Letters to the Editor

Cartoon is degrading for minority students

I am writing in response to the comic printed in the Opinion section of the Feb. 5. Though my views on affirmative action are ambivalent, I was insulted, as a black person, by the comic. While its message may hold some truth concerning the University of Michigan’s admission policy, it holds no truth at TCU (our population of blacks here proves that).

Without any specification as to what particular university the comic was referring to, I was left with the impression that it was satirizing minorities in all universities. The fact that the Skiff would print such a piece of kitsch during Black History Month shows a lack of taste, notwithstanding what the comic implied.

This example of white supremacy told me that all blacks in college are stupid and are depriving people of the “superior” race of a proper education. This comic told me that I was an idiot and did not deserve to be at this university because if my skin color, an aspect of myself I can not control. This comic went beyond the boundaries of healthy free speech and stepped into the world of vindictive garbage. I am very disappointed that this school’s paper would print such an archaic representation of the intelligence of black people.

— Hollis Henley II, sophomore English major

Editor’s note: Cartoons and signed columns do not necessarily represent the views of the Skiff editorial board.

Ill. Gov. Ryan’s action was noble step toward justice

After reading Patrick Jennings’ opinion column on Illinois Governor George Ryan, I could not help but think, “Is that all?” Too much was missing, and I believe the lack of information is what allowed Jennings to overlook the justice behind Ryan’s act.

Jennings failed to point out that Ryan had long been a proponent of the death penalty. Ryan has only recently switched sides. There was also no mention of Gov. Ryan’s moratorium on the death penalty in January 2000, and how this two-year deliberation led the commuted death sentences.

So why did Ryan make such a decision? Was it because he wanted to make his side happy, or did he notice the presence of a flawed justice system? Since 1976 Illinois has killed 12 inmates, while freeing 13 innocent people sentenced to death row. It does not take a mathematician to see that more than 50 percent of Illinois death row inmates are innocent.

Texas has executed 24 times more people than Illinois, and I wonder how many of those 293 (as of Jan. 28, 2003) were actually innocent. What scares me even more is that our current president, while governor of Texas, headed 152 executions, which is more executions than any other U.S. governor.

I do agree with Jennings on one point: no one can expect this nation to change its opinion of the death penalty in a giant leap. However, Gov. Ryan’s action was a just and noble small step towards making this nation one which respects life enough not to take it.

— Eric Elton, sophomore environmental science major