ORLANDO WEEKLY CALLS SOCIALIST CANDIDATE A "RED" WITH STALINIST GRAPHICS IN ARTICLE -- PROFESSOR CRITICIZES CAPITALISM
Saturday, 5 July 2008

Socialist Party Presidential Candidate Brian Moore's Upcoming Speech at Central Florida University Ridiculed by Local Newspaper

Sanford, Florida: Jay Jurie, a Professor at Central Florida University, organized a meeting for Socialist Presidential candidate Brian Moore to speak before the public on campus at a forum co-sponsored by a Students for a Democratic Society organization and a CodePink antiwar group on July 9th, and Mr. Jurie notified the local press. The Orlando Weekly wrote the following story, and Professor Jurie responded with full frontal attack on them. Jay's note and the exchange follows.

The "Happytown" section of the current issue of the Orlando Weekly (July 3rd), has the following:

"Think Barack Obama is right-winger? Want to revive a government system that's failed everywhere it's been tried? We've got an event for you. The Socialist Party, which hasn't been a viable political force since 1912, wants to get its groove back. Its presidential candidate, Brian Moore, will be speaking at the University of Central Florida on July 9, in the UCF Student Union. You Reds are totally welcome to exercise your 'right to assemble' and whatnot, but know that we'll be watching."

At the top of the page there's a Soviet-era graphic of a couple holding a hammer and sickle behind a helmeted soldier holding a rifle, with a caption underneath that reads: "Fellow Travelers! Join our glorious march to the future at UCF!"

Below is the letter Professor Jurie sent to the Orlando Weekly in response:

Was your snide commentary [Happytown, July 3] about Brian Moore of the Socialist Party speaking at UCF supposed to be cute or just shallow? Given the Stalinist-era graphic accompanying your commentary, I'm inclined to suspect the latter. Accusing the Socialist Party of not being a viable political force since 1912, you were pretty old-fashioned yourselves. It's been a while since I've seen such a classic example of red-baiting, even going so far as to use the word "Reds" in case anyone didn't get the point.

Asserting that the Socialist Party wants "to revive a government system that's failed everywhere it's been tried" is on the same level as blaming Jesus Christ for the Inquisition and further supports suspicion of shallowness when it comes to understanding the differences between top-down Soviet-style "Communism" and democratic socialism.

A recent BBC News program identified Denmark as the "happiest" place in the world to live. Social democratic Denmark provides the sort of "cradle to grave" safety net frequently associated with socialism. If happiness is failure, it looks like the Danes are into something a lot better than you "Happytowners."

If you define "success" as a system that has given us corporate control of the media and political process, the huge income gap between super-rich and everyone else, ongoing wars of imperial aggression, industry and jobs "outsourced" to the lowest bidders, gas gouging with extremely limited public transit alternatives, the subprime housing crisis, millions of Americans not covered by health insurance, and the highest incarceration rate in the world, then please mock it all you want, but I'll be happy to fail like the Danes any day of the week.

Jay D. Jurie
proud "fellow traveler"
Sanford

P.S. It's remarkable how your commentary concluded with "know that we'll be watching" the day before the Orlando Sentinel reported that the U.S. Department of Justice "without any evidence of wrongdoing" wants to spy on Americans.