Correspondence from our readers.
Solve crosswalk problem
About the crosswalk on the highway: why not solve the problem once and for all? Put in a skywalk and be done with it forever.
About the bicycles: the city and the university have got to get together and solve the problems. Does someone have to be killed before this will be resolved?
Sarah Wiggins
Freshman, general studies
Voting for puppets
It is but a rare occasion I pick up The Argonaut to read the witless drivel that desecrates the once hallowed pages of our student paper. Seems it’s become more of a free-for-all in battles of wit for unarmed opponents. While I do have a standing rule not to engage unarmed opponents, a particular letter (“Mailbox: Palin not an Idahoan,” Oct. 14) does compel me to make
an exception.
Apparently someone is disgruntled with the quality of education offered here at the University of Idaho. OK, big deal, but since UI is inadequate for a certain Obama supporter, I offer this suggestion: leave.
He obviously sees everyone here, faculty and Sarah Palin included, as spud-chucking hicks unworthy of respect. Like so many people, he’s been misled into thinking if someone calls himself a Democrat, it must mean he is committed to the ideals of democracy. Politicians hold to those ideals as long as it serves their means and quickly abandon those principles as soon as they become an inconvenience. As much as I hate to admit, Hillary would have made a much better president than the two stooges put together. And I like her about as much as a toothache.
The reality of the situation is, it doesn’t really matter which puppet we vote for. We’re still on a crash course with absolutism. It has been with great dismay I have watched our liberty slip away, facilitated by the moronic cast of candidates we are offered every four years. One can only hope none of us lives long enough to see the total submergence of liberty.
As a native Idahoan, I’d rather be considered an ignorant spud-chucker akin to Palin than a groveling boot-licker. T’was a long time ago I woke up, took a good whiff and saw what’s going on.
So, Mr. Ph.D. grad, find the tips of your ears, take hold of them tightly then pull sharply. After a loud pop, you should be breathing fresh air. Be careful, though. Don’t breathe too deeply. Awakening to reality that fast may cause you to want to return your head to its rectal resting place.
Michael W. Coey
Junior, forest resources/forest products/German
Vincenti ad unfair
I am outraged by Gary Schroeder’s unwarranted attack on Sheldon Vincenti in the Friday Argonaut (advertisement, page 4). This attack supports only one conclusion: Schroeder is unqualified for public office. Latah County deserves better than a state senator willing to act without investigating, or worse, willing to lie blatantly for his own personal gain.
I write because, unlike Schroeder, I know why Vincenti went to western Kentucky, what he did while there and why he left.
My acquaintance with Sheldon started in the fall of 2004 when I temporarily joined the faculty of the University of Idaho College of Law as a visiting associate professor. During my two-year visit to UI, I was recruited by Paul Maynard Hendrick, a former colleague from another law school, to join the faculty of a new law school he was starting in Paducah, Kent., the American Justice School of Law (now the Barkley School of Law). Because I mistakenly believed in Hendrick’s competence, honesty and solvency, I attempted to recruit experienced academics to join the project. Unfortunately for Vincenti, he trusted my innocent misrepresentations.
Both Sheldon and I were quickly disabused. AJSL would make the perfect poster-child against for-profit law schools, but none of the problems at AJSL had anything to do with Sheldon. While there, he worked tirelessly to improve the school’s management and teaching. Hendrick, however, resisted all advice, help, arguments and honesty.
Frustrated at his inability to cure or control the problems, Sheldon left AJSL less than three months after his arrival. Only his duty to the students enrolled in his classes kept Sheldon at AJSL even that long.
I owe Vincenti an apology for talking him into coming to AJSL, but I acted innocently and for a worthy cause. Schroeder’s publicity has neither mitigating factor.
Malla Pollack
J.D., M.L.S.
Trail helps stop illegal dog fighting
I am a lifelong resident of the state of Idaho, and I would like to say a few words about Rep. Tom Trail and his record on helping animals that have been tortured and tormented by illegal dog fighting rings and even other people in this state.
Without the hard work of this man, the small fine for catching these people would be laughable, and they would just come back in a couple days and do the same thing. Illegal dog fighting is a very real problem in our state as well as others, and due to the hard work of getting this bill passed into a law after seven long years, Trail has done a great service to us and all pets in our state.
Chester Marcum
Vote for Vincenti
Sheldon Vincenti’s opponent for Idaho State Senate is running an oddly irrelevant campaign.
His yard signs and campaign literature say, “Keep the UI College of Law in Moscow,” a proposition with which Vincenti agrees, as do the College of Law and the University of Idaho administration. He and Vincenti both opposed a UI proposal to open a second, branch law school in Boise, but that’s old news. In early September, the state board of education and the economy tabled that idea.
Where Vincenti differs from his opponent is rather than being a mere naysayer, Vincenti has offered helpful and concrete suggestions on how the law school can further secure its position of strength as a regional leader from its building right here in Moscow.
Now Vincenti’s opponent is trying to smear him by discussing the shortcomings of a law school more than halfway across the country. Vincenti was never the head dean there. He was intrigued by the ideas of the school’s founders and went there to teach and to be one of several administrators. He quickly realized the place was not being run to his standards, so he stayed only long enough to complete
his obligations to the
students, then left in dismay and protest.
If you want a leader who focuses on relevant and up-to-date issues of concern to the citizens of Idaho, vote for Vincenti. He has statewide support and respect. He has the interests of the entire legislative district at heart, and has the wisdom to serve with distinction. Vote Vincenti.
Duncan Palmatier
Moscow
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