When UNC freshman Alec Dent reported on the English 72: Literature of 9/11 course, saying its material “painted terrorists in a sympathetic light,” despite Dent having never read any of the course’s books or even attending one of the classes, that was bad.
When Heather Childers of the show Fox and Friends: First called out the class solely for its assigned books without mentioning any of its activities, including class discussions on the 9/11 Commission Report and watching the movie “Zero Dark Thirty,” that made matters worse.
But the most unfortunate moment of this episode was when the UNC College Republicans, under its chairman Frank Pray, started a petition asking Chancellor Carol Folt to condemn the course, saying the readings “justify terrorism” and “desecrate the victims of the September 11 attacks.”
Of course, the College Republicans followed this by boasting how proud the group was of one of the club’s newest members, …show more content…
Both dominant sides, right and left, focus on reminding the public they are fighting to improve America, but at the end of the day promote their ideas and sometimes inaccurate facts in their own, unique partisan echo chamber, distracting even the most engaged citizens and leaving us all with less clarity.
It’s a world I don’t like living in, yet admittedly spent the last three years being an active member of. As a writer for the Carolina Review, this campus’ sole conservative/libertarian publication, I wrote about the evils of liberal principles, even believing this university routinely went out of its way to silence those on the right.
But upon reflection and natural maturity, I wonder if I simply overlooked facts for the sake of protecting my beliefs during this time, ignoring the obvious in exchange for the