq. The man's a nutcase, and he represents the absolute rump of an American political movement that is in the process of destroying itself. His address should be entertaining theater, if nothing else.

Gerard Harbison
Tue Feb 17 2009 11:26
'Notorious politician'? My colleagues can't be serious! Rick Santorum was Republican Senator for Pennsylvania for 12 years, following 4 years in the US House. Compared with the Congressional GOP, he was nowhere near as far to the right as our current president was to the left of the Congressionaal Democrats. Pennsylvania is a far less conservative a state than Nebraska, and Rick was elected and re-elected by the voters of that state. That he is an extremist to 48 UNL faculty and students says more about how far out on the fringe our faculty and students are, than how conservative Senator Santorum is.

Santorum's visit is also being funded by private individuals and institutions, not by the University or the taxpayers of Nebraska, as the terrorist Ayers' visit was to be. Any individual or institution in the state, whether or not they are university-affiliated, can rent a room and host a speaker in the union. I have in the past done so, as a private individual. If our '48 students and faculty' had been willing to find the money, they could host Ayers in the same way. Evidently they aren't willing to put their money where their mouths are.
How typical of the left; they want us not only to accept their positions without question; they want us to pay for them!







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