Letter to the editor: Political extremists ignore issues

I've spent four years at Syracuse University. That's enough time to have seen all the big shots like Michael Moore, Cindy Sheehan, Ann Coulter and John Ashcroft come to campus and the reactions they've provoked. I've patiently sat in on all of these talks and asked a few pointed questions, nothing too critical of the speaker, out of respect and tolerance. However, it is with beaming pride that I can say none of these people speak for me or the nation as a whole. What must be understood about extremists of all flavors is that they subscribe to an ideology without thought to the alternative. What the majority of people in any nation understand is real-life consequences of these abstract ideologies. The Patriot Act, as a brainchild of a Republican administration, cannot be construed as a conservative plot to undermine freedom of speech - it is the historic debate over freedom versus security and it's only one approach to solving the problem. This sort of bias toward security isn't new and it isn't Republican - Franklin Delano Roosevelt, one of this nation's greatest Democratic presidents, imprisoned Japanese civilians for the duration of World War II. It was wartime and the threat of Japanese collaboration against the United States appeared real. Although constitutionally a violation, Republicans didn't create the sort of stink Democrats do now. This sort of behavior isn't endemic to one political party - it's the normal conundrum of power, not a clash of ideologies. So when you see conservatives attacking liberals, and the other way around, using talking points from Fox News or "The Daily Show" without really thinking about substantive issues, but rather allowing somebody else to think for you, you've wasted time, money and effort being enrolled in college. The world does not lie between the North and South Poles; it's the middle that matters. Haris Shawl Senior political science and international relations major

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