To all those who have worked hard towards progressive
movements on campus and in the United States at large,

SSEC, SAN, OUrEarth, OUnity, GLBT&F, SWSS, et al.,

working hard on candlelight vigils and such efforts as
that marvelous protest at which the reactionaries on
campus made fools of themselves by the ways in which
they responded

we have unearthed another hostile group on campus, one
that is regressive rather than progressive, as
demonstrated by such mockery of progressive activism
as
the fictional lauding of a group who allegedly
"infiltrated conservative and RADICAL groups on
campus, manipulating them into a public display of the
IRRELEVANCY of their positions and actions . . . [and]
injected some SORELY NEEDED LEVITY into the
proceedings" (emphasis mine)

"radical" ... "irrelevancy" ... "sorely needed levity"
(displayed in a witlessness more in keeping with DUMB
AND DUMBER and ACE VENTURA)

Yes, the de-evolution of the UNDERCURRENT from
progressive campus newspaper to dull-witted joke is
becoming complete.

Not all the articles in this issue were so offensive,
but the worst was on the front page, which is often
the only part of the paper read by the undecided of
campus, and this is bad enough during a time when the
campus is slowly being recruited to the reactionary
perspective.

Perhaps next semester, when the UNDERCURRENT again
needs funds to survive or needs an office space, it
should turn to the FOUNTAINHEAD instead of SSEC as it
had for help this semester.  Judging by this article
as representative of the current editorial policy of
the UNDERCURRENT, the two papers are rapidly becoming
almost identical in terms of unsophistication, smarmy
attempts at humor, and slacker apolitics.  Oh, there
remains one difference: the writers at the
FOUNTAINHEAD seldom hide behind pseudonyms.

The reactionaries on campus must be celebrating, now
that even an alleged voice of the progressive movement
deconstructs and dismisses the progressive movement.
Meanwhile, any incoming progressive first year
students have one more reason to fear standing up for
anything: they risk attack from both the UNDERCURRENT
and the FOUNTAINHEAD for any activities not smugly
apolitical.

An upcoming time of nostalgia: when the sophomores
here are seniors, they can tell the incoming first
year students of that day that they can remember back
when the UNDERCURRENT mattered.

[please forward, including to the OUrEarth and SWSS
listservs, both of which I can't reach]

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