Kimball, Tademe need lesson in tolerance

I'll never forget one of the first articles I wrote for the University Chronicle. The article highlighted a presentation given on campus about U.S. involvement with Iraq.

Looking back, it's not so much the content of the article that I remember most, it was who spoke. The two main presenters were human relations professor Tamrat Tademe and SCSU student Hal Kimball.

I thought I had explained Tademe's call for peace well and Kimball's attempt to inform people about Gulf War Syndrome effectively. If anything, I was confident they would be happy I was able to broadcast their message to 16,000 people, instead of the small handful at the presentation.

Understandably, I was a bit surprised when the editor yelled at me the next Monday. He informed me that I had mistakenly identified Kimball as a Gulf War Veteran, although he was a veteran, he did not serve in the Gulf War. I had also incorrectly printed the number 12,500 as 12,000 in reference to supposed deaths from Gulf War Syndrome. Kimball, apparently, had written an irate letter stating his reputation was at stake and demanded clarification. He said Tademe was extremely angered and was supporting Kimball in his crusade against the article. A correction was printed - as it should be - and the issue subsided.

As a novice reporter and new student, however, the incident was embarrassing and, truthfully, I almost rethought my decision to write at the paper. I didn't quit, time crept by and I matured as a student and grew into a reliable journalist who hasn't had to print a correction for error of fact in almost 100 published articles thereafter.

Although I had seen Tademe give numerous presentations as an activist on campus and sent reporters to cover Kimball in his race to become student government president, the next time I would formally talk to either of them would be years later as editor of this paper.

Kimball, who has been extensively featured within these pages, doesn't really need too much explanation. Early in the year, I invited him to my office to talk. He told me he hated the Chronicle and didn't feel a need to talk to our reporters. I eased the tension a bit. But he was quick to regenerate his dislike for us once we started to report on his failures as a leader and comment on our extreme disappointment with student government in the opinion pages. Kimball is a whiny, two-faced, corrupt liar- all of the personality traits of a politician. He probably has a good career ahead of him.

My experience with Tademe, on the other hand, was a bit more troubling. He came to my office last fall, with members of the Support the Court committee. He alleged that the Chronicle was racist, homophobic, xenophobic and did not cover enough diversity on campus. We welcomed his band of cronies to our office for a discussion to deny their allegations.

Before the meeting, I did my homework by counting up the large number of articles we had published in our first few months on diversity, GLBT issues and racism. I also dissected the homecoming court article for traces of subjective reporting and could find none. I even prepared a spiel about how the commentary and opinion pages are opinion, not news (something that most people don't seem to understand).

The "meeting" did not go well. It basically consisted of a group of about 10 professors and students yelling at me. The two times I attempted to interrupt their endless banter to defend the paper, one professor pointed out that I had cut off a female both times, alluding that I have prejudice against women.

Tademe made vague claims about the paper, which were not true, deniable by hard facts.

If I took anything away from the incident, it's that people who claim to be the most tolerant are often the most intolerant. This man came to my office, spewed a bunch of hate at me and made false accusations to my face.

So why should I believe the other information he preaches around campus, in Atwood or in class? How about the other professors on campus? Or the reports that claim St. Cloud is a breeding ground for hate speech?

As a student, the most important thing you can learn in college is to think for yourself. Do not blindly digest information. Learn to live for your own beliefs, not for someone else's.

My experience as staff writer, news editor and editor-in-chief have all been great. I have covered many interesting events and met a barrage of diverse people. Hopefully, I've informed and entertained a lot of readers with my work. I know I've tried to make the paper the best it can be.