Disgusted that Sheehan is coming to campus

Dear editor,

Cindy Sheehan, really? (Sheehan has been invited by the May 4 Task Force to commemorate the events of May 4, 1970)

The woman who blames Israel for the Sept. 11 attacks and the war in Iraq against the Islamic totalitarians? The woman who hugged noted enemy of the nation and Marxist Hugo “I smell brimstone” Chavez? This hatemonger is the best you can do to absolve your guilt over the destruction of campus properties which led ultimately to the tragic deaths of four bystanders?

Until this point, I’ve never written to this newspaper, even when the editorial staff allows anti-American, anti-capitalist and anti-Semitic speech to run unbridled from its pages in the hopes of recreating the left’s antediluvian glory days, when a haze of pot smoke and a couple warbling folkies brought down the leathery-winged monstrosity that was the Nixon administration. This is the proverbial straw.

Your diversity celebration has always ended where patriotism and common sense begin, and allowing this woman to speak on behalf of your dead is a slap in the face to anyone with either. Using those deaths, tragic though they are, to advance your agenda is reprehensible.

I will be reproducing this text in other sources, the better to combat “editing” from your staff. It’s not that I don’t trust them to accurately relay my message, it’s just that I’ve read their editing work before, and fear for the safety of the English language.

Jason Clark

Graduate student in music theory

Let’s not forget about Black Squirrel Radio

Dear editor,

As I began reading the Franklin Hall update in Monday’s issue, I found myself deeply disturbed and upset about the omission of the Black Squirrel Radio in the article “Franklin Hall move to create ‘domino effect’ on campus.” In the fifth paragraph it is mentioned that converged newsroom will “house the Daily Kent Stater and TV2; a digital broadcasting studio, which is a change from the current analog studio in the Music and Speech Center.” This blatant error in research upsets me and gives the impression that our fellow student media organizations think that BSR is a ghost.

Throughout the spring semester many students from each student medium have attended the Student Media Task Force meetings, recognizing that the converged newsroom was to not only consist of TV2 and the Daily Kent Stater, but Black Squirrel Radio and The Burr as well. Please recognize that BSR currently uses the analog broadcasting studio and will be located in the new digital studio in Franklin Hall. The studio in the Music and Speech Center and the studio in Franklin Hall have not been and will not be inhabited by random members of the student body, as the article suggests, but by very hard working and dedicated members of BSR.

Although BSR is still young in comparison to other student media, our staff is very driven, ambitious and has worked too hard to not be recognized by our fellow student media members. In these Task Force meetings we are encouraged to look into our futures and recognize the changes that are about to take place. This article clearly displays that this message has not been received or considered by all.

The Task Force meetings that I speak of contained members of the Daily Kent Stater, TV2, BSR and The Burr. The Burr, nor Black Squirrel Radio were mentioned for their participation in the meetings given the information posed in the article. I would strongly recommend that if our brother and sister student media organizations wish to dream and activate a truly converged media, then they must recognize that BSR and The Burr are a large part of this process. To write otherwise, would only continue to exemplify that some members of student media are not willing to accept this change and would rather remain in their silos of traditional media forms; further stalling this converging dream known as Franklin Hall.

Ty Kellogg

Junior electronic media production major and productions director for Black Squirrel Radio