Since my freshman year here at BU, I have often enjoyed reading the sometimes controversial but mostly well thought-out opinions expressed by my fellow students in the DFP. Rather than profiting by such alternative viewpoints, after reading Jason Cammarata’s weekly column, I am left with sense of bewilderment that the DFP can run an editorial that amounts to nothing more than a pretentious and over-elaborate series of generalizations, most recently taking the form of attacks against anyone who has expressed any opinion whatsoever on the War with Iraq. According to Cammarata (who cites such sources as a CNN photo gallery) war supporters are categorized as “mulleted rednecks,” while their anti-war opponents fare no better as “lemmings,” each side united only by their unfortunate membership in this “ignorant” and “myopic” human race. Perhaps he got the CNN photo gallery confused with National Geographic, or perhaps editorial columnists forget they are journalists and accordingly are held responsible for their work. The editorial reads not as an opinion but rather as an apathetic diatribe against “the odious billions of drooling hypocrites that populate our planet.” Mr. Cammarata fails to qualify just how we all are ignorant hypocrites (and I’m not quite sure why we are drooling). Looking down from his golden pedestal, Cammarata tells us he “could” justify his opinion of Saddam, and he “could” support his bitter attack against Bush, but instead he decides to offer a vague theoretic solution to the practical problems of the world, namely a progression towards “a new brand of humanism, led by enlightenment, critical thinking, and reason.” Why didn’t the innocent Iraqi’s citizens think of this before they were killed, or even the executed POW’s filmed for Iraqi TV? I guess it is because, as Jason states, we all lack the “mental capacity” for what i suppose is his level of thinking. As students we should all try to be as informed as possible, whatever our opinion, and back up these opinions with reason and facts. As someone who has the means to sway the opinions of a substantial group of readers, Mr. Cammarata should put down his philosophy 101 textbook, set aside his thesaurus, and toss out his collection of obscure references and concentrate on having an opinion that is clear and supportable.
Sean Robinson CAS ’04 <<617-306-8850 smrobins@bu.edu>>
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
