An In-Person Confrontation with Star Parker:
A College Student Writes In

JR notes: I received this thoughtful letter from a college student who went to see Star Parker speak in person. My response to the letter is below.

March 3, 2003

Mr. Reed,

I just read your article "JR Steps into the Fray with USA Today and Star Parker" online through a search at the cnn.com website. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your articulate and pointed criticisms of Ms. Parker's abortion/suicide bomber analogy, and her idea that violence brought upon the United States is the cause of those who differ morally from her within the US.

Ms. Parker visited my college last week, after being invited by the campus republicans. I had heard that she was extremely conservative and I wanted to be able to ask questions at her presentation, so I researched online, but I found only her CURE website, articles archived at GOPusa.com and one critical letter to the editor by a student at an East Coast school where she had toured. I don't think any of us were expecting quite what we got from Ms. Parker.

After her speech on welfare reform and the restoration of traditional Christian values to society (to a nearly silent room of about 70 people, except for the outbursts of applause from the five conservatives in the front row) Ms. Parker allowed for a question and answer period before her talk came to a close. My neighbor to the right wanted to ask Ms. Parker personally what she had meant by "left-wing elitist lesbians who don't know a thing about parenting," and my neighbor to the left wanted to respond to Ms. Parker's comment "Show me one innocent Iraqi!" by quoting Byrd's speech that around 50% of Iraq's population is under the age of 15, so we went down to the stage to speak with her.

Ms. Parker made it clear that lesbians have no place in anything involving children, and that all Iraqis, regardless of age, are guilty because they have not ousted Saddam Hussein. When she said, "I would bomb them all, every one of them," the girl to my right asked, sincerely, if she was being sarcastic. Ms. Parker responded with "I said kill them, kill them all!" When asked about how, as leader of CURE, a Christian organization, Jesus' love of peace might play into all this, she denied that Jesus had ever advocated peace.

Someone said that was despicable, she laughed, and the crowd dissolved.

With Ms. Parker's bloodlust on my mind I went to CNN.com again, and instead of searching for "Star Parker", I searched for "Star Parker kill", and came up with your article from USA Today. Thank you so much. You've made a very frustrating and disheartening experience a little better.

Sincerely,

Mariko Hughes

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Dear Mariko,

Thanks for your letter regarding Star Parker. Before anyone gets too worked up, I should point out that while the search phrase "Star Parker kill" does indeed generate a listing for my piece on Star Parker, that's just because the word "killing" appears in the same letter where I mention Star's name. I completely respect Star Parker's right to free speech and do not advocate silencing her point of view in any way. On the contrary, I find Star's honesty refreshing. Star Parker's opinions are more commonly held than many people would like to believe. You can't challenge someone's point of view if you don't know where they stand.

With that said, I think what disturbs me the most about Star Parker is not her political beliefs, or her violent version of Christianity, but her closed mind. It seems to me that Star is just determined not to learn and grow as a person. I was not surprised when she didn't write me back.

The good thing about Star is that she is too "politically incorrect" to be truly dangerous. On the other hand, her true beliefs need to be documented in case she ever turns "mainstream" and learns how to put her subversive beliefs in conservative "family values code." Trent Lott is one example of a "mainstream" politician who left just enough evidence of more extreme views in old quotes to do him in. If Star ever becomes more sophisticated about toning down some of her outrageous viewpoints, we'll still have her true beliefs on record, thanks to people like yourself. At this point, fortunately, her message is going to get bogged down by her own extremism, though I would not want to be in your shoes, trapped in a room where she had the mike and I didn't. :)

Anyhow, the Star essay is one of my favorite pieces on the site. You're the first person to comment on it in detail, and it means a lot. It's things like this that make me determined to self-finance and publish independent commentary.

Thanks again for your great letter.

Jon Reed