LETTER: Schoolyard diatribe wasn’t appropriate
January 13, 2005
Nicole Asmussen’s column (“Oh, what to do with these hypocritical liberals?” Jan. 12) apparently serves only as punditry trying to further flame incendiary diatribes rather than create sustainable, informed debate on any issue of substance. Asmussen does not call for increased diversity or advocate a position on any issue, but rather merely calls others “names” as if the paper was an elementary school courtyard at recess.
Her pedestrian use of statistics is also concerning. Reliance on using the absolute numbers of party registration by faculty members illustrates only whether these people belong to such a party, not their political beliefs.
The use of percentages would be more insightful, but even that would be of little use in determining diversity of viewpoints. For example, there are a large number of people who have conservative viewpoints who do not belong to the GOP.
Once again I urge the Daily to demand a higher quality of writing before publishing such opinions. The community deserves better.
Peter Kimelman
Lecturer
Architecture