Dissenting Opinions: Letters to the Editor

Published October 30, 2007

Sometimes reading The Water Tower inspires our readers to get naked and fight the power. But most of the time, they just send e-mails.

“I just don’t understand why so many people read and talk about your paper. I mean, I get more use out of the Water Tower lining the bottom of my birdcage (I have three parrots) than actually getting news. The Water Tower is offensive and cynical, and your articles don’t make any sense. Now, I admit, I’m not really into the whole “radical” or “alternative” thing. All I need from a newspaper is the sports scores, some shallow recaps of campus events, and I’m content. Go ahead and call me dull. I say I’m refined. Honestly, why should a story about how some girl got stuck in an elevator for hours count as front-page news? But for some reason, more and more people keep reading. Well, I have a new name for your paper: Water Sewage.”

-Nancy Negativa

“I don’t consider myself a left-wing extremist, nor am I a member of the ISO, but I was disappointed at your under-handed insults of President Hugo Chavez. You casually refer to him as a ‘dictator’ who knows nothing about morals as if this were a commonly held view that all can agree on. In fact, your opinion is not generally accepted by people in Venezuela, outside of the wealthy elite who decried his election because they shudder at the idea of land and wealth redistribution.Chavez was elected with a 60% majority, far greater than our own president who failed to even win any majority. Later, when a CIA supported military coup attempted to over-throw his democratically elected administration, the people of Venezuela rose up in an outpouring of popular support to get him returned to office. Chavez also allowed a recall vote that could have removed him from office which was voted down with again a 60% majority wishing him to serve out his term.

While Chavez is hardly perfect, (he did refuse to grant re-licensing to some of the right wing owned media stations that had a direct hand in supporting and reporting false claims leading up to and during the attempted coup), calling him a dictator is a bit of a stretch. The land redistribution and social reform programs he has implemented make him incredibly popular amongst the impoverished majority of Venezuela, who have so long suffered while a wealthy minority has gotten fabulously rich off Venezuela’s oil resources. I hardly see his repression of the press as anything worse than President Bush has done in recent years in our own country, and while we all may criticize him, few would have the gumption to outright accuse him of being a dictator as you did Chavez.

Regardless of your opinion of Chavez, he was democratically chosen by the people of Venezuela in elections far more reliable than our own hanging-chad fiasco in which our president was appointed by the Supreme Court. If you believe Chavez to be a dictator that’s fine, you’re entitled to your opinion [but] there are millions in Venezuela who would be horrified at your claim.”

-Stephanie Coffey

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