Dear Editor:
Unlike many of your letter-writers, I applaud the DE for its recent coverage of the Glen Poshard cover-up and whitewash.
After all, we already have in Carbondale one spineless, vacuous, bootlicking newspaper; there's no reason for the DE to duplicate that service.
More importantly, authority figures at SIU and throughout Illinois (not to even mention Washington, D.C.) have worked enormously hard in recent years to earn our disrespect. They have taken dishonesty and hypocrisy to new levels - no easy feat.
Disrespect for authority is a great and important American tradition. It was practiced by such true patriots as Tom Paine, Henry Thoreau, Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Emma Goldman, Malcom X and many others.
Our greatest Supreme Court Justice, William Douglas, said it well (and I quote, heh heh): "Since when have we Americans been expected to bow submissively to authority and speak with awe and reverence to those who represent us?"
If there's any hope left for any greatness in this country, it lies in our willingness not merely to question authority, but to aggressively disrespect it.
Jim Glover
emeritus associate professor of recreation
