Matthew Haley’s adjective-packed, hate-inspired “Questions for Conservatives” was probably the least thought-out piece ever printed in The Daily Campus.

His claims that a “Republican propaganda machine” and “conservative think tank” will stifle “independent thought” on campus are exactly the kind of presumptuous shortsightedness plaguing the debate surrounding the George W. Bush Presidential Library. His assault on the “ignorant Republicans who blindly follow Bush” is for the most part unfounded.

Matthew, have you been too busy wallowing “in lies, sexual filth, greed and violence” to see that Bush’s approval rating surrounding the Iraq war has dropped to an all-time low of 28 percent? Of course we conservatives haven’t noticed that, right?

Or maybe, just maybe, a lot of us “ignorant conservatives” are not die-hard Bush supporters either. “But hey,” you might ask, “Isn’t that an argument in my favor?”

I think not. I think perhaps you are too “ignorant” and “illogical” to understand that support of Bush is not synonymous with support of a Bush Library.

But I don’t want to get ahead of myself and say that you got everything wrong in your article. I’m sure you were right when you said that bin Laden is doing as he pleases in a cave in the desert somewhere, having not showered since Sept. 11, 2001.

I’m sure that President Bush is laughing to himself in his lair with his minions (generals) around; giddy at the fact he has achieved the status of “comic-book-style evil genius” by providing Iraq with U.S. forces significant enough to end this conflict.

I’m sure President Turner can’t wait for the library to be built here on campus so conservatives can begin to “spread their lies from a building at SMU.”

And you definitely don’t sound like “a flower-holding hippie” to this “ignorant conservative” when you say that “we must track down bin Laden at all costs,” because he has definitely been busy plotting against us. He’s probably behind all of the terrorist attacks on U.S. soil since Sept. 11 (none). He’s also probably planning on destroying America for good, maybe with that other monstrosity of a human being Saddam Hussein (dead). How is being in a fight against everything bin Laden stands for (and everyone who stands with him) a pointless battle?

And you know, Matthew, you are right. Iraq is probably just “a complete diversion” Bush concocted to “lie to the country” and engage “in a war with no point.” I mean, why attack a nation with people who kidnap and behead journalists?

Why worry about a place that, after the Muhammad cartoon drawings in 2006, threatened “Europe: Your 9/11 will come”? I’m sure they weren’t a potential threat at all.

However, the point of this rebuttal isn’t the war in Iraq, but the Bush Library on campus, which you must see are two distinctly different issues. A Presidential Library gives a chronology of the history of the United States during the time in which a certain president was in office.

It is not a neo-conservative Republican campaign center where all these blind followers you speak of will stand in front and preach about the horrors of abortion and gay marriage. It is a place to go and review the past eight years in the history of our country.

To go back to my point at the beginning of this article; it will not necessarily be conservative. You wrote an article bashing President Bush, but when this library is built here at SMU, they will still let you in. You will still be able to go and sit in the think tank, regardless of what type of thoughts run through your head.

The Bush Library will not be an institution to poison our minds, but a place to broaden them. It will be a center for learning, for reflection, and no doubt for debate. But let the debate occur over the history contained within it, not the politics that surround it.

I have tried my best to spare you “my rhetoric” and not be “irrational” or “dishonest,” but I don’t deny the fact that you will probably read this and think I’m just another blasphemous terrorist in support of tyranny. Although I do disagree with just about everything you said in your article, I read it, and I considered it.

I will not “ignore those” who express an opinion different from my own, as you urged people to do in your article. Liberals are supposed to be advocates of progress, which is what will come with the addition of this library to SMU. Maybe you should try living up to the moniker you’ve adopted.

About the writer:

Zachary Upcheshaw is a sophomore finance major. He can be reached at: [email protected].