Letter: How Sun Myung Moon Took Over the University of Bridgeport

Connecticut Post
http://www.connpost.com/ci_12877455?source=most_emailed
07/20/2009

Editor:

Does the Connecticut Post have "Moon fever"?

No, I'm not referring to the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing on its front page, but Sunday's editorial titled "Mayor's disdain of UB undeserved."

Deserved or not, telling Mayor Bill Finch to "stifle" his remarks in regards to the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's association with the University of Bridgeport is sheer lunacy for a newspaper whose daily operation is based on those same unabridged First Amendment rights.

Finch is certainly "entitled to his personal opinion and to harbor whatever beliefs he wants," but the facts are that UB made a Faustian bargain with the Professors World Peace Academy, which bailed out the university in return for a controlling interest of its board of trustees.

More than an "off-shoot of the Unification Church," the PWPA has been described by The New York Times as "the academic arm" of that church, revealing a clear connection between Moon and UB through a front organization that receives most of its funding from the UC.

As for Finch's accusation of criminal activity, Moon was convicted for income tax evasion and conspiracy to commit fraud in 1984; he served one year at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury.

Regardless of the recent growth of UB, Finch is still entitled to his beliefs, especially when they're based in reality.

Joseph C. DeCaro
Stratford