Friday, February 24, 2006

Reply from ASUW President Lee Dunbar

As co-sponsor of the resolution and president of the ASUW, let’s be clear, I welcome dissent and opposition, that comes with the territory but there were some who crossed the line. As for blatant disrespect, (i.e. phonecalls of a threating nature, phone calls to their family or work place doing the same, or emails to the effect of hate mail), should not be allowed to just be acceptable. So in public circles, on radio namely, I spoke to the horrid nature of that and to put a stop to it. Other than admonishment, we are also keeping a record of incidents that happened but the frustrating part is that these are mostly anonymous and those few we can contact or identify do not care what we say. The incidents do not include the majority of emails and posts, just those that threatened or were essentially hate mail.

In the end there is little recourse. I am open to any ideas and any help that I can provide in my capacity to respond to these statements and that is why I said it. Some took upon themselves to speak with the businesses that these individuals worked for and used their job’s email accounts to send these messages. This allowed us to confront them in that regard to apologize and stop. I don’t think we have gotten anyone fired, just another reminder that such behavior is flat wrong. We aren’t actively as an organization pursuing this route. I think we are ready to move on with the new resolution.

In the meantime, Jill Edwards has apologized for how she worded her comments.

Lee Dunbar
President
Associated Students of the University of Washington


I sincerely appreciate President Dunbar's reply.

I would like to stress the importance of civility. At time the rhetoric can get heated on both sides but for those on the right side of the political spectrum, the left already thinks we eat kittens and we know that is not true so lets not feed the stereotype. I hope we are better than that. If you can not make an argument without threats, maybe you do not have an argument to make.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

The problem for many of their ilk is that they are not use to having their views challanged.
PC Groupthink on a campus like UW is common. The worse they may get is a Prof saying 'Well...interesting question' but rarely asked to defend it.
But Mr. Dunbar's attempt to misdirect the debate is an old tactic.

Anonymous said...

its PURE INGONRANCE, the ATTITUDE is no dought cultivated on campus, its SICKENING, heres to BARFING on JILLS shoes! but I do think its funny how the LEFT can insult, threat, defame others BUT the min its happens to them they scream BLOODY F****** MURDER and whine and sibble!

Anonymous said...

About all I can understand of Dunbar's screed is that he is upset. I can make assumptions about what it is that has upset him, but he could at least make an effort to actually state the problem before whining about the response.

I suppose he assumes all in the audience understand him. That too is typical of College groupthink.

Anonymous said...

If that's any indication of what the leaders of the future truly think then we should just sign The USA over to France right now and get it over with.

What a bunch of wimps.

Anonymous said...

I guess I don't get it. Most comments have been pegged at the exact same level as Ms. Edwards' sordid efforts.

I don't believe she has either anything to complain about nor any reason to snivel. Nor does President Dunbar.

If you can't stand the heat... then get out of the kitchen.

Civility must be a two-way street. Sen. Edwards' comments are antithesis of the word and frankly, she's not beginning to receive what she politically deserves.

ROTC RA '81