The University News (Irving, Tex.), Vol. 35, No. 16, Ed. 1 Tuesday, February 16, 2010 Page: 11 of 12
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The University News
Commentary
February 16, 2010 — 11
The path to obscurity starts with being nice
Chris Wester
Contributing Writer
As a native Californian, I
oftentimes wonder how I came
to be thousands of miles from
home in this peculiar nook of our
country known as Texas. As I write this
piece, the mounds of snow piling up
outside my window compel me to cast
a longing glance at my photographs of a
warm San Diegan sunset, an explosion
of red and orange light cast upon the
shimmery surface of the Pacific Ocean.
My dazed stupor lasts but a moment;
the electronic hum of a space heater
drying my frost-crusted socks interrupts
my thoughts and reminds me that I now
reside in North Texas's premier housing
facility, Old Mill.
As a sen ior at the U n ivers ity of Da I las,
I find myself a member of a strong band
of Californians who have turned down
local colleges and journeyed to Irving
for our undergraduate education. The
same could be said of UD's contingent
of Wisconsinites, Arizonians, 111 i noisans,
Maryianders, North Carolinians,
Virginians and Bostonians, to name
a few. The geographically diverse
character of the UD student body has
turned out to be its greatest strength,
our academic programs being all the
stronger thanks to a student body that
freely chose to come here.
President-elect Thomas Keefe has
correctly noted that UD's national
visibility is lower than it should be.
While that may have slowed down our
fundraising efforts, it has not slowed
down the students. They come in droves
from east, west, north and south, and it
is high time that we stop and consider
why.
To many of us, the answer is quite
obvious. There is a vast conspiracy of
families, teachers, papal biographers and
Supreme Court Justices who consider UD
the best Catholic school in the United
States. Thus, family after family chooses
to forsake the behemoth state school
next door in favor of putting their son or
daughter on a plane to North Texas. In
this way, these Catholic families around
the country have become UD's primary
"grassroots" base. And that base, I am
sorry to say, is being neglected.
For the average Catholic San Diegan,
the search for the right college ends at
the gates of the University of San Diego,
a fabulously wealthy Catholic school
with a domed basilica sitting right in
the middle of campus. Like many similar
universities, USD immersed itself in
the pursuit of diversity long ago, and
one can now observe the results. I he
presence of a woman priest trumpets
the diversity of experience found on
USD's campus. Triangular pink stickers
mark the doors of professors who have
taken the courageous step of making
their offices gay, lesbian, bisexual and
transsexual "Open Zones." This and
more is what San Diego has to offer the
Catholic college student. And so I, a
poor Californian Latino, took my search
elsewhere.
I wanted a university that believed in
something permanent and unchanging,
a place that acknowledges the existence
of one truth that can be contemplated by
means of a variety of honest academic
disciplines. The University of Dallas was
quite literally the closest university to my
front door that satisfied these criteria. For
many of my classmates, the situation is
the same. UD was a place that did not
genuflect to the intellectual laxity and
the dictatorship of relativism that had
inundated American higher education.
Last week's newspaper featured
an interesting letter from a student
concerned about the tone of the debate
surrounding the School of Ministry's
panel discussion on the identity of
Catholic universities. The letter argued
that a university's Catholic identity
is found in the "mutual respect" that
permeates the search for truth — I call
this the "be nice" thesis. The "be nice"
thesis has never been the Catholic way.
Since its institution, the church has
understood that the search for truth,
necessary as it is to our salvation, must
not cede ground to wimpy societies
infected with relativism. To kowtow to
the false prophets of diversity condemns
a university to the "big-tent" Catholicism
of a school like USD.
I he panel discussion proved beyond
any doubt that this is exactly what
some members of our university would
like to see happen here. I believe my
classmates and I made it clear that we
do not agree.
Greg Spenla
Looking around the room, Hubert was horrified. He could
have sworn that he was told the party was semi-formal.
SCOTUS from page 10
Another problem with the McCain-
Feingold Act was that it presented in effect
a prior restraint on political speech - if a
corporation wished to communicate in a
manner that might be electioneering, it
would have to check with the FEC before
acting or risk criminal prosecution. Such
restraints on speech have always been
considered unconstitutional.
As the reader is no doubt aware,
there was an unusual amount of
whining about the decision after it was
announced. The case concerned issues
of corporate freedom, freedom of speech
and the influence of money in elections.
Socialists were outraged by the decision,
and fans of Corporate America were
pleased. Corporate America itself
probably didn't care too much - it had
no trouble supporting politicians while
McCain-Feingold was in effect - and the
idea that campaigns will be inundated
with filthy corporate money stretches
reason.
Politicians were eager for a chance
to show they've hopped aboard the
populism train - from McCain to President
Obama, the decision was denounced by
both Congress and the executive. This
criticism was untoward. Obama set
the worst example at his State of the
Union address when, in the presence
of members of the court, who were
attending out of respect for the office of
the presidency, he insulted the citizens
majority by calling their decision a
"problem." At least he deviated from his
script, which had labeled the decision a
"wrong," but Obama's words were far
harsher than those directed at the court
by Franklin Roosevelt in his 1937 State of
the Union address, and we all know how
FDR felt about the court.
It would be wildly hypocritical to
write in favor of the First Amendment
and then to criticize politicians for
dissenting from my point of view, but
Obama and others were practicing rank
demagoguery by promoting an us-versus-
them relationship with the corporate
fat cats. If, in the view of the people
of the United States, indirect corporate
support of candidates for political office is
poisonous to the regime, an amendment
to the Constitution ought to be passed,
because as it stands now, corporate
speech is clearly a protected freedom.
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Nelson, Heather. The University News (Irving, Tex.), Vol. 35, No. 16, Ed. 1 Tuesday, February 16, 2010, newspaper, February 16, 2010; Irving, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth201517/m1/11/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting University of Dallas.