It seems that Carrie Chapman Catt now ranks with Lester Maddox, Louis Farrakhan, Marge Schott and David Duke.

Nearly all of the copy whirling around Milton McGriff, Blue Maas and her brick, the members of the September 29th Movement, and Professor Rollins’ memo conveniently ignores the true source.

Carrie Chapman Catt’s own words seem conspicuously absent from the discussion.

All we’re reading and hearing center on the hot button label of RACIST. Shame on all of us for not demanding to be fully informed, for not demanding to read Carrie Chapman Catt’s speeches.

Let’s behave more like a university and hold off the tar and feathers until all of the facts are on the table.

I’m flummoxed that in the Amanda Fier’s Daily article on Friday the 20th, it is reported that Professor Kupfer circulated nearly all of the recently generated memos and letters on the subject of the building’s name change, but not Catt’s “offending” speeches.

How can the students in that class possibly form a considered and well-reasoned opinion on the issue without them? Or did Ms. Fier simply leave them off the list of distributed materials?

People who truly care about the issue must stop quoting and referring to the catalytic Uhuru piece.

Although this piece was passionate, and reflected the author’s well-placed anger at Catt’s words — it is the epitome of biased, shoddy scholarship. Use it for what it is, certainly, but it cannot, responsibly, be the bedrock in which this issue is anchored.

I write this letter because I “got to know” Carrie Chapman Catt by working with my colleague, Jane Cox, on the original production of The Yellow Rose of Suffrage.

At the start I didn’t know who Carrie was, and frankly, I didn’t care. During the pre-production and rehearsal period I learned a great deal and began to care very much.

The Daily published excerpts of Carrie Chapman Catt’s “racist” speeches last year. I’m certain that her actual words have been forgotten by the students of ISU and obscured by angry, reductive rhetoric. New students certainly have little or no idea of what the woman actually said.

I call on the Daily to publish, in their entirety, Carrie Chapman Catt’s offending speech or speeches delivered in Mississippi and North Carolina, her writings concerning her views on race and the immigrant vote, and any other primary sources which will raise the level of discourse on this subject.

I’m very curious to know if stands on the Catt Hall issue have been taken after reasoned assessment of fact, or as simplistic knee-jerk reactions to the words “racist” “xenophobe.”

I hope the latter is not the case.

“Sure, he that made us with such large discourse,

Looking before and after, gave us not

That capability and god-like reason

to fust in us used”

— Hamlet, Act IV, scene IV

Gregg Henry

Associate Professor

Director of Theatre