Date: Thu, 20 Jul 1995 04:18:16 +0500 From: Anthony Rosati To: Kevin Mayeux Subject: RE: You, Sir, Are a Tyrant and a Dictator! > >Furthermore, as a graduate student myself, I am amazed that you would send a >letter to another person, calling them a "Tyrant and a Dictator" without >doing even an iota of research to verify the information that you are >citing. I spend many hours a week working tirelessly for the 39,000 >students of UF, many of which are graduate students such as you and I, and >to be lambasted by another who clearly has done no reasonable research or >follow-up is both unprofessional and inappropriate. If you have any >questions or concerns about what anyone is doing in the future, it would >seem only prudent and appropriate to make some reasonable inquiry before >attacking someone else's character, motives, and intent. It would seem that >any "true American" as you put it, would show that kind of common courtesy >to a peer. > Kevin, While I understand your consternation at receiving loads of E-mail from strangers all across the country questioning your actions and commitment, you, quite frankly do not know what amount of research I did. But since you asked, I have pasted below the original message, so you can see that the people you claim are spreading disinformation are not necessarily doing so. What disturbs me the most about your reply is that you freely admit that you have 'disenfranchised' members of your constituency. If that is the case, your first and foremost duty is to 'enfranchise' them at the earliest possible date. Otherwise, your claim to working for all 39,000 students at U of Florida is unfounded. No amount of disenfranchisement serves a government, regardless if it was left to you by the previous administration or is of your own design (I have no information on this whatsoever, so I am merely projecting to the only two possibilities). Finally, to dismiss the calls for action that a group of people have with a government as 'sour grapes' of the losers in a contested race speaks ill of your leadership and of your perception of your constituency. Perhaps it is the heat of the moment that lets these words slip from your lips. Regardless, it causes me to think that you are not providing the leadership you claim to for all the 39,000 students at U of Florida. Perhaps this is a fruitless mission - apparently both sides of this issue on your campus are not willing to sit down together and hash the problems out that are causing this angst to be voiced over the Internet. However, I urge you to do your utmost to solve this problem, lest it become a public relations nightmare your administration cannot hope to withstand. believe me, I've seen this happen at far lesser organizations. You are welcome to dismiss me and my comments, Kevin, since I am not a member of your constituency. However, I ask you to reflect on the situation and what could come of it without resolution. The disenfranchised have a tenacity that often rivals that of pit bulls. Take this for whatever it's worth. Regards, Anthony Rosati ABOVE REFERENCED MESSAGE----+ | V ______________________________________________________________________________ This is a call for help -- freedom of speech has been placed in jeopardy at the University of Florida by the Student Body President, Kevin Mayeux, kmayeux@sg.ufl.edu. In the recent budget proposed by the STudent Senate, a rider was attached that said the following: Organizations "may not participate in any form of protest." Protest was defined as "an expression or declaration of objection, disapproval, or dissent." (This can be viewed in its entirety at the ISC home page, http://www.freenet.ufl.edu/~isc -- or directly at http://www.cis.ufl.edu/~ssm/senate/bills/95-1047.html#riders) We quickly mobilized and scared them from doing so. However, this is not the end -- the Student Body presdient stated that he agreed with the notion -- as did most of the Senators -- but that he would see it removed because it only applied here to funded organizations -- and he wanted to see ALL organizations, with a presence on campus, fall under this restriction. He has stated that all organizations would be required to have this statement inserted into their constitutions. This is not new, here, it has been done under the table for years -- claiming that "political" organizations cannot get funded. The Environmental Action Group and recently Students for the Ethical Treatment of Animals have become victims of this arbitrary abuse of power -- while at the same time, groups of their political persuasion have received funding without any words of objection - and are often the recipients of some of the highest budgets. Now they want to take it a step further - and give themselves a legal basis for such a denial -- and to impact groups that dont want anything to do with the Student Government anyway. PLEASE -- send e-mail -- alot of it, to Kevin Mayeux - President -- kmayeux@sg.ufl.edu Please, also CC: a copy to the Independent Majority: indepm@freenet.ufl.edu This is the only way that we will have a record of this, as we are being denied access to their e-mail for the moment. Florida has a public records law that requires access - but they are making it difficult and we believe that they will not give us all of it. Thanks, Charlie _____________________________________________________________________________ Charlie Grapski | 1125 S.W. 4th Ave. B1 University of Florida | Gainesville, Fl. 32601 cgrapski@grove.ufl.edu | (904) 335-4439 Take a look at my WEB SITE: http://grove.ufl.edu/~cgrapski ** Resources on Democracy, Proportional Representation, Government, Law, and more - take a look ** ______________________________________________________________________________