Human beings are regarded by some in our country as subordinate, as not quite human and even further, as mere property. The idea that can permeate a society is one in which a group of people are systematically rendered as less than human in the thoughts of those who hold the most power and those who are unwitting participants within a structure of domination. I will argue in this letter that this definition unfortunately does not describe events from our worlds past. Rather, we discover events continually that illuminate a systematic structure of oppressive domination, one that I believe warrants fervent opposition.

Recently we learned two very important facts that I believe illustrate this phenomena. First, thanks to Florida Senator Bill Nelson, we now know that the Environmental Protection Agency was attempting to implement a study. This study was targeted in a poor minority community of Duval County Florida and would test pesticides on infants for a cash payment. The target ages for testing are “Zero to 13 months”. They were recruiting 60 families for participation. The program would have lasted two years and provided compensation of two thousand dollars if the pesticide was to be applied to the infants’ skin. Second, a senior aid to Florida Senator Mel Martinez resigned last week as a result of a distribution of a memo to the GOP. This memo described the suffering of the Terri Schiavo family as a “great political issue”. What we learn from this activity is that people are not deemed to be as fully human as those who wield enormous political power. For it is my contention that in both of these instances the “culture of life” that has been promulgated by this rigid and very well organized political machine is a systematic ruse that defines human beings as mere means to achieve total political dominance.

Unfortunately, we now see that this propensity towards the objectification of human life has arrived here at Florida Atlantic University. The March 2005 issue of Right on Campus, produced by the College Republicans of F.A.U., uses language that is oppressive and dehumanizing. I believe that the speech in the “opinions” section of this publication may have the effect of producing a violent response in our community because it serves the purpose of objectifying human beings that do not share the same political view.

The first example that I would like to quote from is entitled: “The Continued Bias On Campus” by Elizabeth White. In the opening paragraph, Elizabeth uses the phrase “South Florida liberal clones” to describe people who do not share the same views as herself. The definition of the word clone denotes an entity that is not afforded equal human status. In other words, a group of people who are identified as having a view different from her own are categorized and then labeled as something rather than someone.

Steven Triana relates on the back page of the news letter the attempt by the Marquette College Republicans to run a campus fundraiser for a group called www.adopt-a-sniper.org. This group was engaged in the sale of metal dog tags for $5 and bracelets for $20 that were embossed with the military sniper motto, “One Shot, One Kill, No Remorse, I Decide”. Steven stipulates that the only reason the fundraiser was shut down by the Marquette University Administration rests on the schools private status and insinuates that at a public university the event would be allowable as a matter of free speech.

In his article it is unfortunate that Steven never realizes that devaluation of human life is not acceptable in our society. For, while the sniper motto may serve a purpose within our armed forces, the view that this language represents in our community can be non other than sociopathic.

When someone is objectified, made into a mere piece of property, we know that a space is created within the human psyche that distances the actor from the act. In a military setting it may be the case that in order to bring ones self to commit these acts the self must be shielded to allow for the act to occur.

The moral distance that is created is empirical and typically the actor is not aware that they have missed the underlying conditions that have moved there hands.

Our personhood has been diminished in the public realm when statements such as these are promulgated within our community. It is further my contention that this perspective is acquired unwittingly in a program of rightwing indoctrination that de-values the lives of those people who do not hold similar political views.

This is not politics, it is not American.

Sincerely,

Alfred riegerFAU Senior.