Views On War Clash On UTSA Campus

Views On War Clash On UTSA Campus LAST UPDATE: 2/20/2003 9:43:34 PM Posted By: Maritza Nunez

Tough talk on Iraq this week, as US leaders confirmed they would begin their push for a second UN resolution next Monday.

In Iraq, Saddam Hussein is issuing double food rations to his people in anticipation of a long war with the US and its allies.

But people here in the US are still sharply divided over Iraq. Many anti-war demonstrations in recent days show the sharp division between those calling for peace and those wanting war.

That became clear in San Antonio Thursday when UTSA teachers and students on both sides of the issues clashed.

"They're lying to you, kids," yelled Fredd Bergman, a student at UTSA who attended what was supposed to be an informational session at the school. Bergman got up to leave in protest of what he perceived to be an anti-war rally. As he left, a professor flipped Bergman's jacket hood in retaliation.

UTSA's vice-president said the brief encounter between the student and teacher is now under investigation by the school. "We have 23,000 people in our University community and I have a feeling that we have 23,000 different opinions concerning the world situation right now," said vice-president David Gabler.

I knew they were going to do a "teach-in" today, but didn't have the time to take a really good look at what was truly going to go on. I can't say I'm not surprised that this turned into an anti-war zealots' lovefest, but it is interesting that there was at least one dissenting voice there. The actual reporting of this story on the 10 p.m. news included the fact that SEVERAL OTHER STUDENTS stood up and left the "teach-in" when they realized it wasn't going to be a discussion about the upcoming war in Iraq but rather a case of "we leftist extremists are much older than you so we're going to tell you what you should think even though we didn't give our elders the time of day when we were spoiled rotten college students in the 1960s".

It's much more interesting if you see the video. The man was actually walking away from the professor when the professor decided to "flip his lid" -- the dissenter's, not the professor's.

UTSA is a very liberal campus. They have the College Democrats but no College Republicans, for example. It's quite weird to me to remember back to when I had to take some core curriculum courses at San Antonio College (which is a local community college) and found it less liberal than UTSA (the University of Texas at San Antonio) is. I mean, my economics professor there was the one who taught the simple concept that the only two ways a government can help improve a sluggish economy are either to lower taxes or increase government spending -- this is something a liberal would SO not get.

I digress.... Damn, I hate not being a natural-born activist or else I would know what to do to show my disgust of such things as "teach-ins" that make people feel like they have to agree with someone's spoken thoughts even if they have a few issues with what's being said.

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