Campus Report: Author mislabels Purdue professor as 'dangerous'

First off, I would like to extend my congratulations to Harry Targ for making David Horowitz's 101 most dangerous list. I had the privilege of taking a couple of political science classes, and professor Targ taught one of them. I must say they were interesting, but more importantly they made you think. Professor Targ may have done a lot of things, but one thing he did not do was lie; he only presented facts. They may not have been pretty, but perhaps that was the point.

Now Professor Targ may be a Communist; he might be a Marxist or a Socialist; he might even be a Republican, but I do have a suggestion. If you feel you have to label him, then why not just ask him instead of relying the yellow journalism tactics of people like David Horowitz?

Such works remind me of the McCarthy era. In my opinion Purdue University is a rather conservative entity; they could use a few more liberals to balance things out.

A Government that is based on capitalism, imperialism, or any other "ism" will always have two sides to it. Capitalism may have its virtues, but do not forget those virtues may, as an example, be built on the back of children being used as labor in sweatshops. I realize that a sweatshop may provide income for a family that is desperately needed. All Professor Targ ever did was to remind his students that those sweatshops, or any other metaphor you want to use, exists. And he might point out that some of those sweatshops might be using "forced" labor. You know what force is, don't you?

If Professor Targ's neighborhood is a dangerous one, then I am glad to say I live and work in a dangerous community.

Jim Derringer

Purdue staff