SMU's Shame

dear mr. Schutze

thank you for your excellent article on smu condos. have shared with top united methodist leaders.

rev. weaver

As longtime United Methodists, my family and I strenuously object to the placement of the Bush Presidential Library at SMU, an institution whose support is provided in no small part by our denomination's membership.

The United Methodist Church is generally considered the second largest and one of the more liberal of the protestant denominations in terms of political and social issues. As such, the UMC should not be perceived as supporting the neo-conservative agenda that has proven itself bankrupt and discredited through its lack of positive results at home and abroad.

From what I read, the Bush library will not just be a repository for documents (most of which are prohibited from being read by Presidential edict without permission from the former President), but it will be another conservative think-tank and will promote that same neo-conservative and corporatist agenda that has made such chaos of our nation and the world over the past 6 years.

Suffice it to say that our family will not support such a move, neither with our blessing nor our resources.

John Masterson
Jonesboro, AR

As a student of SMU and a conservative who voted for President Bush in this nation's last presidential election, allow me to shed light on the situation with an honest and insightful view that inlcudes details most people are not privy to.

The land that everyone asumes is being cleared for the Bush library did not start off that way. Sure, it is now being considered as an option for placement of the library, but originally (and currently for that matter) the land was intended for the placement of an upper-class, university-owned, living community. SMU has been planning, for several years now, to require sophomores to live on campus much as they do freshman now. While it may seem like an overwhelming coincidence that SMU be clearing the appropriate acerage for a presidential library, the moves made by SMU on the real estate front are all completely legal and are being made by people much smarter than most. One last bit of information, if SMU gets the Bush library, the sophomore living arrangements will be made across 75 central.

Finally, and this should be all that is said about this. Regardless of how you feel about President Bush, indeed there will always be people on both sides of any political issue, no person in their right mind can succesfully argue that a presidential library would be bad for Dallas or for SMU. I would make this exact same arguement if Clinton had wanted his library here. It is simply such a great privalege.

The George W Bush Presidential Library is now in the planning stages. You'll want to be the first at your corporation to make a contribution to this great man's legacy.

So far, the library will include:

The Supreme Court Appreciation Room for their “supreme” wisdom in deciding to elect George Bush as President in spite of the actual results.

The Hurricane Katrina Room, which is still under construction.

The Presidential Awards Room in an Alice in Wonderland motif. If you really mess up, you receive a Presidential Medal of Freedom, Patriots Award or a Presidential Pat on the Back: George Tenet, Paul Bremer, Paul Wolfowitz, “Good Job, Brownie.”

The Alberto Gonzales Room, where you can't remember anything.

The Texas Air National Guard Room, where you don't even have to show up.

The 9/11 Room where you hear the FBI phone recordings saying “They’re taking flying lessons and don‘t want to learn how to land?” “So what?

The Weapons of Mass Destruction Room (which no one has been able to find).

The Osama Bin Laden Room (also not found.)

The Iraq War Room. After you complete your first tour, they make you to go back for a second, third, fourth, and sometimes fifth tours.

The USS Abraham Lincoln Flight Deck mock up with a wax figure of President Bush at the microphone and the “Mission Accomplished” Banner.

The Walter Reed Hospital Dormitory Room--so much mold, they don't let you in.

The Guantanamo Bay Room, where they don't let you out.

The Extraordinary Rendition Room where the “water boarding” torture is explained and demonstrated.

The Magna Carta Room showing the Right of Habeas Corpus scratched out.

The FISA Room with hourly phone tapping lessons.The Dick Cheney Wing, in the famous undisclosed location, complete with Shooting Gallery, Valerie Plame Outing Closet and the Cheney “blind” trust Haliburton Profits Counting Annex. Special fireproofing will be provided.

The Supreme Court Nominee Vetting Room reenactments: Repeat after me: “Business can do no wrong. Business can do no wrong. Business can do no wrong.” “Lay them off just before retirement? Just good business.” Pay women the same as men? Why?” “I am not a judicial activist--I will only interpret the Constitution.”

Plans also include: The K-Street Project Gift Shop - where you can buy a large tax break if you are in the oil business or really, any big business.

To highlight the President's accomplishments, the museum will have an electron microscope to help you locate them. This library will have no books.

When asked, President Bush said that he didn't care so much about the individual exhibits as long as his museum was better than his father's.