Sep 18 2008
Should one off-color comment drown out the author’s point?
Here are two stories from a “Journalism Major” California State University in Sacremento, CA named Briana Monasky. It is scary to think people have such little use of the English language and think it is OK to use profanity and ugly language to get their point across.
Here is her first Article. [The State Hornet]
The 2008 presidential campaign has been a major interest and concern for me, as it should be for any college student with the ability to exercise their right to vote their conscience.
The Republican pick for vice president, Gov. Sarah Palin, is appalling and offensive to any woman - no, any human being - with a brain and an ounce of self-respect. Palin is no feminist. Her policies on abortion and sex education make me hope I never have a daughter that could be affected by them.
This is a woman who cut sex education funding in Alaska and ended up with a 17-year-old knocked up by a hockey player. Beyond that, Palin and other Republicans preach abstinence-only sex education campaigns that don’t work. Remember that string of pregnant girls in Massachusetts? Those girls complained on national television that they couldn’t get birth control. What a nation we live in.
In Palin’s release regarding the pregnant teen, she said that she and her husband were “proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents.” I suppose that must be true considering her policy on abortion. Palin is vehemently pro-life. In fact, she is committed, along with McCain, to overturning Roe v. Wade. She doesn’t approve of abortion even in cases of rape and incest.
That may be my main issue with Palin, the first female candidate for this position. This should be monumental. I should be incredibly proud to finally see a woman on the stage. Instead, I am ashamed that my country is letting her run. When I hear that women are pro-life I simply don’t understand. Beyond that, as a victim of sexual assault I consider it devastating to think that a woman may have to carry a child to term conceived from an act of hate. I hope her dad rapes her and she has to carry that child to term. I bet you she wouldn’t. I bet she’d grab a coat hanger herself and take care of it.
Read more here.
Then she tries to justify herself here:
Words are powerful. Believe me, I get it. I am a journalism major with a capital ‘J.’ However, to think that in any way, shape or form I could actually literally mean harm upon Sarah Palin is ridiculous. Were you joking with all of these comments and letters? You had to be. No one could really think I would mean that, right? Apparently not. Apparently I need to clarify what I meant.
As the sister of a stand-up comedian, I think vulgarity can be useful to demonstrate a point, whether it be humorous or shocking. In this case, I was simply saying that Palin, under a tragic circumstance such as rape, and worse, the incestuous variety, would not choose to carry the child to term. Did it come across well in the piece? Absolutely not. Do I regret it? Absolutely not.
Perhaps I should enlighten all of the people who were kind enough to make comments (17 so far) on the website or wrote letters to the editor. I do not mince my words. There is no brunoise involved.
I understand quite well the complexity of the abortion issue. It seems that half the people want the option, and the other half consider it a done deal once that egg is fertilized. That has nothing to do with my column. To be honest, the fact that I centered the piece around the issue was a bad idea in the first place. No matter what my statements were, someone was bound to end up angry. I focused on the sex education and abortion because of the buzz around Bristol’s pregnancy. These reasons are not the only ones that urge me to not agree with Palin.
All anger aside, I stand behind the statements I made about her. One line lacked eloquence, but it was supposed to. To take what I said and somehow attribute it to who I am as a person is equally offensive. To question whether I am, in fact, a victim of sexual assault is inexcusable. Anyone who went through what I did would feel the same. Furthermore, to infer that I am in any way an emotionally unstable person is reaching. I am up front about my experiences. I may have joked about the subject matter, but believe me: I take sexual assault seriously.
My only regret comes from the disappointment in realizing that you all got so hung up on one sentence that you missed the whole point; so hung up that you accused me of fabricating a personal experience that will haunt me forever. I am not trying to work out my issues on paper, simply trying to open your eyes to people’s policies by comparing them with parts of who I am.
Read more here.
[From me]
Ms. Monasky is that what they are teaching you in journalism school? Your own candidate said that families were off limits. You are just an angry misguided young woman. You are obviously too young to know that every word you say has meaning. What you said was offensive and instead of apologizing you try to justify yourself. People with integrity learn from their mistakes, apologize, change and move on. Those with an axe to grind will make excuses for their behavior and try to make others feel bad. I hold no ill will towards you. In the past I probably would have said some ugly things about you but I just feel sorry for you. I will pray that God will change your angry spirit.
What do you think?
