By Sean Gardner

Editor,

I want to comment on two of the letters in the Feb. 4 opinion section — “9/11 an inside job” and “Daily Lobo a waste of paper” — two letters that, if truly representative of UNM’s student population, would make me ashamed to be a student here.

The latter, “Daily Lobo a waste of paper” was just mean-spirited and sweepingly dismissive, because an error or two had slipped into print the entire paper was worthless. I would hate for the school administration to think this opinion was shared by all the students here, as then they might take money from the Lobo and put it into, say, posters urging us all to “read.” (Have you seen those? Read, college students! Hilarious. I mean, sad.)

The letter failed to take into account that, as you no doubt know, the Lobo has just lost one of its best editors-in-chief in recent history, Rachel Hill, and is currently in a period of transition, during which some leeway ought to be given. (Full disclosure: I have both delivered and written for the Lobo in the past, and I have a fondness for it.)

As for the 9/11 truth idiocy: Come on people, stop it already! You’re making the left look conspiracy-minded and unintelligent. Hell, you’re actually making the left conspiracy-minded and unintelligent, and as a part of that left, I don’t appreciate it. These insane ideas are no more well-founded than the right’s “birther” conspiracies. It’s just that they appeal more to a left-leaning/Bush-loathing state of mind. It’s tempting to indulge in them because there’s an ample case for thinking Bush and Cheney are capable of any sort of atrocity, as villainous as they were. But as Matt Taibbi pointed out in , not everything in the world can be accurately interpreted through the lenses of our beliefs. Just because someone might be Christian, for instance, it doesn’t mean that 9/11 and Katrina had Christian explanations; it doesn’t mean they were divine punishment for our so-called sins; and just because someone might hate Bush, it doesn’t mean that Bush planted bombs in the World Trade Center and caused 9/11. The fact that so many real crimes were committed surrounding 9/11 torture, wiretapping without warrants, war crimes and so on makes the emphasis on a bunch of made-up conspiracies instead of on the legitimate crimes that are much more outrageous. I recommend Popular Mechanics’ excellent special report, “Debunking the 9/11 Myths,” for further information on the subject.

Thank you.