I seem to remember a popular food commercial that featured a female senior citizen looking desperately over a counter at a piece of desiccated meat…searching for the real deal, the advertised goody, the whole ball of wax.

She said, “Where’s the beef? I don’t see anything there!”

One might draw a parallel with the current cat house Catt fight. All this hissing, posturing, and chest puffing. The proverbial lifting of the legs of so many people against the hypothetical hydrant of the press and not one printing of entire speeches of Carrie Chapman Catt. How pretentious can we get about this issue?

Print the damned speeches please, or I shall start using the newspaper for paper mache!

Does anyone remember the “red scare?” Have you now or ever been a member of a research one university? Facilitators, diversity moguls and bricks oh my!

It would truly seem as thought the importance of being the sensitivity savior of the week overshadows the general public’s need to be informed about what Catt actually wrote.

Racist, xenophobe, bigot…why don’t we just get all of the buzz words out of our system.

When Dorothy, the Tin Man, and the Scarecrow were frightened of their surroundings, they said it best when they whispered, “Lions and tigers and bears, oh my.”

Their whispers turned to shouts as their fears became greater. Soon the beasts seemed to be all around them. They shouted and shouted until they met the most feared thing of all….themselves, as personified by self-doubt.

Is there a life lesson here, folks?

Who are we REALLY afraid of here?

Less pontificating and more printing of the speeches in their entirety would be most appreciated.

Otherwise, I have no comment.

Kirk Smith

Associate Professor of Music

Iowa State University