Vis Lupi Est Grex

UNR START: Do As I Say, Not As I Do

UNR START, a political party established by the Libertarians on campus, “believe[s] [they] must lead by example.” They claim that “[e]ngaging in active communication is the first step in transforming our great campus into one that respects, listens, and considers student voice" (UNR START Web site, accessed 9 February 2009 at 7:10 p.m.) (emphasis added for irony identification). We couldn’t agree more. It’s just too bad they don’t live up to their professed values. I, for one, certainly won’t live by the example that they actually lead.

The simple fact of the matter: This group, and the members who comprise it, put up a good façade, but offer nothing of reasonable substance to back up their positions. Worse, they profess to be in favor of an open dialogue, but do everything in their power to suppress dissent. To anyone who is supporting the group and its candidates, we offer this rejoinder.

(By the way, we welcome any comments UNR START may offer in response of our positions, and we promise to neither reject nor censor their remarks—no matter how stupid or ill-advised they may be.)

The author, and presumably the ringleader of the group, John Russell (also a candidate for Senate in the College of Business) states, “I encourage you to review our stance, our issues, and our plan, and give us constructive feedback you have by using the contact page” (emphasis added). Unfortunately, if anyone actually provides “constructive feedback”, or dares challenge their views, “fuck off” is their response, to all intents and purposes. Put less metaphorically, their response is to delete the comments that do not completely mesh with their views, to cleanse their site of anything that might question their views, and thus give cause to potential supporters to doubt joining their group and supporting its candidates.

VLEG (Vis Lupi Est Grex) has learned that the group has taken to sanitizing their facebook group of any wall comments that challenge their views. Although we do not have screen captures of the site, several individuals, including a contributor to this blog, have had wall posts deleted and have been banned from the facebook group’s membership, apparently for making such posts. You cannot "respect" and "listen" to comments than you ignore ever existed. Open communication indeed.

As Wolfie described in an earlier post (ASUN Political Parties), the members of UNR START are uninformed in their positions. In fact, their lack of good, accurate information, as well as their lack of perspective, makes their positions downright dangerous. (I will add my comments to the previous post later.)

And I see, as I am writing this post, Mr. Barry Belmont (also a UNR START candidate) has taken offense to some criticism leveled against his group. He writes that there have been some "hateful comments about what I believe in and stand for as was recently posted on some blog somewhere," and that upon reading them, "[he] was discouraged. Saddened even." Mr. Belmont goes on: "Because this blogger did not entirely agree with what I believed he deemed it necessary to say spiteful and angry words, while ridiculing about nothing in particular in some attempt to prove some point to somebody" (UNR START Web site, accessed 9 February 2009 at 7:10 p.m.) (emphasis added, for dramatic effect).

Did you see what he did just there? If you’re going to be accused of stifling dissent, accuse others of being a bunch of meany poo-poo heads. I guess irony is lost on Mr. Belmont. Some may have engaged in a little name calling, but at least they can voice their opposition to Mr. Belmont. Your group, on the other hand, refuses to acknowledge differing points of view.

Looks like Mr. Belmont needs to learn the first rule of politics. The fact that Mr. Belmont (and presumably the rest of his group—if he speaks for the group) cannot handle honest criticism of his political doctrines and face tough critics of his politics suggests that he, and the UNR START group, supports nothing more than surrounding themselves with sycophantic yes-men. They profess that dialogue is vital, yet do everything in their power to eradicate it.

Those who provided feedback on the UNR START facebook page were put out from the group immediately. People cannot be expected, nor should they be expected, to trust individuals who feel the need to stifle dissent, to scrub what they perceive as "spiteful" words from Web sites. It demonstrates nothing less than a pervasive cowardice which will only worsen if they actually come to power.

Living in the public eye means living under public judgment. This situation brings to mind a proverb that Harry S. Truman often used: "If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” Messrs. Russell and Belmont, if you cannot handle being in the public eye, please do us a favor: bow out.

Thomas Jefferson, presumably someone libertarians admire greatly, said, "When a man assumes a public trust, he should consider himself as public property." The same thing applies here.

We call on UNR START to restore the wall posts of their critics so as to restore any credibility they may have had. If that is not technically possible, at the very least UNR START should allow a full and unimpeded debate to take place on their facebook page and Web site, free from fear of being blacklisted. People cannot trust your intentions, your professed values, when your actions demonstrate utter contempt for those values.

We call on UNR START to open their pages to comments, as we have done here, to allow a truly open dialogue. (Granted, genuine abuse need not be tolerated, but it must be of such clear and unambiguous turpitude to be regarded as such. Mere name calling does not fit that description.) The members of ASUN deserve no less.

Given their uninformed positions, and their out-and-out hypocrisy, the members of the Association should do themselves a favor and refuse to vote for UNR START candidates until they have demonstrated they have earned it.


UPDATE 1
From the facebook:

John Russell at 9:51pm February 9
All comments, positive and negative, were deleted once the race officially begun. We started the group a month before the race began to begin gathering comments and debating with everyone who was willing in order to augment student concerns. We took many suggestions and modified the platform. Keeping many of those comments would be unfair to us, since many of them we considered and changed.

However, now that the race has begun, we wanted to start fresh with our reworked and upgraded platform[.] (sic) We are NOT censoring material that is not completely denigrating to the candidates, and we welcome all criticism. In fact, we are scheduling an open forum for all senate candidates to come and discuss issues, and the date will be posted shortly!

Thanks again Gracie!

(emphasis added). We don't censor--except for the criticism which doesn't cast us in the best light possible.

Oh, and it's not "censorship;" it's polishing our message. Reminds me of "it's not torture; it's enhanced interrogation." Any bets as to whether this "open forum" means anything but?


UPDATE 2
As yet more proof of our assertion emerges, check out this comment Sen. Jessica Purney (Education) left on another post. Mr. Russell's hypocrisy is striking. Sen. Purney points out that Russell is a current Clubs Commissioner who receives a paycheck from the students. She wanted to know if Russell would put his money where his mouth is, literally.

Jessica Purney wrote at 8:31pm on February 6th, 2009
I was just curious...as a club commissioner do you give away your
stipend for private scholarships? Because you do in fact make more than a
senator does.

Under ASUN Public Law 75-48, Clubs Commissioners receive $1,000 per year (or about $200 more than senators). Not taking kindly to calling Mr. Russell on his hypocrisy, he tried to shift the focus.

John Russell wrote at 5:19pm
Thats a pretty good idea, do you want to help me do that? Maybe be my
campaign manager? Life coach?

Sen. Purney concluded:

Sooooo aside from the loaded language in his answer...and sarcastic tone at the
end...he never actually answered my question.

Do as I say, not as I do.