June 28, 1999

The Firing Line

Yale, shmale

A quick note to Laura Dunn about her guest column in Friday's Texan (From Yale to UT): Get over yourself. No one cares about the crappy analogies that you draw from the "inconsistencies" in your childhood. Your childhood was inconsistent? Man, that's unique.

How did you ever find, through your grueling Ivy League experience, that "certain contradictions are, by nature, irreconcilable, and that truth resides in a mosaic of grays?" One look at your cliched prose and I wonder what kind of students they are admitting to the Ivys these days, much less UT grad school.

"And as I walked the streets of New Haven, the face of urban poverty glared right through me." Profound.
"Inside the tall ivy-covered courtyard walls, through the iron gates, college students share intellectual endeavors, melodic reflection and playful afternoons."

Right.

Ms. Dunn, your ideals are noble, your actions commendable and the zeal with which you attack the University's policies for screwing its staff, motivational. Just don't ever write a piece of condescending, quasi-literate crap like this again.

Laura, what does a city look like? How did you keep from drowning in "the steady stream" of "crack baggies?"

Excuse me for being blunt, but flowery babble like [Friday's] column only convinces the administration that they are up against nit-wits. If you can make great movies, fine. But if you can't present an argument about the issues without leading in with a childhood sob story or tales of Ivy League woe, then keep it to yourself. You say, "the conflicts I have encountered in my education yield a clear, solid color picture of reality." Here's reality: This isn't Yale, it's a giant university. And just like life itself, no one cares where you came from, just what you are doing now.

Next time you write on this topic try to keep that in mind. At the very least, try not to make it sound like a cheap novel.

Markus Beeby
UT alum

(Note: Was later reprinted in "The Firing Line - Hall of Fame Ten Best Firing Line Letters of 1999", was number 2.)

July 1, 1999

Dunn's Defense

It is certainly a wonder what possessed Mr. McNutt and Mr. Beeby to lodge such vituperative and bilious attacks on Laura Dunn for writing a well-meaning, if somewhat purple, op/ed piece about her experiences at Yale. Indeed, their mean-spirited and over-written letters tell us far more about their own personalities than about Ms. Dunn's film which is, by the way, certainly worth seeing.

McNutt's parochialism is clearly shown by the following clever line: "News flash: no one at UT cares about the marked contrast between wealth and poverty that exists 2,000 miles away." News flash for you McNutt: You are dead wrong. Many of us are interested in this very subject, as evidenced by the standing room only crowd at the film screening. Moreover, being made aware of struggles against injustice in places far afield is exactly what people at UT need. Perhaps you ought to learn a bit too.

Beeby, you said it right: "Dunn's actions are commendable and her ideas noble." In the current milieu of self-service and personal gain being sold as society's life-blood, bold and progressive films like Dunn's are things to be respected. Your bile indicates how very disingenuous a person you are, willing as you are to steer your turret at a person who you admit is doing commendable work. Take your rancor somewhere else.

Finally to Laura Dunn: Good film, good presentation at your screening, and good luck with future projects. One can only hope that increasing numbers of students transcend the limiting confines of their own privilege as well as you have done.

Romi Mahajan
RTF graduate student