'Fascist' label irresponsible

The "My View" column "Fascists at UVSC want one view represented" by Alexander Simon (Dec. 26) was both misleading and mean-spirited. It was made worse by the headline that suggested that a small group of supposed fascists were "at" UVSC. In fact, Simon's article attacked a neighbor, a regent, state senators, donors and one administrator. Those people, with one exception, are not "at" UVSC.

I was serving as chairman of the Board of Trustees of UVSC during the time when Michael Moore was invited to speak. I saw what happened and how the administration handled it. Simon's view of what happened is highly distorted. I have never seen President Sederburg act in an autocratic way. Indeed, he diligently sought input from every part of the campus community on a wide variety of topics, including this one.

Labeling everyone who disagreed with inviting Michael Moore as a "fascist" is somewhere between silly and irresponsible. With complete hubris Simon tells us the evil motivation of the neighbor, the donors, the regent and state senators. They wanted to suppress a differing point of view. It apparently never occurred to Simon that in each case the people he singled out may have been acting in what they believed to be the institution's best interests.

I personally didn't agree with some of their ideas or proposals, but I did not question their motives. To compare any one of these people with Hitler and Mussolini is a total outrage unbecoming a person we pay to be a professor. I believe in academic freedom, but that does not include the right to smear people's character by using highly inflammatory, inaccurate labels such as "fascist."

John H. Zenger

Midway