“Cracker!” “Nazi!”
“Asshole!” “Get off my land, you white
racist!” “Go back to England/Germany/Russia!”
“Hell yeah, we wanna take back our land!”
“Exploiter!” “Foreign gringo invader!”
“Baby killers!”
Is this the obscenely long-named sequel to the UCLA comedy trio
“N*gger W*tback Ch*nk”? Hardly. It is a representative
set of comments from the so-called champions of diversity and
multiculturalism who came to the Bruin Republicans’ table to
support MEChA.
The spin doctors at the Daily Bruin and the Undergraduate
Students Association Council deceitfully defend MEChA from its
extremism by focusing on the technicality that “El Plan
Espiritual de Aztlán” is absent from MEChA de
UCLA’s formally filed paperwork. But MEChA still stands by
their plan. If they did not, we would have declared victory long
ago.
MEChA’s official response to the Bruin Republicans’
challenge speaks for itself. “We stand by our philosophy and
the use of documents such as “˜El Plan Espiritual de
Aztlán’ … to give historical and philosophical
grounding to all MEChA members. … The document’s message is
still crucial,” wrote MEChA de UCLA Chairwoman Elizabeth
Alamillo in a letter to The Bruin (Letters, Feb. 4).
When we (the Bruin Republicans) began this campaign, we expected
controversy. Our Nazi reference, hyped by the Daily Bruin, was
bound to ruffle a few feathers, but we hoped mature onlookers would
understand that “El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán”
embodies totalitarian, racial, nationalist, socialist ideology,
making it a close intellectual cousin of Nazism.
But we were not prepared for the depth of this hatred, nor for
the bullying tactics of MEChA’s proponents. On the first
morning of our campaign, MEChA members and their allies approached
our table, taking enormous stacks of flyers so none would be left
for the public. Later, someone robbed and spat in the face of the
Bruin Republicans chairman.
The hundreds of radicals who approached our table to defend
MEChA did not dance the “Daily Bruin Dodge,” but they
loudly and aggressively proclaimed that the United States does not
hold legitimate sovereignty over its territories, and that whites
have no right to be here.
The most frequently employed tactic was to counter-demand that
the Bruin Republicans denounce the U.S. Constitution, which MEChA
and their allies say contains racist elements.
Earlier this week, The Bruin attempted to stifle campus
discourse by suggesting we should be ignored on the grounds that
our concerns were invalid. We suspect that if MEChA were forced to
discuss their views publicly, The Bruin’s assertions
regarding MEChA and “El Plan de Aztlán” would not
hold up.
More importantly, The Bruin misses the fact that “El Plan
de Aztlán” is merely a symbol of a larger epidemic of
racism and anti-Americanism that has taken root on campus, exposing
the blind hatred of our opponents and the politically tainted
revisionist history of the professoriat.
As the only explicitly right-of-center organization on campus,
Bruin Republicans has committed itself to an increasingly
independent path to better reflect the issues students face.
We often represent the lone voice of dissent on a campus that
prides itself on intellectualism and diversity. As such, we are in
a unique situation to speak Truth To Power in the face of
censorious political correctness; to fight for true diversity of
thought in the face of pressure to conform; and to fight for a day
when it is not only acceptable but laudable to defend our nation
against the hatred of extremists, and when no one needs to be
ashamed about the circumstances of their birth. We ““ not the
publicly funded establishment of radicals who think, speak, and
clap in lockstep unison ““ are the true heirs to the Free
Speech Movement.
As the election draws near, we will increase our efforts to
promote the Bush-Cheney ’04 ticket, to publicize Sen. John
Kerry’s 32-year war on security, and to educate the student
body on the values of a strong, proactive, national defense and a
society built on personal responsibility. We will continue to hold
debates with the Bruin Democrats and to work with them for a
constitutional and fair USAC funding policy. We will continue our
partnership with the South Central Republican Club to bring hope to
the inner city through Republican principles.
We vow to offer a voice to those brave souls willing to stand up
to the leftist-dominated status-quo. We will live by our motto:
“Why be politically correct, when you can be
right?”
Matthew Knee is a member of the Bruin Republicans. This
submission is intended to reflect the opinions of the majority of
members.