Kerry clarification

As the leader of Grinnell Students for Kerry, my normal response upon seeing letters to the editor that attack Senator Kerry is to respond in kind. The letter that Grant Woodard and I wrote defending Senator Kerry from an inaccurate attack by the Dean campaign seemed to provoke quite a reaction in the last issue of the S&B. Grant and I were just trying to truthfully outline the differences between Kerry’s liberalism and Dean’s conservatism but, to paraphrase Harry Truman, “we told the truth and the Dean campaign thought it was hell.” The campaign was so offended by our letter that one of the leaders of Students for Dean, Sechyi Laiu, published a letter in the S&B attacking Senator Kerry. Only is his attack was that Kerry was “a liberal” and “the candidate of the NAACP.” Sechyi’s “attack” on Sen. Kerry is accurate. John Kerry is liberal. John Kerry is “the candidate of the NAACP.” In fact, I would hope that any Democratic candidate would have the support of the oldest and most important civil rights organization in the United States. Maybe Sechyi thinks that being supported by the NAACP is negative. Maybe Sechyi thinks that there is something wrong with being a liberal. I don’t. But if he wishes to continue to advertise John Kerry as the liberal candidate of the NAACP, he should let me know. I’ll be more than glad to spread the word.

—Ben Jacobs ’06