NY Times Article about SMU

[Harry0569]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/22/us/22 ... r=1&ref=us

New Bush Exhibit Opens Rift at S.M.U

For the first two years, George W. Bush managed his return to private work in Texas as a quiet transition.
While anonymous donors put his photograph on highway billboards that say “Miss Me Yet?” Mr. Bush all but shuttered his ranch near Crawford, scene of some of the more spectacular protests against his administration, moving instead to a quiet cul-de-sac in the upscale Preston Hollow enclave of Dallas. He even waited until his beloved Texas Rangers began their current baseball playoff run to openly attend games.

But now Mr. Bush is bringing out the bullhorn.

“Breaking New Ground: Presenting the George W. Bush Presidential Center,” an exhibit set to open this weekend on the campus of Southern Methodist University, prominently features the handgun taken from Saddam Hussein and the loudspeaker used to address rescue workers at the World Trade Center in September 2001.

The choice of mementos, emphasizing some of the more controversial foreign policy aspects of the Bush presidency, has reinvigorated opposition to the center’s presence at the university.

“It’s the approach they’ve taken all along; it fits their worldview,” said the Rev. William K. McElvaney, a professor emeritus of preaching and worship at the university. “It’s a tragedy for S.M.U. to hitch its star to this.”

The exhibit, open through February at the Meadows Museum, roughly coincides with both the release of Mr. Bush’s memoir, “Decision Points,” and the Nov. 16 groundbreaking for the 225,000-square-foot center, which will include a presidential library and a policy foundation, the George W. Bush Institute.

Antiwar groups have announced plans to protest the groundbreaking, and Mr. McElvaney said other demonstrations were in the planning stages. Campus police are aware of the plans, said Kent Best, a spokesman for the university.

Brad Cheves, vice president for external affairs at Southern Methodist, said the university was working with the Bush foundation, police and protest groups.

“We’re preparing across the university for the groundbreaking day, which will be a historic event on our campus,” Mr. Cheves said.

“It’s going to, we hope, reflect well of S.M.U., Dallas and the Bush Center.”

While Mr. Bush maintains considerable support in Texas, his effort to build a presidential center at the university has raised opposition from the start. For nearly two years, a group of Methodist ministers, historians and teachers sought to prevent the university from leasing land for the center to the National Archives and Records Administration. Of particular concern was the institute, which would operate on university grounds but outside its academic controls.

In 2008, the South Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church agreed to support the lease, on the condition that university officials monitor the institute’s effect on scholarship.

The new opening exhibit, some Methodist leaders said, provides a disturbing first glimpse into the presidential center’s priorities.

“I hope that a bullhorn will not become the symbol for the entry of the United States into an unjustified war and that a pistol of Saddam Hussein’s is not seen as some strange symbol of victory in that horrendous misjudgment,” said Tex Sample, an elder in the Methodist Church who helped lead the opposition to the Bush Institute’s placement at S.M.U. “That these should be the symbols of the values and commitments of the Bush administration and should now become the face of Southern Methodist University is cause for alarm.”

On campus, where nearly 5,000 supporters are expected to attend the groundbreaking, others seemed less concerned.

Austin Prentice, vice president of the student body, described Mr. Bush’s choice of the university as “an incredible honor.”

[RednBlue11]

a couple things...

NYT getting to the party late about the whole "controversy"? lol.

I am definitely going to see the handgun Hussein had on him when he was caught.

this whole protest thing will be fun to see unravel...

good luck organizing anything significant on campus, and i wonder how long it will take some good ole boys to make them uncomfortable?

[PonyKai]

Eff em. Six or seven schools have a presidential library. We're one of them. The other 3200 schools can go suck it.

[b_caesar]

I don't care what your political leanings may be. To have a US Presidential Library on campus is a HUGE honor and it will be an incredible repository for the historical time during which Bush was president.

To think that any one or two or more items of simple historical value from the Bush Presidency will be lifted up as universal symbols in some fashion is placing an errant and undeservedly high political value on things that should be less about politics and more about history - it was what it was, when it was. And now it's not that anymore, so let's try to understand it in the proper and broad historical context, and not within the myopic lens of politics.

We'll likely never know the true scope of what happened before or after 9/11, but I fully expect that this library and institute will be open for a very long time after we're gone to help those who come after us truly learn what was going on at the time.

SMU just happens to be the place where this is occurring. I think we would have seen this kind of politically charged opposition no matter where and in what form the Library and Institute ended up being built. It goes with the territory. Conspiracy nuts and theorists and pundits will surround and speculate and expound and pontificate and try to frame to their advantage this period of US history just as much, if not possibly more, than the events of late November 1963.

I think that every mention of SMU, however perceived when connected with this important part of US history, is all good for SMU in the long run.

[NavyCrimson]

RednBlue11: "...and i wonder how long it will take some good ole boys to make them uncomfortable?"

Love it!

[Water Pony]

The Hoover Institute does not appear to hurt Stanford University.

As for the NY Times, remember they are writing for their audience. Selective facts, even if dated, are always welcomed.

[EastStang]

Yawwwn. Old news, thank you for playing New York Times. When President B.O. sees the legislative blood bath that's about to be put on him, he's going to wish Bush was still in charge.

[Harry0569]

The NYT has been publishing articles about this topic since the controversy started, so I wouldn't call them late to the party.

Personally, I think W was one of the 3 worst Presidents we ever had. With that said, I do think it is an honor to have a library at my alma matter. What troubles me [I'm sure Stallion will agree, as do the other opponents] is the Institute, and it's blatant conservative leanings. The educational experience is supposed to be about expanding one's horizons and learning about a variety of different view points. The institute has one closed-minded view that will further drive partisan politics in our youth.

Please don't respond with the typical line "well if you [any student] don't want to participate in the Bush Institute, then you don't have to." That's a B-S counter argument.

[ponyboy]

Being blantly conservative is fine; you'll get the rest of your views from the onesidedness of the liberal elite who teach at SMU.

Having said that, I agree that Bush -- with a few exceptions -- was a failure as a president. Both he and his father betrayed the Reagan revolution. The Tea Party is a reaction to that as much as to the current regime.

[jtstang]

The Tea Party is a reaction to that as much as to the current regime.

Yet another reason to hold Dubya in disdain.

[gostangs]

Based on the elections yesterday most of america holds BO in disdain

[Stallion]

seems to me that Bush and Bush II kept with the same budget busting economic policies (aka Voodoo Economics) that Ronald Reagan INVENTED. Reagan was where this all went wrong and Republicans can't admit he was wrong so we now have 20 years of proof that Republicans are the deficit busters. What is really a hilarious about all the angst about the misleading statements that Obama is an unprecedented deficit busting President is that everyone conveniently forgets that Obama's first budget is actually lower that Bush II's last budget. (I've got my hand on a string of articles from the conservative Cato Institute to prove this if anybody doubts that claim). Just because Fox repeatedly lies about the deficit run-up doesn't make it true. George W. Bush is the current biggest Deficit President in the History of the World. The only President who has had any success in 30 years lowering the Budget Deficit was the Great Bill Clinton and he of course utilized the same tax rates for the upper 2% proposed by Obama which Republicans basically label as a Socialist Plot.

[Stallion]

Cato Institute-"Don't Blame Obama for Bush's Deficits"

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/dont-bla ... 9-deficit/

CBO Estimates that Obama's First Budget resulted in 125 Billion less of a deficit that Bush's last budget
http://cbo.gov/

[H-E-B Mustang]

Yes, but he kept us safe.

Except for that thing that happened on September 11. And the war in Iraq. And the war in Afghanistan. And ...

[gostangs]

Draw your own conclusions by trying the link below.

They both spent/are spending like drunk sailors. Thus the historic take over of the house - its our only chance to actually slow down or - heaven forbid - reduce spending.

http://blog.heritage.org/2010/02/05/pas ... -pictures/