We are deeply disturbed BYU has invited Vice President Dick Cheney to speak at Spring commencement. Invited commencement speakers should exemplify all that is "virtuous, lovely, or of good report." In our estimation, Vice President Cheney does not demonstrate these qualities.
From all indications, Cheney is responsible for the manipulation of intelligence used as a pretext for declaring war on Iraq, the abuse of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay and domestic wiretapping. There is every reason to question Cheney's ethics including the conviction of his former chief of staff, Scooter Libby, Halliburton's financial gain from bloodshed and many other scandals.
Using a national cross-sectional sampling strategy, scholars now estimate 650,000 Iraqis have died unnecessarily as a consequence of the war. In our study of the Book of Mormon, we find no evidence God condones preemptive war. In fact, the Book of Mormon demonstrates the opposite: God rebukes nations that attack other nations without just cause. We feel Vice President Cheney does not embody the ideals taught by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints nor Brigham Young University and inviting Cheney to address students at graduation violates long-standing Church and BYU policies regarding political neutrality and sanctions the actions of a prominent political figure that demonstrates questionable ethics. We should not honor such an individual.
We call upon BYU's administration to retract its invitation to the Vice President. It would be far more appropriate to have a general authority address students. We are not against Vice President Cheney coming to campus but feel the best venue would be a university-wide forum where prominent individuals from all parties (Libertarian, Democratic and Green among others) have an open exchange of ideas about future directions for our country, not commencement. We ask other concerned faculty and students to 1) urge the same 2) write editorials to local and state newspapers, and 3) identify additional ways of peacefully protesting Dick Cheney's visit.
Respectfully,
Kirk Dearden
Department of Health Science
Ralph Brown
Department of Sociology
Marie Cornwall
Department of Sociology
Tim Heaton
Department of Sociology
Copyright Brigham Young University 27 Mar 2007
