A Letter That Goes Unanswered . . . and Unprinted

Last month on this site, AiG reported on a rather strange commentary in the New York Times written by Pulitzer prize-winning columnist Maureen Dowd on February 3. In her commentary entitled “Inherit the Windbags,” Dowd mockingly used AiG’s Creation Museum (under construction in northern Kentucky, USA) to make a point in criticizing the policies of USA President George W. Bush.

AiG-USA President Ken Ham immediately submitted a letter to the Times’ editor. However, even though AiG and the museum were prominently mentioned in this “newspaper of record,” the paper chose not to print the letter and did not have someone contact us to defend Dowd’s irrational column. Here is that challenging letter by Ken, which was partly based on a web article AiG had posted as a public response to Ms. Dowd.

Dear editor,

“It is a tale … full of sound and fury; signifying nothing.” This phrase from Macbeth aptly describes what is probably the most bizarre newspaper commentary on the creation/evolution controversy I have ever read.

To see that the Times would even accept such a disjointed and absurd commentary as Maureen Dowd’s (February 3) is equally bizarre. In fact, a local reporter (who is not a creationist) read Dowd’s commentary and said to me: “That’s not the sort of article I would send to a prospective employer when applying for a journalism job!”

Dowd, who wrote so knowingly about our museum without speaking to anyone here (apparently she just went to CreationMuseum.org for her research), composed a mocking commentary without discussing any real scientific issues. She then transitioned from our museum to President Bush and the debate about social security!

So how does one slam the president? Well, of course, you start with the Creation Museum!

From Shakespeare to the Scriptures (“Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,” Romans 1:22), there’s much good writing to help expose bad writing.

- Ken Ham

President, Answers in Genesis, builders of the Creation Museum;
2800 Bullittsburg Church Rd., Petersburg, KY 41080; (859) 727-2222

For some fascinating reading on how many reporters in the secular media (including internationally) have been covering the growing creation/evolution controversy (including AiG and the Creation Museum), go to “National Media “Frenzy”.”