Politics from the Palouse to Puget Sound

Monday, February 05, 2007

Yawn

From today's Moscow-Pullman Daily News:
Washington State University students will face the darker sides of genocide, immigration, disabilities, media influences, and gender through the Tunnel of Oppression this week.
...

Bounds said the section on immigration has raised questions because of a recent campus controversy that garnered national media coverage.

The WSU College Republicans erected a chain-link fence during their rally to support the Bush Administration’s policies on immigration issues related to the U.S.-Mexico border. Many in the campus community found the fence to be an offensive symbol, and arguments erupted between students and faculty.

“It created a lot of tension on campus,” Bounds said.

While there is a section in the tunnel that discusses oppression within the border conflict, WSU chemistry junior Andrew Goodin said the committee is not doing this in response to the College Republicans’ rally.

“Everyone in the group has remained really conscious of remaining politically neutral,” he said. “We’re doing this as educators rather than people trying to share their opinion.”

Bounds said they won’t be trying to sway people from their opinions.

“This is what is going on in the world, rather than ‘this is what we think is going on in the world,’ ” she said.

Students and community members may be in for a shock. The pictures and brief experience of oppression are expected to cut deeply into emotions.

“People are going to get pretty somber when they see this stuff,” Nichols said.

Medeiros said there will be an area for visitors to decompress and debrief after they exit the tunnel.

“We want to respect and honor the fact that this isn’t easy or light information to process,” he said. “Some issues will affect people in different ways.”

Some may be upset or angry while others might feel driven to get involved, he said.

Counselors will be available. Other available resources will include brochures and contact information for organizations where students and community members can get involved.
Please. "Areas to decompress" and "counselors available?" This won't create any stirs at all on the uber-PC WSU campus. The students already get all this liberal orthodoxy shoved down their throats in the classroom. How is this any different? No wonder students "switch to 'Grey's Anatomy'." How about some opposing, controversial viewpoints to expand students' minds? Isn't that what college is supposed to be about?

And Goodin, the WSU Young Democrats Co-Chair, is actually claiming that this event is "politically neutral" and "not doing this in response to the College Republicans?" Goodin and the other YDs are positively green with envy at the national coverage the CRs got last semester. But again, as with the YDs' recent pro-abortion demonstration, the tunnel will garner nothing more than loving front page coverage in the Evergreen. No threats of violence. No CES Gestapo. No unhinged racial epithets. No administration warnings. And no advancement of students' free speech rights, open debate, or awareness of alternative views.

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