117 incidents and 40 professors are named. Many of the professors named are top in their field of study. Comments are taken out of context and distorted to make these professors blacklisted, and since the American Council of Trustees and Alumni is the "the largest private source of support for higher education", this report criticizing these people will likely be highly regarded and will have a great impact.
This document is remarkeably similar to a blacklist, pinpointing individuals for their "anti-American" speech. Professors that are pinpointed are almost always simply trying to invoke thought, critical thinking, and careful analysis of the situation from all sides of the story.
Let's hope this doesn't scare professors and students at our campuses into silence. Even more, let's hope this isn't used to target "anti-American" people.
Read more at The Mercury News.
--Sam Kennedy
- Corsican adds:
Lynne Cheney (the Vice President's wife) and Senator Joe Lieberman (almost our Vice President) have compiled a list of "more than 40" professors and other faculty at universities across the country who have voiced disagreement with the activities of the federal government in relation to the September 11th terrorist attacks. In a report ironically titled "Defending Civilization: How Our Universities Are Failing America," Cheney and Lieberman's group, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, has determined that "when a nation's intellectuals are unwilling to defend its civilization, they give comfort to its adversaries."
Never mind that using the phrase "give comfort to its adversaries" smacks -- intentionally I'm sure -- of the definition of Treason as defined in the U.S. Constitution:
"Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or, in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort."
Never mind also that the right to speak out against the government's wrongful acts is arguably the most important right an American citizen has. Never mind that a civilization is hardly "strengthened" by forcing its intellectuals into silence. How fair would a trial be, for example, if only one side was allowed to present a case?
Some noteworthy examples of who made it onto this blacklist: A Yale professor who pointed out that terrorists willing to commit suicide for their beliefs emerge from "desperate, angry and bereaved" people. A University of Oregon professor who suggested the U.S. should try to "understand the reasons behind the terrifying hatred directed" at us.
This kind of crap almost makes me wish Lieberman could go back to bitching and whining about the media; at least that was relatively harmless.
--Jason
