Danielle Smith:

Re: The pro-Israel rally at Mac Hall at the U of C, September 29, 2003.

I thought the speech you gave last night was original in the approach it took, painting Yasser Arafat as a kind of diabolical Pied Piper, pushing Palestinian children to embrace a suicidal "martyrdom" as their life's purpose.

The content of your speech was certainly sensational; its delivery was so emotional it made your voice break, and your breath come up short towards the end of it.

During the Intermission, I took my "7th Inning Stretch" by standing and looking around. I noticed you sitting in the first row smartly dressed in black in what seemed a far more upbeat mood.

This morning over coffee I was scanning the pages of the Herald for any report on the rally when I happened on Page 1 of the Arts section.

It highlighted several models involved in a fundraiser for a hospice. One model was attended by a Canadian soldier in a knee-fall position, with his hand well up the front of her dress; either he was fondling her crotch or he intended to fondle it. The model appeared quite delighted by his gross intimacies. The image was, fundamentally, pornographic.

Certainly, it pissed on the uniform of the Canadian soldier and implicitly demeaned his service to our country; with the Herald playing the role of a media pimp.

It's a small world; and Yasser Arafat is not the only Pied Piper to bedevil it.

Sincerely yours,

Orest Slepokura
Strathmore, AB

c. The Editor, The Calgary Herald