Month: March 2003

Mall security unnecessarily restricted group’s speech
March 21, 2003

TO THE EDITOR:

On Wednesday night, America began to fight a war to defend freedom and promote democracy for the Iraqi people, but at the same time I felt my own freedoms as an American citizen were taken away.

I and six of my colleagues met up at the Southpoint Mall food court to have dinner and discuss hosting a fund-raising party for the Howard Dean for president campaign. We all noticed the extra security in the mall but thought it was because the terror alert was now at orange. I later found out that the extra security was there to monitor for any anti-war protests.

Two men with black and white T-shirts that said “Stop the War” and “Bring Our Troops Back Home” had bought dinner at the food court and had overheard our discussion about Howard Dean. They came over and joined us. We were discussing how we agreed with his views on universal health care and equal rights for all American citizens. As we were discussing this, at least three police officers came over to our table and asked us what we were doing. I said discussing Howard Dean, and we were asked to leave the building. I was in total shock. I was sitting in a food court finishing my dinner and discussing politics, and I and all my colleagues were asked to leave.

My father was a career Marine man and Vietnam veteran. I also have my best friends, college school mates, former roommates and cousins currently in the military — some of them on their way to the Persian Gulf. They are doing this to protect me, an American citizen, and the freedoms we hold dear. I guess those freedoms don’t include discussing politics with friends or sitting with a person who has a “Stop the War” T-shirt on.

Jennifer D. Pender
Graduate, Public Leadership Department

Most of the pro-war
demonstrations around the country have, however, been
organized by stations owned by Clear Channel
Communications, a behemoth based in San Antonio that
controls more than 1,200 stations and increasingly
dominates the airwaves.

…
Experienced Bushologists let out a collective “Aha!” when
Clear Channel was revealed to be behind the pro-war
rallies, because the company’s top management has a history
with George W. Bush. The vice chairman of Clear Channel is
Tom Hicks, whose name may be familiar to readers of this
column. When Mr. Bush was governor of Texas, Mr. Hicks was
chairman of the University of Texas Investment Management
Company, called Utimco, and Clear Channel’s chairman, Lowry
Mays, was on its board. Under Mr. Hicks, Utimco placed much
of the university’s endowment under the management of
companies with strong Republican Party or Bush family ties.
In 1998 Mr. Hicks purchased the Texas Rangers in a deal
that made Mr. Bush a multimillionaire.

…
What makes it all possible, of course, is the absence of
effective watchdogs. In the Clinton years the merest hint
of impropriety quickly blew up into a huge scandal; these
days, the scandalmongers are more likely to go after
journalists who raise questions. Anyway, don’t you know
there’s a war on?