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Editor:
I am disappointed in both the Wildcat and Julie Lewis for completely missing the point of the debate on September 18.
The extent of the Wildcat's coverage of the debate on education on September 18 was about one paragraph. The rest was truly a biased story on the atmosphere surrounding the debate. It is too bad the Wildcat got caught up in this rather than reporting the main points of the debate.
I asked the first question after the debate. I offered $10 if the debaters could show me where the Constitution authorizes the state to make education compulsory. Despite help from the audience, I went home no poorer. The Republicans eventually admitted that it is not in the Constitution, and said they do not support compulsory education. The Democrats (led adamantly by Julie Lewis) continued to insist that even if it is not provided for under the Constitution, they supported it anyway.
Julie took offense at the comparison drawn between statist educational policies (such as in Nazi Germany) and the Democratic Party platform. It is partly the inability of Democrats and Republicans alike to substantiate the government's authority to mandate education that leads Libertarians to compare current policy with that of other tyrannies such as Nazi Germany. The parallels are chilling.
Through compulsory education, Adolf Hitler set the stage for the atrocities that were about to take place in Nazi Germany. Curriculums in German schools under Hitler included studies in "values" such as anti-Semitism. The Democratic Party platform also supports indoctrination of our youth under the guise of teaching values: "Teaching good values, strong character, and the responsibilities of citizenship must be an essential part of American education." In fact, the platform dedicates an entire subsection to value and character education in our schools.
Had Ms. Lewis bothered to consider her opponents' viewpoints rather than jumping ship when the questions got tough, she would have learned a crucial lesson that the world should have learned over 50 years ago. If the deaths of millions of people cannot teach us this lesson, what will be enough?
Kirsten Tynan
mechanical engineering senior
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