Let me begin by stating I am a white, American-born, Catholic middle-class male who will not sign your petition, David Horowitz. And for several reasons despite agreeing genocide and unfounded violence are an evil. You have gotten me to hate you as much as you hate the Muslim Student Association. However, my hate is productive.

About the article that appeared in the Daily Nexus (“Horowitz Freedom Center Defends Nexus Advertisement,” Daily Nexus, April 28): Mr. Stathes’ claim the advertisement was a simple “informational ad” is completely ludicrous. I am sure everyone else who read that advertisement thought, “How did this ever get past the editors of the Nexus?” First, I was outraged someone could so blatantly attack a campus group with a clear track record of providing some great events for the UCSB population. If, like Mr. Stathes says, the David Horowitz Freedom Center really wished for “the free exchange of ideas,” they would rather have a discussion in which all parties can equally present their ideas in an open forum and converse how each idea came into being. Through an intellectual debate, people can understand how the ideas of those whose opinions differ were created – understanding how other ideas were formulated is the first step toward true understanding.

Now we come to the reasons I will not sign your petition, Mr. Horowitz. I agree that genocide and the death of innocents is something that should be ended in this world. But I don’t agree that the infantries in the world should be conscripting infants. Mr. Horowitz, you are the greatest of these evils. You, just like the perpetrators of the aforementioned violence you claim to fight, brought unjust accusations and undue violence against an innocent group. How can you say you are separate from the groups you supposedly hate when you yourself use the same tactics of fear as the real organizations of hate you denounce use to try to rally people to your cause? Still further, why do you not come to the UCSB campus and have an intellectual debate with the people you are targeting with your hatred, unless of course you have worn out your welcome, which I believe is quite true. Maybe, just maybe, you will see that the MSA organization, along with their members, is a great institution here at UCSB, and I am certain many people here are proud to call them their friends – myself among them.

I am sure you are wondering, Mr. Horowitz, of how you could coax me to “drink the kool-aid.” You, Mr. Horowitz, are completely lacking in the substantial hard evidence of an evil and are rather using a phrase that is quite often typical of a student without the real answer… “The Poo Fling Approach.” Now, since you are such a fine intellectual who of course never had to resort to this tactic before (well, except for your ad of course) let me explain to you what this phrase entails. A person takes some irrelevant information and “flings” it all onto the paper, while hoping that at least one of the ideas is taken to be correct. Sound familiar, Mr. Horowitz? Kinda reminds you of how you created your unjust accusations about MSA? Your hatred for MSA has done nothing except lock the hearts of many against you, distancing you from your goal Mr. Horowitz… Congratulations.

Let me close with a quote from a real intellectual: “Hate must make a man productive. Otherwise one might as well love.” – Karl Kraus

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