During his address to the United Nations on Sept. 20, and on a subsequent visit to Harlem, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ripped George Bush a new one.

College students, liberals and anyone else intelligent enough to form ideas should have been proud. But, there was a problem. The problem is that he did it in the same manner someone would use when speaking to another kid in the schoolyard. His comments lacked specifics and failed to address real issues.

Nevertheless, he still highlighted a key dilemma for me while I was watching: why is it that I’m allowed to hate my president, but Chavez isn’t allowed to say bad things about him, too?

You may be thinking, “Sure he is, he just did,” but by the day after his speech, American politicians (largely because elections are approaching) brought out their American flags and their hypocritical American pride and called him “an everyday thug.”

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not going to sit here at my desk and attempt to explain to you how Chavez is right … I happen to think some of his facts are off. I was under the impression Bush was not a very good person — not that he was the devil. I was under the misconception that dignitaries and world leaders were supposed to act like men — not teenagers trying to figure out whose equipment is larger.

We now find ourselves, over one week after both the president of Iran and of Venezuela have lambasted our country (our president in particular), amid a nation struggling to come to terms with its own sense of shame. Because the truth is, nowadays, we deserve to feel ashamed when we travel abroad.

The truth is that we should start being able to look our embarrassment in its grey-haired, glassy-eyed face. And we should start taking the right steps to change it. Among those steps is acknowledging that there are those things that, when said, make our blood boil and hell freeze over, et cetera, et cetera. But the price of freedom is the duty to sit there and listen without prejudice, and to respond with dignity.

Unfortunately, Chavez did not speak with dignity, otherwise I might be proud of him. However, we have not acted with dignity either.

In a closing sense of irony, I feel I need to share this: President Bush addressed the U.N. a day before Chavez. U.N. representatives applauded Chavez for 45 seconds, Bush only 15.