The Blue Banner

Issue date: 10/9/08 Section: Community Voice

A couple weeks ago, I sent an e-mail to the head of the Humanities department to express how I felt about the recent lectures. I asked if all lectures would end with some sort of anti-Republican message.

I said that I understood that this is a college where most students and teachers are Democrats, but should each lecture end with biased political commentary?

The previous two lectures I had attended were concluded with George Bush, Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin quotes that I found to be misleading and out of context.

We were told at the lecture that there was no "political message" in this.

I wondered how the students would react if the criticism went the other way and was just as biased.

My e-mail was forwarded to one of the lecturers who then sent me an email back.

He once again mentioned how his lecture was "not trying to make a political statement."

He claimed that he was simply using Bush and other Republicans as examples that the people in the Middle Ages were much like us: some were tolerant, others were not; some were ignorant, others were not.

He was making no political statement.

The lecturer was simply showing us the intolerance and ignorance of the Republicans.

Apparently, I was seeing this as a political statement out of my own imagination.

This was purely for educational purposes.

So, I sent an e-mail back. I said that perhaps I had misinterpreted what he said, but to me, it seemed that he was saying that Bush's foreign policy is on par with the crusades.

He has the right to this opinion, but it seemed like a biased political outlook brought into the lecture as purely educational.

When he said that the people in the Middle Ages were similar to us, it seemed to be that he was making the claim that Bush and Palin were ignorant and intolerant.

I told him that I understood the attempt to make these connections between the past and the present, but two weeks in a row the lectures ended with connections that seemed to say, "Look at these stupid Republicans."

Maybe it was unintentional, but this is the feeling that I got.

I received no reply to this e-mail.

Of course, the majority of the UNCA students did not mind the political examples, but I wanted my opinion to be heard.

I guess it was heard, and it was mocked in this week's lecture.

My e-mail was mentioned at the very start of the lecture.

The lecturer said that someone had complained about Bush bashing at the end of every lecture.

So, he was going to start the lecture off by Bush bashing instead. The students laughed.

The lecture was about Africa. He went on to say that Bush's approval rating in Africa is 80 percent, and he wasn't sure why his rating was so high.

He added that maybe Bush should leave the U.S. and go to Africa.

I saw very little educational purpose to this comment.

I thought we had our Bush comment for this week's lecture over with, but I was wrong.

A few minutes later, he played a video of Jay Leno talking to a Bush impersonator about Africa.

Of course, the Bush impersonator characterized Bush as being completely ignorant about Africa.

After the video, the lecturer told us that this was just a joke, and it was meant to show how ignorant we are about Africa.

I thought that this was more than a stretch. I saw very little, if any, educational value in watching a Bush impersonator on Jay Leno.

The lecturer went on to discuss real educational information, and as the lecture was just about over, Bush was mentioned again.

He talked about the Bush administration cutting off funds for contraception to Africa and gave various quotes to support his claim.

The lecturer said that this was the Bush administration's response to what they said were forced abortions in Africa.

He read a quote that said that only the Bush administration would have such a terrible response to this crisis in Africa.

The lecturer did not forget to mention that this was in no way a political comment.

He was simply using this as an example of how we need to help with the crisis in Africa.

Is Bush bashing really the best way to inspire us to help Africans in need? Were all these Bush comments throughout the lecture for educational purposes?

And finally, if Bush has an 80 percent approval rating in Africa, maybe he is doing something right.

Perhaps he has a high approval rating in Africa because they don't hear Democrats and the U.S. mainstream media criticizing him on a daily basis.

Maybe if we spent more time working together constructively instead of bashing one another, we could get more accomplished to help the people that really need it.

I'm not trying to make a political statement here. I'm just using this as an example for educational purposes.

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