Dear Mr. Partridge,
I don’t normally write letters when I disagree about opinions I’ve read in magazines or newspapers, as I can respect the amendment of free speech. However, your recent column in the PSU newspaper, The Clock, was to say the least very disturbing. The comments made in the column were, in my opinion, crude, presumptuous, and extremely lacking in any basis or actual fact. Before you bash the President and Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, you might want to get a few of your pessimistic and untrue facts straight. First correction: the presidential debates are not s***, as you so vulgarly put it, there are a huge opportunity for those Americans (like yourself) unaware of the candidates’ position to find out exactly where they stand. Secondly, do me a favor, you find the documents or speech that says Kerry wants to “hunt down and kill every terrorist” because last I knew that phrase never came out of his mouth. If you really have an interest in politics might I suggest you watch a debate or public address while sober? Maybe them you might gain more than a vague understanding of the policies and social issues that surround politics. At least then when you slander American politics you’ll have the knowledge base for the task. In addition, let’s be honest, who’s the real monkey here; the two candidates for the American presidency or the person regurgitating out of context snippets of CNN and The Boston Globe for the sole purpose of exploiting American politics in their measly student newspaper column? Come Election Day, I suggest you stay home; you’ve made it clear you are not going to responsively vote for either candidate, or “monkey one” and “monkey two”. Do all of us a favor and save your ballot – leave the voting up to the people that have a conscious understanding of politics, public issues, and a firm understanding of the privilege to vote. We’ve all heard of politicians making “empty’ promises, well, there is also such as a thing as voters casting “empty” votes. Believe in the power of your vote and what it stands for or don’t bother casting it at all. Voting is still a relatively new freedom for many groups of Americans; (Asians, Blacks, and women) I suggest you don’t belittle the right to vote by denouncing yours.
Sincerely,Nathaniel Currie
Editor’s Note: The Editorials Editor was intrigued by Mr. Currie’s challenge to find the document or speech where Senator John Kerry said that he wanted to “hunt down and kill every terrorist”. On the Commission on Presidential Debates website, the transcripts for both Presidential Debates can be found. It is in these documents that it is found that Kerry indeed did state in both debates, verbatim, that he “wanted to hunt down and kill every terrorist”. The website where one can find this information is http://www.debates.org/pages/debtrans.html It has the transcripts for both debates and the quote can be found by doing a “find” search for the word “terrorist”.