Editor’s note: This letter is in response to the letter “Ugly choice between extremes awaits voters,” published in Thursday’s Daily Lobo. In the letter, UNM student Jason Stafford comments on what’s become an “ugly and tiring election season,” thanks to a pair of candidates he sees as being “two extremes so far off the chart and polar opposite one can hardly believe it.”
Editor,
What I see are people angry at quotes being attributed to President Obama, such as the recent “If you’ve got a business … you didn’t build that.” As a university professor, I want to encourage scholars to use their intellect rather than emotion when responding to such “quotes.” As a start, read the quote below slowly. Be careful as you read. Obama’s actual quote: “If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody made that happen.
Author’s note: meaning the transportation infrastructure that promotes business success). The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet. The point is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together.” It is too easy to snatch up inaccurate quotes and send them across the nation. As a former member of the Republican Party and someone who is sensitive to the many inaccurate, out–of-context twists now being spewed in the name of politics in this tense political season, I am asking students and faculty to strive to be fully accurate in their correspondence and political communications. Just be fair.
Phyllis Wilcox
UNM faculty member
