Kimball, Tademe need lesson in tolerance
Nick Hanson
Issue date: 5/2/05 Section: Commentary
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Looking back, it's not so much the content of the article that I remember most, it was who spoke. The two main presenters were human relations professor Tamrat Tademe and SCSU student Hal Kimball.
I thought I had explained Tademe's call for peace well and Kimball's attempt to inform people about Gulf War Syndrome effectively. If anything, I was confident they would be happy I was able to broadcast their message to 16,000 people, instead of the small handful at the presentation.
Understandably, I was a bit surprised when the editor yelled at me the next Monday. He informed me that I had mistakenly identified Kimball as a Gulf War Veteran, although he was a veteran, he did not serve in the Gulf War. I had also incorrectly printed the number 12,500 as 12,000 in reference to supposed deaths from Gulf War Syndrome. Kimball, apparently, had written an irate letter stating his reputation was at stake and demanded clarification. He said Tademe was extremely angered and was supporting Kimball in his crusade against the article. A correction was printed - as it should be - and the issue subsided.
As a novice reporter and new student, however, the incident was embarrassing and, truthfully, I almost rethought my decision to write at the paper. I didn't quit, time crept by and I matured as a student and grew into a reliable journalist who hasn't had to print a correction for error of fact in almost 100 published articles thereafter.
Although I had seen Tademe give numerous presentations as an activist on campus and sent reporters to cover Kimball in his race to become student government president, the next time I would formally talk to either of them would be years later as editor of this paper.
Kimball, who has been extensively featured within these pages, doesn't really need too much explanation. Early in the year, I invited him to my office to talk. He told me he hated the Chronicle and didn't feel a need to talk to our reporters. I eased the tension a bit. But he was quick to regenerate his dislike for us once we started to report on his failures as a leader and comment on our extreme disappointment with student government in the opinion pages. Kimball is a whiny, two-faced, corrupt liar- all of the personality traits of a politician. He probably has a good career ahead of him.