JawsBlog

For anyone whose interested, the Justice has posted all the letters written in response to Passner’s October 21st column on its website.

The letters can be found here, and its a PDF (requires Adobe Acrobat or Acrobat Reader) file of 3 pages worth of letters, which run the whole gamut of emotions, opinions and thoughts. (Passner is even criticized for poor analysis of the Cubs). And there were 23 letters (if anyone was guessing)…

I’ll blog more tomorrow…

Note, I haven’t seen a paper copy of the Justice today.

That aside, building on my last post on this topic, I’ve since read the BBSO statement in its entirety, and wow…I’m both shocked and appaled.

Here’s what bothered me the most:

The Brandeis administrators finally woke up. They now understand that it is not students’ responsibility, but rather the administrators’ responsibility to protect the minority community. They also know that if they fail to protect us, we will turn this university upside down. The greater Brandeis community woke up.

Whether they agree or disagree with our cause, they cannot deny that we have a voice – a very powerful and undeniable voice. But most importantly, we woke up. We realized that it’s not that actions speak louder than words, but actions are the only things that speak. We pushed ourselves to limits beyond what we ever thought possible and refused to stop until our demands were met. We are truly UNBREAKABLE.

Statements like this aren’t going to help at all, it’s only adding fuel to the fire. This is almost like the Ford Hall incident all over again.

Frankly, the administration does protect the (racial) minority community here on campus. I should know. There are special minority programs, events, oppertunities, email lists…they make an extra effort. Threatening the administration by saying that you’ll “turn the university upside down” is absurd and inciteful.

Messages and attitudes like this will only continue to fan the flames of the fire which has erupted on campus. It’s acts like this that polarize the campus and raise tentions–which benefit no one at all.

And you people should remember, you don’t speak for all of us minorities on campus…

In this week’s edition of the Cleveland Jewish News, I came across the following two stories.

GOP reaches out to Orthodox [Jews].

Not much of a suprise there, as the Orhodox have been closer to the GOP on social issues, and now with the increased support for Israel demonstrated by the GOP, they’re getting more support.

and even more interesting:

Bush raising Jewish funds from both parties

This will be interesting to watch, to say the least

The long awaited issue of the Justice is now online. I have yet to see a hard copy of the paper, so I’m going to have to work with what I’ve seen so far.

Let’s start at the top of things (note: all links don’t require a “login” to the paper)

First, here’s the Justice’s coverage of the whole ordeal. It also exposes that Passner has a history of not-so good comments in his columns (which I admit, I rarely read). He gets taken to task by students and professors alike.

And the Justice story on the protest that erupted [first reported here!]

Second the Justice’s official response: No room for bigotry in our newspaper

Third, here’s the BBSO’s letter/statement: BBSO submits ‘Unbreakable’

Fourth, (now former) Editor in Chief Steven Heyman’s resignation letter: ‘I hope we all learned something’

Fifth, Yana Litovsky’s, (now former features editor) letter of resignation (and it’s a sharp one): Integrity of the Justice perverted [it's a must read!]

That’s all that is featured in the online version…I’m curious to see what’s in the dead tree (paper) version.

Just from skimming the pieces, and I emphasize skimming, Litovsky is right on the mark in her piece.
The Justice really got screwed over by the administration.

After reading the BBSO piece, I understand their anger and frustration. Passner’s article (and prior articles) contained a lot of idiocy. But I don’t like how the piece is written. It sounds like more of a revolutionary statement towards the end–which is what bothers me the most–it’s radicalism.

These parts of the piece begin to evoke the memories of the Ford Hall Occupation, which is well known amongst Brandeis students.

Furthermore, I think the following demand is absurd:

We are requesting that a mandatory University requirement be implemented that will force every Brandeis student to take a class about race relations and cultural sensitivity

That’s absurd! In our daily lives we learn and experience race relations and cultural sensitivity. We constantly have cultural events occuring on campus, and people are aware. A class like this would probably be some sort of Political corretness lecture–which is unecessary and uncalled for.

We are required as part of our University Requirement to take a course designated as “Non-western studies” which I personally think is a good idea, and provides insights into another culture.

More later as the story evolves…