I usually manage to stomach the uniformly liberal editorials on The State News’ Opinion Page, but I found Brian Emerson Jones’s column (“Bush’s appointees enforce his ‘magical myth,’” SN 1/24) on Bush’s cabinet appointments to be especially offensive.
Jones rails against the ostensible diversity of the Cabinet while attacking the politically incorrect views of Bush and his nominees.
The left won’t stop preaching the value of diversity in terms of skin color, but when a minority has an opinion differing from the Democratic party plank, they are labeled “sellout(s)” by closed-minded people like Jones. Would it be fair to label a white Catholic like Ted Kennedy a “sellout” because he doesn’t conform to the majority of the Catholic community’s position on abortion rights? Tolerant people value diversity of opinion as well as cultural diversity.
I also feel Jones’ views on immigration to be quite contradictory and typically liberal. He chastises Ashcroft for opposing federal aid to immigrants and then turns around and criticizes Linda Chavez for “exploiting an illegal Guatemalan immigrant.” From the left’s perspective, an immigrant is being “exploited” if he or she tries to succeed in this country, but everything’s fine if an immigrant gets a government handout.
Maybe Chavez should have taken her Guatemalan domestic worker to the nearest social services building for a welfare check, or filed an income tax form so the Immigration and Naturalization Service could come and crush someone else’s American dream.
Jones rails further against an appointment of an anti-affirmative action Asian Pacific American nominee, Elaine Chao. Why would an Asian American support affirmative action? They face the same discrimination as blacks or Hispanics, yet they don’t deserve the same preferential treatment, according to liberal policy.
Jones even found a way to criticize Colin Powell over his opposition to gays in the military. Powell, as a career military man and a proven leader, seems to have a more credible stance on the subject than a draft-dodging politician (Clinton) or an idealistic college student spouting his philosophy on an institution he has never served.
And contrary to liberal belief, the military is not a center of social change. It exists to wage and win war in the most efficient way possible to further our national security interests. Any policy that compromises that objective, however grounded in the spirit of equality, is inappropriate when American lives are on the line in combat.
Joe Pennell
electrical engineering
sophomore
