Barrett fumbles with column

Being a journalism major, I know how hard it can be to put meaningful content in a newspaper day after day. And I really wouldn’t care about Kristin Barrett’s Monday column, “Amish more exciting than Penn State.” But I’m from State College, Pa., so I am not going to sit back and let a self-professed “non-fan” write a column on a subject she has no clue about.

Penn State students spend $150 on season tickets and show up hours before every kick-off to fight for the best seats in a stadium that holds 107,000. And they do this for a team that is winless in the Big Ten.

Northwestern students get into home games for free. Yet even as the Cats prepare to go bowling for the second straight year, many students file into games late, unaware of whom NU is playing. The Homecoming game drew 30,000 fans in a stadium that holds more than 47,000. Penn State fans are the definition of loyalty, not apathy.

Last Saturday Penn State never had the lead and there were almost as many punts as there were points. I’m not sure why Barrett was surprised when the game was not “way more wild and way more fun.”

I hope Barrett does attend more games and buys one of those “dumpy purple sweatshirts.” I can be the person, “raised rooting for another team,” to teach her how to road trip and tailgate. Hopefully I could help her get over her Amish fetish, tell her Nittany is the name of the mountain overlooking Happy Valley and maybe even teach her about the game of football, too.

— Brent Swails,

Medill sophomore

Savage, cartoons cross line

Over recent days, the Forum page has featured several offensive items.

In his Monday column, Bill Savage branded Republican activists “ignorant boneheads” and “dumb-asses.” These childish insults serve no productive purpose to campus-wide political dialogue, and are particularly feeble coming from a Northwestern faculty member.

Additionally, Alex Thomas’ political cartoon featuring Bible-wielding Christians as airplane hijackers is deeply insulting. Whether you agree with them or not, these people of faith influenced the election by adhering to the democratic process. The Sept. 11 hijackers murdered thousands of civilians in an attempt to achieve political ends. To even begin to equate the two is disgusting and totally dishonest.

These two examples epitomize the Left’s disdain and even contempt for people with differing ideologies. If some liberals continue to marginalize and demean these groups they will continue to suffer massive electoral losses in the future.

— Andy Azman,

McCormick freshman

Mike Breidenbach,

Weinberg freshman

Brittany Ladd,

Weinberg freshman

Chron downhill since Weigel

I miss the intelligent perspective, the logical and well-supported arguments and the high standards for spelling and grammar of the Northwestern Chronicle. I pity the poor freshmen who never knew the rational, interesting conservative voice that the Chron once spoke with.