Illustration by Holly Randall

Steven Gerner was prohibited from entering the George W. Bush "town hall" March 21, even though he had a ticket. Gerner, a political science sophomore, was wearing a UA Young Democrats T-shirt and had his ticket taken away when an unknown and now mysterious man spotted him. Twenty minutes later, the person returned to notify Gerner he could not enter the event. Gerner asked if his shirt was causing the problem, and the person told him yes. Gerner responded by offering to change his shirt, yet he was still denied entry.

In Gerner's own words, he "did not wish portray a dissenting viewpoint, only to listen," so he left the premises and went to several protests that occurred outside of Tucson Convention Center. He went public with his story; it has received a small bit of national coverage and has been on the radar locally for over a week now.

The Young Democrats have elaborated on their Web site their opinions about the incident. The issue to the Young Democrats is that if Bush is going to use taxpayer money to advocate his Social Security plan, then all taxpayers, regardless of political affiliation, should be allowed to attend his forums on the issue.

They are correct; however, there are some larger issues at play here. The repeated suppression of dissent by the Bush administration is oft occurring, but is an often-ignored issue. The situation in Kyrgyzstan provides a useful framework for looking at this issue. In Kyrgyzstan, protesters unhappy about purported fraud in their recent elections began protesting the results weeks ago. They remained outside of the president's government building despite threats of

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violence aimed at the protesters. Department of State spokesman Adam Ereli chimed in: "Violence is not an acceptable means for resolving differences." Oh yeah? Is kicking dissenters and those who wish to express opposing viewpoints out of public forums an acceptable means of resolving differences?

The Bush administration is good at drawing these blurry lines. Foreigners protesting in the name of clean elections in their respective countries get full backing (even military support in the case of Ukraine). Yet, here at home, someone like Steve Gerner isn't allowed into a public forum on Social Security because he is wearing a Young Democrats T-shirt. This is nothing new. Bush has repeatedly exercised differing methods to suppress dissent (Patriot Act, loyalty oaths at campaign events, free speech zones).

A side story that has been developing is the lack of accountability or explanation for kicking Gerner out of the event. The Arizona Daily Wildcat reported that not one person would take accountability for the incident. The Tucson Chamber of Commerce passed responsibility to the Secret Service, which passed responsibility to the Pima County Republican Committee, which denied that any of its volunteers had committed the deed. Who was this mysterious man, with a silver "S" pinned to his lapel, who, as Gerner stated, must have been part of the official or volunteer presence at the event because of his chumminess with police officers? Hey, buddy, are you reading this right now? If so, it's not too late to turn yourself in. The evidence will lead us to you anyways; it always speaks for itself. We will find out who you are.

All "CSI" jokes aside, the back and forth among Republicans and the administration's secret service and the unwillingness of any one to take responsibility for the denial of Steve Gerner's entry is representative of how the Bush administration deals with all of its failures. Take the Abu Ghraib scandal for an example. Despite evidence of internal White House memos condoning torture in the cases of these "terrorism suspects," the White House, and especially Bush, has consistently denied any responsibility for the events that took place, Bush stood behind his secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, when the blame landed upon him. Bush, the consummate supporter of troops, deflected responsibility back to the perpetrating soldiers, who must have been acting out of line on their own authority. The reality is that Bush would cover his own ass and let everyone around him go down in flames before he actually became a man and took responsibility for himself.

In Bush's world, it's "my way or no way," and any opposition is not worth a minute of his time. The ridiculous thing is that Steven Gerner didn't even want to create a fuss; he just wanted to see an elected official whose salary he is paying with his tax money. What's so wrong with that?

Dan Post is an anthropology and ecology senior. He can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.