The
United States of the Offended
December
6, 2002
Contrary
to Tom Daschle's belief that conservative talk radio is out
to get him and it's an evil entity, I must admit I am an avid
listener. I listen to Rush, O'Reilly, Hannity, Imus (until
he gets on my nerves - which is usually after about five minutes)
and Neil Boortz. Almost every afternoon, I have radios turned
on in every room of my house while I work and, today, wrap
Christmas presents. It was during the Boortz show I heard
something that made me drop the Scotch Tape in the floor.
For
those who don't know, Neil Boortz broadcasts his show from
Atlanta, Georgia. He has a nice little sound bite disclaimer:
Boortz
talks about issues affecting the South on occassion, and when
he mentioned a story about a Vanderbilt University professor
calling soldiers of the Confederate Army traitors, I did my
homework.
Assistant
professor of Mathematics, Jonathan David Farley, wrote a scathing
and controversial commentary piece for The Tennessean - Nashville's
paper of record. Farley wrote, "Every Confederate soldier
deserved not a hallowed resting place at the end of his days
but a reservation at the end of the gallows..." The article,
titled "Remnants of the Confederacy glorifying a time
of tyranny,'' published in the November 20 edition has brought
a firestorm of protest from southern heritage groups and individuals
from all over the country. This article capped off months
of brewing wrath over Vanderbilt University's removal of the
word confederate from Confederate Memorial Hall, a dormitory
built in 1935 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
Further,
Mr. Farley states in his article that modern-day Southerners
who deny the Civil War was about slavery are ''the new Holocaust
revisionists,'' and the Confederates were ''cowards masquerading
as civilized men.'' Over 1,500 angry e-mails and several hundred
phone calls flooded the offices of The Tennessean which provoked
the good professor to proclaim that people were upset because
they were not used to an African-American man "looking
them directly in the eye." The teacher must be a student
of the Jesse Jackson Handbook of Deep Pocket Talking Points.
Let's
take a look at Farley's argument. One has to assume that the
Civil War, (or as known around these parts as the War of Northern
Aggression,) was fought strictly over slavery. It's what we
were taught in public school, and no doubt, what our children
are being taught now. To clarify, it was a war of secession
over state's rights issues, one of which was slavery - but
was in no way treasonous. To say otherwise is a slap to any
veteran of any war, foriegn or domestic.
Now,
let's take a look at Mr. Farley. Originally from Rochester,
N.Y., the 32-year old is a graduate of Harvard and Oxford
universities. His parents, immigrants from Jamaica and Guyana,
are both academics. He arrived in my fair state in 1997 after
a stint at UCLA-Berkeley - the hotbed of radical liberalism.
Shown on Farley's university home page (www.math.vanderbilt.edu/~farley)
is a photo of him posing beside a poster of Marxist revolutionary
Ernesto "Che" Guevara. A man he refers to as "a
hero." Mr. Farley is also a member of the Green Party,
and fielded a failed bid to run for Congress finishing a dismal
fourth in the state race this year. The Green Party, both
the U.S. charter and its international counterparts, call
for non-violent solutions to problems. Calling for a hanging
of a war vet just doesn't fit, does it?
What
provoked Farley to these outrageous claims is not clear. Maybe
it's the "in" thing to do considering that almost
every state in the South rid itself of any display, mention
or hint of the Confederate battle flag. Reparations is actually
being taken seriously, as city and state governments are revising
policy based on if a company might have profited from slave
labor. Forty acres and a Lexus, joked a Chicago city councilman
recently. Enough is enough.
When
asked to comment about Professor Farley's observations, Michael
Schoenfeld, Vanderbilt's vice chancellor for public affairs
responded: "Professor Farley is speaking as an individual,
he does not represent Vanderbilt University's policy, and
his statements are neither supported nor endorsed by the university."
Too much more equivocation on anyone's part, and next thing
you know, we'll be changing the country's name to the United
States of the Offended.
This
is not a freedom of speech issue. While most will defend Farley's
right to express his opinion, it's a different ball park when
history is revised in an attempt to force social and political
change just because you feel like it. Or just because your
opinion is such based on centuries of hatred and disgust over
practices which are held in contempt by any rational person
today. If Farley's point was that slavery was bad - well no
kidding. But to extort change using tactics such as this editorial
to force businesses to pay "guilt money," to have
people lose jobs over history's mistakes, or to have a college
campus - or state house for that matter - kill off a piece
of American history is asking too much.
