Editor,
I am writing to express my strong objection to UNM-PIRG receiving student fees to hire PIRG employees. The Public Interest Research Group is publicized as an advocacy group for students and the public interest. However, its public positions show it clearly has liberal/leftist agenda. I site here two examples:
1) Its members hold a fixed belief that the world is experiencing man-made global warming that can only be alleviated by
massive international intervention.
2) They are convinced that the United States is experiencing health care problems so critical that wide scale “reform,” including a public option, is required.
These two contentions have been challenged by many responsible individuals. The PIRG position on climate is disputed by over 650 scientists, as reported by Senator James Inhofe in the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Minority Report of Dec. 11, 2008. The debate about health care rages today. The country is divided on this issue, and many polls show more people oppose rather than favor the proposed changes.
PIRG is not a dispassionate advocate or science-centered proponent, but a biased participant promoting a particular view. Were this not bad enough, UNM-PIRG has become active on at least one foreign policy issue. It has provided meeting space in its on-campus office for an anti-Israel group. Nothing in the PIRG mission statement allows such action.
The University of New Mexico has many chartered clubs. They have a wide range of interests and activities. They advocate myriad positions on a host of issues. Why then should UNM-PIRG be given a special role and student fees to promote biased, doctrinaire views?
Donald Gluck
UNM student
