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St. Cloud State University
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Discussion offers information
By Stephen Harding
Published:
Monday, September 29, 2003
Media Credit: Christin Osgood
Polly Kellogg, a Human Relations Professor, unfolds the truth and lies of 9/11 to SCSU students. The presentation took place Wednesday afternoon in the Education Building.
Last Wednesday the Human Relations and Multicultural Education department sponsored an event on the aftermath of Sept. 11. The event was put on to help the students of SCSU see both sides of the story. It also showed how the events leading up to the attacks may not have been completely shown by the mainstream media.
Another aspect covered in the discussion and video is America's involvement in the war in Iraq, and how the major media reports the situation going on in Iraq.
The event started with the playing of Chilean musician Victor Jara, a man killed by the Chilean Dictatorship in 1973. After listening to the music for a few minutes, Polly Kellogg and Tamrat Tademe, both professors in the Human Relations department, talked to the people assembled about Sept. 11, the ongoing war in Iraq and the lack of information given to the American people on both subjects.
"The government version of 9-11 is suspect; they have not given us the complete information of the event." Tademe said.
"Corporate mainstream media owned by the elite are not telling the truth, the lies are so intense that we should not miss them," Kellogg said. She then passed out handouts from various news sources, such as the New York Times, the Star Tribune and lesser known groups such as www.disnfopedia.org and www.zmag.org.
After the brief introduction of the professors, there was a movie entitled "Eleven Unanswered Questions," that was produced by the Guerilla News Network. The video went into accounts by experts about the misinformation produced by the government. Possible steps not taken by the Bush Administration to stop Sept. 11 and the negligence of the airline industry were among topics brought up in the video.
Once the video was finished, a discussion followed on what the video was about and anything else that was brought up earlier. All were encouraged to ask questions and offer opinions. Many people showed concern about what was going on in Iraq, how the soldiers were being treated and their morale.
Other people made points about how the Iraqi people were responding to American soldiers in their country. Concern was shown about how America is viewed by the rest of the world. Many people in the discussion seemed shocked to hear that American intelligence knew of a general threat in which airplanes had the possibility of being hijacked and forced into buildings in a major city in the United States.
"I enjoyed the seminar, there were many good points brought up. This is what people need to know." said Justin Miner, SCSU senior. Miner has attended seminars like this before, he said that this one did not change his opinion because he agreed with what was brought up.
Other students felt the same way as Miner about the seminar. They thought it was informative and brought up points that they had never heard on TV or talk radio. Many had never heard the details of what the Bush administration had known before the attacks.
"I had no clue the government knew the attacks were going to happen, I was frustrated to hear that we were not told about them," first-year student Jenny Foster said. When asked what she thought about the seminar, Foster said "it was good, but one-sided."
As the discussion wound down, Kellogg and Tademe urged students to keep looking for answers on their own and not to rely on the media for them. Kellogg gave ideas of things students could do to keep informed. He said to read alternative news sources, like news sites on the Internet that are not owned by big conglomerates, do independent searches of the Internet to find out what is really going on or watch satellite news from other countries that have differing views from those of the United States.
Kellogg challenged students to question the answers given by the mainstream media or the government concerning the war in Iraq and the reasons behind Sept 11.
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