Your View: Letters to the Editor
Sensual ad unnecessary
I was offended by the sensual ad placed on the sixth page of Thursday’s issue of the Skiff for the Fort Worth Trinity Commons. Not that an ad of that nature is ever justified, but a half-naked woman has nothing to do with the items listed at the top of the ad, the stores advertised or the complex in general. I request that the Skiff refrain from posting any more advertisements of this sort in future issues.

— Daniel A. Nash, junior religion major

Gibson’s movie anti-Semitic
Mel Gibson’s new film has had quite an amount of writing about it; none, surprisingly, in the Skiff. So let me get the ball rolling.

I’m a TCU alumnus from 1984, one of the occasional Jewish students that shows up there, in my case, attracted by the free tuition and the pre-med program. So, I’m fairly familiar with the TCU atmosphere and what the general approach of the student body to a movie like this might be.

My objections to the movie are two-fold — first, it is a passion play, and the grandmother of all passion plays. Passion plays traditionally increase anti-Semitism, both in words and actions. Words have already started — note the news stories on hate mail at the Wiesenthal Center. I expect actions will follow (should anything happen to my family or property, an immediate lawsuit against Mr. Gibson will follow — foreseeability is actionable, and violence in this case is extremely foreseeable).

Secondly, Mel’s dad is a rampaging anti-Semite and Holocaust denier. Mel has yet to utter a word of criticism to dad’s loony views, even when specifically asked, yet insists that he is not anti-Semitic. Well, Mel, as a Jew, I beg to differ with you. If you don’t deny your father’s printed views that the Holocaust was mostly made up and that Jews are trying to take over the world, you sound pretty anti-Semitic to me.

At any rate, I see no reason to support Mel’s efforts. Like father, like son, and Mel and his dad seem pretty similar to me — both are whining pinheads with a taste for melodrama. Incidentally, unlike Mel’s dad’s “facts,” all of mine have been reported accurately in multiple news media.

— Scott A. Joseph, MD, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology

Father comments on truth
I found Jennifer Hall’s Feb. 11 opinion article on “The truth will set you free…” to be very illuminating. It simply confirmed what her mother and I have suspected for many years. As a consequence, she will — besides being given a lecture on the moral decay of young people in the U.S. — be sent to her room the next time she comes home for the weekend. Her boyfriend’s toothbrush will be ritually burned.

— Larry M. Hall, Jennifer Hall’s father