Not all in Washington were protesting Bush
To the Daily:
In response to the two inauguration articles published last week, I am not surprised or disappointed in the bias shown by this so-called newspaper. In the article on Thursday (Students prepare for Bush’s inaugural, 01/20/2005), there was some balance of viewpoints where many different opinions about the anticipated trip were reported. However, in the article published on Friday, (Protesters in D.C., A2 voice opposition, 01/21/2005), the bias is obvious. As a student who went to Washington to attend actual inauguration events, it is misleading to the readers and those who just want the truth about what went on in Washington to report only the protests and the sob stories of those who had confrontations with the police.
Just from the pictures and video of the protests, some of the protesters were throwing things at the parade. The truth is that there were a few protesters in Washington, but many, many more peaceful people were there to attend the inaugural events in celebration of the next four years.
I know many here at the University and in Ann Arbor are angry about the outcome of the election, but as a country, we need to move past the angry rhetoric and accept the fact that George W. Bush is our president, as he clearly won with more than 3.5 million popular votes over Sen. John Kerry’s vote total. In the future, it would be nice to be able to read the Daily for more than just a laugh at the one-sided coverage and actually be able to read a credible news story with both sides represented.
Jeston La Croix
LSA junior
Daily article did not clearly represent speaker’s intent
To the Daily:
In the article on protests of President Bush’s inauguration (Protesters in D.C., A2 voice opposition, 01/21/2005), the author states that “Rather than blaming only the administration,” I “also faulted the public.” I would like to clarify the content of my remarks.
In saying that Bush’s inauguration for a second term indicates that there is “something deeply wrong with the United States,” I was pointing to the fact that the criminality of the Bush administration is not simply a matter of the individuals that compose it. This administration reflects definite social interests, in particular the interests of a small minority of the population that controls the vast majority of the country’s wealth. The responsibility for the Bush administration lies in the American ruling elite, although it is indeed our responsibility to build a movement that is capable of opposing this government and this ruling elite — a movement and political party completely independent of the Democrats. It is not a matter of “faulting” the public, but rather of drawing the public’s attention to the deeper roots of Bush’s criminal regime.
Joe Tanniru
Rackham
The letter writer is a member of Students for Social Equality.