The Students Respond –
The Students Respond – He writes:
“DAVIS DEM DAMES DIG DOLLARS …”
And then continues…
“My first thought, as I took their literature, was how refreshing it was to see college students giving up their Sunday afternoon to advocate for a cause … if we had more such bright-eyed volunteers think of how much better this world would be … turns out they weren’t volunteers at all, though they did volunteer that the developer of Wildhorse Ranch had hired a number of campus Young Democrats to push this project …
I guess passion for a cause comes with a price these days, in this case 15 bucks an hour … and no matter how you slice it, that’s a lot of pizza for an afternoon’s work …”
He’s going to claim alliteration for the use of all “D’s” for his little title and argue that he didn’t mean anything by it.
The bottom line here is that he is completely insulting to women in this remark and dismissive of the possibility that these people need to earn a living.
The two women themselves respond to Bob Dunning in a letter to the Davis Enterprise, arguing in part that the column is insulting to women:
“This past Sunday, Bob Dunning wrote a column that singled out a group of politically active women. It is insulting toward many of the young democratic women who read the article, some of whom are now deterred from working on any campaign for fear of getting called a ‘dollar digger’ in a newspaper.”
Mr. Dunning also implies deception when he suggests he was led to believe that they were volunteers only to find out that they were paid.
The students however inform us that they never claimed anything other than paid workers.
“To set the record straight, we never said we were volunteering. We told Mr. Dunning point-blank we were not. We informed him that we chose to work with Yes on Measure P and we both support the project. We are getting paid, but it does not change the way we are voting. “
The pizza remark along with “dig dollars” is equally insulting.
They write:
“Furthermore, while the stereotype of a college student’s diet consisting of pizza is humorous and creates frequent amusement for all, the reality is that a lot of students are working to pay their way through school. When considering the cost of tuition, books, housing, and food (pizza or not), it is hard to turn down an opportunity to make $15 an hour for a month and a half.
Between the two of us, we are facing cuts on scholarships and student loans, and are being forced to take leave from school for lack of financial resources.
This job is not permanent. Even if it were, by the end of the year we would make only about $28,000. With this salary we would qualify for low-income housing in Davis, something that 20 percent of the project we are working with would provide.
In closing, we both volunteered for the Obama campaign. We worked hard, missed school, got doors shut in our faces, all without pay. The only difference now is that rather than volunteering for two hours here and there, we work 20 hours to make rent; which, by the way, cannot be paid in pizza slices.”
As I understand it, the students actually underplay the dilemma somewhat. These are students who are trying to put themselves through college, their parents apparently lost their jobs, someone told me one of the parents lost their home due to foreclosure.
This isn’t about earning a little extra pizza money, this about being able to afford to go to school.
Let me make this point because it came up during the original column. I do not think there is anything wrong with paid labor for campaigns. As I suggested, Obama did it, the Vanguard did it and many other campaigns have done it or will do it. Oftentimes campaigns have both volunteers and paid workers to get the job done. But if that is the point that Dunning is making here then perhaps he could have avoided insulting the students. The idea that they are DAMES (what woman is not offended by the term “dame”?), that they are digging for dollars–which implies any number of demeaning things, is a complete and total insult.
“Digging for dollars” implies that they are demeaning themselves or defiling themselves in order to gain excess profit much as the term “gold digger” implies an individual who is defiling themselves in order to gain wealth through a relationship. It further suggests that they are “whoring themselves” in order to make enough money to have luxuries (i.e. pizza).
My wife had to work to put herself through school and she considers this demeaning. Like these women she had to at times have three jobs while taking classes, completing internships and volunteering in the community. At times she had to take a leave for a quarter to work full-time. As a result it took her considerably longer to complete her education. Bob Dunning’s remarks are particularly hurtful and insensitive. Apparently he never took the time or cared to find out the full story.
This is another example of him being a lazy and insensitive columnist who hides behind his column and never takes responsibility for the hurt he inflicts on others. All the while he is on Catholic Radio preaching about the love of Jesus. I wonder how Jesus would have chosen to treat these women. Mr. Dunning and the Davis Enterprise owe the students an apology.
Again this is not about Measure P. This is about Bob Dunning disrespecting students and women in this community. His column crosses the line of basic decency. I personally call on the No on P campaign to condemn it.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
I appreciate the use of the term “whoring themselves”.
Whether or not one is for or against Measure P –
“Wild Whore’s Ranch”
-it is all too amusing.
Sometimes I think I’m reading the Davis Onion.
The only thing missing from the flattering picture above would be a series of parallel line segments marking his height in in feet and inches.
Surprising that someone at the DE did not catch that title.
As a supporter of No on P, dont hold your breath that we will condemn Dunning. He treats others like we treat our opponents, so why would we diss him?
[i]what woman is not offended by the term “dame”?[/i]
Dame Elizabeth Taylor ([url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Taylor[/url]) doesn’t seem to mind.
David
I think you are over the top this time. You have escalated the issue to new heights or depths by YOUR use of language. Just wish the discussion could stick to issues directed to project, but in saying that I admit my No vote is based primarily on my perception of process and ballot manipulation. Bring on the election.
Come on, David! Jeez! Yes, Dunning can be a jerk from time to time, but you are WAY overreacting to his comments. Insensed and outraged? Chill, big guy! Dunning doesn’t write news stories or even an editorial–he writes home-spun comedy. You been to a stand-up comedy night at Bistro 33 lately? EVERYBODY gets insulted–women, men, gays, straights, blacks, whites, Hispanics, Asians, fat people, skinny people, you name it. Whatever happened to your sense of humor?
I bet Dunning’s pizza comment had to do with the prior UCD Campaign controversy having to do with Measure X proponents offering pizza as an inducement to vote, and the lawsuit that followed. He was making a joke!
Calling him “vile and depraved” makes you look like an idiot and wonder if you’ve been working too hard lately…
I think the whole town should be required to take nonviolent communication classes. http://www.cnvc.org Peace
David:
Perhaps you should change the name of your blog to the “Davis Yes on P” Blog. We NO on P folks have to put up with constant bias from you, a town newspaper that is generally pro-development and now this? Lighen up here.
I think I have tried to be polite despite my strong opposition to this project. I think its legitimate to point out that we are being outspent 90 to 1. Its also legitimate to point out that neighbors in Wildhorse have been told that this is a done deal.
One of the issues here is money and being outspent 90 to 1. Dunning writes his columns to get readers to read them (i.e., he likes controversy) but the point that these collge “Democrats” are being paid (by a developer who has donated to the Republican party) is relevant.
Phil: It is unfortunate that you have once again interpreted this issue in terms of Yes on P campaign, despite my explicit comments that this has to do with the disrespect of two young women. I cannot believe you are condoning Dunning’s comments. Was it not less than a week ago you were crying foul over the fact that the LWV were excluding a woman from the panel? Now have comments like DAMES DIMING DOLLARS and you are condoning it. You have every right to complain in a political sense about the paid volunteers and discrepancy in spending, that can be done without attacking these students, don’t you think?
David, every day the Yes on P campaign commits another error. Today you have done it again. Each error is another step towards defeat or to put it another way death by a thousand cuts.
I’m not on the Yes on P campaign. And frankly this has nothing to do with Yes on P, this has to do with the disrespect for women.
David:
“And frankly this has nothing to do with Yes on P, this has to do with the disrespect for women
WOW! Would you have the same level of “outrage” if these women were passin gout flyers for Target campaign, or Jeff Riesig?
Just last week, you questioned if I “cared” about any other any issue than the Measure P campaign; then yesterday, your story about when Davis is sleeping, stated Davis has more important issues facing its future than the P campaign; and you start your Friday morning with a hit piece on Dunning (which indirectly is related to his ongoing criticism of the Yes on P campaign)? Where is the hypocrisy here?
Bob Dunnning has been ridiculing the Yes on P campaign process (NOT WOMEN) from day one here (including using pollsters from Grand Rapids Michigan asking Davis citizens if they prefer having a “local developer”; the whole “really affordable” claims, the campaign flyers “printed on soy-based, ultra-recycled, sun washed” paper, etc), they deserve some ridicule and I’m glad that there is more than one journalist in town who isn’t afraid to expose it.
We have now heard that Bill Ritter and the Yes on P campaign is trying to use PTA meetings as a venue to register voters for this election, which has outraged local PTA members, one of whom has sent an e-mail to Bob Dunning about it (on which I was cc’ed); if Dunning writes a piece on this, will you then slam him for being against teachers/PTA?
Keep the attacks coming on Dunning coming David, PLEASE; because his humorous exposure of the Yes on P campaign follies has been a lighting rod for No on P support (I can tell you, our donations are way up in the last week!)
“The only thing missing from the flattering picture above would be a series of parallel line segments marking his height in in feet and inches.”
The photo above doesn’t look much like Dunning at all these days. If you want to see what Matt Rexroad will be like in about 20 or so years, check out:
[url]http://www.davisenterprise.com/archive_pdfs/2009/20091004/pdfs/A7.pdf[/url]
😉
This has nothing to do with the Yes on P campaign. Those of you who think so are fooled.
This is about the columnist Bob Dunning the Catholic Radio host who speaks of good Christian conduct all the while getting away with talking poorly about people in the local newspaper.
Do I or anyone else take him seriously? Absolutely not. However, that is how idiots like Bob get away with this. The couch their terms in articles and then have people like a previous poster defending him.
What a city this is! You make comments like, “You been to a stand-up comedy night at Bistro 33 lately? EVERYBODY gets insulted–women, men, gays, straights, blacks, whites, Hispanics, Asians, fat people, skinny people, you name it. Whatever happened to your sense of humor?”
Just because insults at the bottom of the barrel are couched as “humor” does not make them okay.
If Davis is a supposed educated community I would hate to see what a dumb community is like. UCLA would have been a much better choice.
Some blogger I read from time to time appears to have no sense of humor. So now for something completely different ([url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1leDAwjtto&feature=related[/url]): Barack Obama just won the Nobel Peace Prize? WTF?
Others have undeservedly been given this award. Even other American presidents. But this quick? At least when Woodrow Wilson wrongly won the NPP, the League of Nations, for which he was honored, was not yet an abject failure, and the Treaty of Versaille had not yet set the world on a course for a second world war.
Austen Chamberlain won the Prize, but it’s not completely fair to blame him for the peace failings of his younger brother, Neville. … Henry Kissinger won the award for peace in Vietnam, despite having delayed the “peace” needlessly for 5 more years of war. Kissinger won the NPP the same year he helped engineer a major coup in Chile. … Sadat & Begin shared the award, despite the fact that Sadat helped launch two wars and had a horrible personal history in WWII and Begin was a lousy SOB terrorist, himself … Rigoberta Menchu won the NPP, based on her autobiography, later to be found largely false … Arafat won the NPP despite the fact that he was his whole life Yassir Arafat …
So maybe Obama, who has done nothing for peace, doesn’t look so bad, yet. (Next week he escalates our nonsensical war in Afghanistan.)
“Just because insults at the bottom of the barrel are couched as “humor” does not make them okay.”
I agree. In this case it’s bad humor to target poor students (more so because of the economy and the recent rise in student fees) in a college town.
“We have now heard that Bill Ritter and the Yes on P campaign is trying to use PTA meetings as a venue to register voters for this election, which has outraged local PTA members, one of whom has sent an e-mail to Bob Dunning about it (on which I was cc’ed); if Dunning writes a piece on this, will you then slam him for being against teachers/PTA?”
I’ve heard that claim and was told it was inaccurate. But aside from that point, my complaint is not that Dunning criticized paid labor is his use of the term “DAMES DIG DOLLARS”–that’s the complaint. I argue that that is sexist. You apparently have no problem with it.
“WOW! Would you have the same level of “outrage” if these women were passin gout flyers for Target campaign, or Jeff Riesig? “
I’m not sure Greg, I’ve never seen Dunning do that about someone I on the other side.
Regarding laziness, and not checking one’s facts, I found the line “someone told me one of the parents lost their home due to foreclosure” particularly illuminating.