The battle against racist wingnuts should extend to other venues besides tv and radio. The bread and butter of big-ticket wingnuts are their speaking gigs, which bring in the big bucks.
My brother just sent me a letter (below the fold) he's sent to the Univ. of Florida Alumni Assoc. protesting the upcoming visit of Ann Coulter to our alma mater.
As the Univ. of Florida is receiving so much publicity over winning the men's NCAA basketball championship, it's an excellent good time for any and all dKos Gators to let the UF alumni association and administration know we don't think paying racists to spew their hatred is something a research university should be doing. Email addresses atop my brother's letter. Such letters, of course, could be directed to other schools where Coulter and fellow racists are scheduled to speak.
To: 'accent@sg.ufl.edu'; 'ufalum@uff.ufl.edu'
Subject: Ann Coulter Speech
I read in the April 3rd edition of Gator News that Ann Coulter will be speaking at the Phillips Center at UF this week.
As the University of Florida aims to be one of the top public universities in the nation, it is sadly disturbing that my alma mater would pay to bring a speaker to the campus who consistently expounds such a hateful and racist point of view as Ann Coulter.
Help me understand when UF made it a policy to encourage and support hate, bigotry and racism. In case you are unaware the following are just a few examples of Ms. Coulter's bigoted views:
2/10/06 - "I think our motto should be post-9-11, raghead talks tough, raghead faces consequences."
(Aside from the term "raghead", Ms. Coulter is also fond of describing Muslims as "camel jockey", "jihad monkey" and "tent merchants". I recall having two Hindu teachers while attending UF. I wonder what racist terms Ms. Coulter would label them with.)
2/15/06 - "Perhaps we could put aside our national, ongoing, post-9/11 Muslim butt-kissing contest and get on with the business at hand: Bombing Syria back to the stone age and then permanently disarming Iran."
9/12/01 - "We know who the homicidal maniacs are. They are the ones cheering and dancing right now. We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity."
(Does the alumni association think UF is an appropriate venue for Ms. Coulter's world hate platform?)
6/20/01 - "God gave us the earth. We have dominion over the plants, the animals, the trees. God said, 'Earth is yours. Take it. Rape it. It's yours.'"
(Apparently Ms. Coulter's views about conservation are a bit extreme as well. How does that reconcile with UF's long history of commitment to environmental issues?)
I understand that an academic setting is a great place for people to be exposed to a wide range of ideas and thought. That was a valuable part of my experience on campus. However, Ms. Coulter's views are extreme, bigoted, hateful and racist. She does not deserve a forum at UF and it is particularly irresponsible to pay to provide her with one.
I would encourage Accent and the Alumni Association to cancel Ms. Coulter's appearance and use better judgment when booking future speakers.