Danny Byers, author of “Typical wedding pushes family to

insanity”, made several offensive and out of place assumptions in

this article. Thoughts such as a groom not wanting to share

intimacy with only his wife are completely inappropriate to be in a

column that is featured in a section of the paper that is

celebrating marriage!

Byers continues to state that couples getting married “obviously

have no idea what they are getting themselves into.” Byers tries to

make marriage a chore and a miserable, chaotic, unplanned decision

that two people enter blindly.

This is not the case for most couples, many of whom are not only

aware of their actions, but also take steps such as pre-marital

counseling to re-affirm their wish to be married.

Even more offensive are the statements Byers makes about in-laws

and their personalities and occupations. Byers insults farmers by

saying how upset the father of the bride would be if his daughter

married someone whose father was an “incompetent Mississippi

farmer.” Belittling others’ occupations is ridiculously

inappropriate in any setting but especially so in article.

The point of the matter is that this article had no place in a

pull-out meant especially for people getting married! I hope Byers

is proud of his failed attempt at humor, and I’m sure a long, long

time from now, when he finally convinces a woman to become his

wife, he will surely look back on this article and realize he was a

jerk.

Sarah Fetzer

Graphic Design

In response to the Our View Column on Jan. 27, let’s see if the

argument put forth in the “Our View” column really holds water.

Lets try it for, say, spouse abuse.

There are always going to be spouse abusers in society. As

wonderful as it would be, it is an unavoidable fact that we will

never be able to eliminate spouse abuse.

What we can do is try to keep the inevitable spouse abuse as

safe for everyone in society as possible. This is what [insert some

wacko group here], in Boulder is doing. You can’t make choices for

people, but you can minimize the damage they do.

When these spouse abusers abuse their spouses, they can spread

it to their impressionable children…. By providing them poofy

foam bats to beat their spouses with…more of these innocent

spouses can be saved.”

This is a pathetic argument. It hinges on the idea that drug use

is not a “real crime.” Try replacing “spouse abuse” with anything

that is illegal like “bank robbery” or “vehicular homicide” or

“telemarketers who violate the no-call list.” Any sympathy

evaporates because now you’re talking about “real criminals.”

Enabling drug users is wrong. The staff that wrote “Our View”

simply doesn’t think drug abuse is wrong. Using illegal drugs has

real consequences. We should not try and shield users from those

consequences.

Joel Ruff

Senior, mechanical engineering

Chris J. Ortiz’s article, “Higher ed does not need a watch list”

shows exactly the kind of ignorant viewpoint that makes it

necessary for conservative students to protect themselves. As a

conservative student, I am not concerned that my opinions will be

subverted by my professors.

I am concerned that expressing my opinions to a liberal

professor will result in a lower grade. This has happened to me

already at this school and to a number of friends of mine at other

schools around the state. This is the unacceptable blacklisting of

which Mr. Ortiz speaks.

When a professor at the University of Northern Colorado can

write a final essay question asking students to “explain how George

W. Bush is guilty of war crimes” and then fail the student who

writes how in fact Saddam Hussein is guilty of them, there is a

problem in the school. No action was taken against the professor to

my knowledge.

I have had many liberal professors and will argue with them if

they choose to use up class time to voice their views. I have also

had a number of students come up to me after class and thank me for

defending conservative views. As far as conservative professors

pushing their agendas, I have yet to even have an openly

conservative professor in my three and half years here, and I

certainly haven’t felt my few liberal views trampled upon at any

time.

Jared Reece

Senior, English