Column full of contradictions

Letter to the editor:

First, congratulations to all of UBSAS's achievements. The group has made many changes on campus and materially improved our university's social responsibility. Second, Ms. Beczak's column blasting UBSAS at first seems to be less an opinion than a flatulation ("Protesting the protestors," April 7). But at second glance, it proves to be seethingly ideologically oppressive. So as not to seem partial -- a "mere" offended participant -- let me first note that I was not in the rally, nor do I contribute to UBSAS or any of the organizations named.

One could spend all day discussing her column's self-contradictions, which bear testament to two options: either how unthought and irresponsible it is (which would suggest that her letter warrants no attention at all and the Spectrum ought to be embarrassed for having hired her), or how insidious, Machiavellian, and dissimulating it is in promoting not only an apathetic and complacent, but also reactionary, elitist, and oppressive ideology and worldview.

The most glaring contradiction begins in the arts editor's initially conceding to a hypothetical group of persons the right to "justified activism;" conceding that janitors "deserve respect and decent wages," and even mentioning that the UBSAS protesters "congregated in front of the Student Union to support something they felt very strongly about." The argument, however, quickly devolves into a statement of belief in the exact the opposite. She argues that if protesters think they have an "influence" on what they fight for, "they are sorely mistaken," that she cares so little about janitors that she would not "stand outside and chant for their jobs," and that the protesters are "just looking for a reason to attract attention."

Furthermore, for a response to Ms. Beczak's comment about the janitors having to clean up after the protest: as Maura Pelletieri states in her letter, the rally was supported by the workers. Ms. Beczak's lament for the "lonely janitor coming outside to sweep up chalk messages" only furthers the elitist ideology that posits custodial work as undignified and gross. It is time for society to congratulate janitors for their heroic effort in maintaining a sanitary and aesthetic environment for everyone to enjoy -- and thanks to folks like the UBSAS protesters, this is beginning to happen.

Ms. Beczak's letter consisted not of logical argumentation but innuendo and fallacy. Her venomous and sophistic rhetoric is in itself insulting, offensive, senseless, and inane, yet it carries the potential to deliver a serious message of selfishness, complicity, apathy, and disempowerment, all of which attitudes sum up to promote the interests of avaricious and socially irresponsible and destructive corporations and institutions.

In short, shame on you, Ms. Beczak.

Peter Pascatore

EDITOR'S NOTE: This piece was updated in 2019 to reflect that the author was not a staff member when he submitted the letter for publication in 2006.

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