What’s complex about good manners?

With all due respect to WCCC’s Austin, about his carefully-prepared PR statement on the Daly matter that notes “.. speaks clearly to the complexity of addressing these issues ..”

What is so complex about good manners?

What is so complex about graciousness?

What is so complex about self-control? (Mr. Daly’s creditors will find that out, soon.)

Oh — academic freedom says we can be immature cultural pigs. We’re above societal norms. Darn — so much stuff to un-learn.

We’re supposed to be immature cultural pigs to taxpayers, students, and alumni, right?

Homer, Regular guy at Average college, at 5:31 am EST on November 23, 2005

graciousness

Like “Homer” I favor graciousness. Civility. Good manners. I have found these virtues more, not less, important when communicating via e-mail.

Like “Homer” I also fail to see the complexity of the issue. Mr. Daly is driven out of his job for private speech.

Unlike “Homer” I am not comforted by the simplicity of the situation. I find it very disturbing.

Patrick Goold, Associate Professor of Philosophy at Virginia Wesleyan College, at 8:22 am EST on November 23, 2005

Death Threats in Case?

Good manners are greatly overrated. But what should really concern people in this case is the apparent threats which haven’t been discussed. The board’s announcement for its meeting declared that it would address Daly’s job and “certain safety concerns that arose as a result thereof.” Were there death threats made? That would explain why Daly decided to resign so suddenly.

John K. Wilson, at 8:42 am EST on November 23, 2005

Another notch in the barbarian’s gun

This really stinks. If I were a tenured professor and received an email out of the blue from somebody using a hotmail address promoting a prowar rally, I’d probably say the same sort of thing that this adjunct did. This guy lost his job because he is an adjunct. Period. It seems that adjuncts are the Walmart employees of the academy. Obviously, improving the university’s bottom line goes hand in hand with political repression.

lnp3, Columbia University, at 10:27 am EST on November 23, 2005

Brave words from the tenured

“I guess it does not occur to Homer that calling other people “immature cultural pigs” might itself be indicative of very poor manners.”

Well, sir — why not show us how courageous you really are?

Voluntarily return your tenure to the state of Ohio and I will step into the public arena to deal with you, face to face, in your Columbus office.

That is, if you think you can — I am betting $100,000 that you don’t have that courage. You’re not even an Ivy PhD.

Contact me through IHE.

[Distant sound of knees knocking, teeth chattering]

Homer, at 11:09 am EST on November 23, 2005

John Daly

Homer: Free speech does not extend to the level of falsely yelling fire in a crowded theater.

Suggesting that military personnel turn their guns on to their superiors is, to many of us, reprehensible and beyond the pale of free speech protection.

Your speech though, as idiotic as it may be, still remains protected as free speech by ALL the military personnel working for ALL Americans, even you. Best wishes, Lou Calabro

Louis Calabro, President at European/American Issues Forum, at 11:59 am EST on November 23, 2005

Prof Daly

I live here in Warren County and wish to thank Mr. Daly. After interacting with the locals it seems that most were unaware of Ms. Beach’s organization and the vicious nature of the group A.N.S.W.E.R. This is a solid Republican county and this incident can only assist the support for the Young America’s Foundation. He has also helped educate our parents, remember them, the ones who pay the taxes and tuition,to the danger of installing irresponisble educators who promote censorship and intolerance to young students. Mr. Daly’s e-mail was not his personal business and opinion, if it was he would have directed it to a general audience, it was written to personally attack a young student in an institution where he was employed.

Iva Cadmus, Alunni at Warren CountyCommunity College, at 1:18 pm EST on November 23, 2005

Thanksgiving, Pt. II

“One thing I’ll give thanks to tomorrow is off-the-wall ad hominem attacks, ostensibly offered in defense of “civility,” that merely serve to make my point perfectly.”

And I’ll give thanks that the courage of the tenured has been proven by the gentleman’s response.

Sir — if taxpayer-supported academia is too much for you to bear — no one is forcing you to stay.

Please feel free to leave, anytime you want. Your open position will draw at least 50 qualified applicants. Within weeks of your leaving, no one will notice your departure.

Have a nice day.

Homer, at 1:42 pm EST on November 23, 2005

Restated: treason

somebody questioned if advocating the killing of American officers on the field of battle constitutes advocating armed rebellion against the United States. If it doesn’t, I’d like to hear what DOES.

This adjunct needs to be indicted for treason. That’s the reason he rubbed everybody the wrong way: not his manners, not academic freedom, not his phraseology.

In seeking to preserve free speech, we have neglected to enforce the common welfare and let not just this ranter but many, many more worse than he get away with attempting to kill the goose that lays their golden eggs.

If we are to have a nation (and I believe this ex-adjunct wants us NOT to have a nation, but to be under the heel of whoever is the most lethal, least decent dictator in the world) we must on occasion act like it and enforce the line that bounds acceptable behavior as written in our Constitution.

Rich Godfrey, at 10:20 pm EST on November 23, 2005

Gleichschaltung

Hopefully, adjuncts on all college campuses will get the message: parents are not paying good money to have their sons and daughters exposed to views outside the mainstream, or at least not by people who actually defend such views.

No one should be allowed to shout “fire” in a crowded theater. Free speech has its limits. Professors who speak out against the government should be treated like employees in a private firm who advertise for a competitor’s product—not on the boss’s dime!

Let students go to socialist Canada or France if they want all that open inquiry stuff. Let’s keep this the land of the free by getting rid of those who don’t agree.

Deutsche Studentenbund, at 6:18 am EST on November 24, 2005

Germans — Moral Authorities for our times

It is difficult to know if “Deutsche Studentenbund” is being satirical or just German. Advocating murder would seem to be a bad thing, you’d think, but I’m apparently not conversant with that rich culture. My grandfather had some opinions, though.

Cato, at 12:13 pm EST on November 24, 2005

Of course it’s treason

Read history, not pamphlets from your leftist co-ops. The Vietnam War did not end because of mutiny. The vast majority of soldiers, sailors, airman and marines in that conflict did their duty. Here in this last comment is the fruit of decades of corrupted education from politicized professors. What crap.

What if the statement was, “Abortion will end when someone turns their guns on the abortionists."? I imagine the reaction from the left would be very different. Some would say it is incitement to murder (which it is). Remember “Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?” I am always impressed by how some educated people can fail to see the plain sense of their words.

Cato, at 7:18 am EST on November 25, 2005

Civility

To Kevin Taylor: If you read around on IHE, you’ll see that “Homer” often posts as “Bart.” A classical reference? I think not. Actually he used to post as “Homer Simpson.”

As for Homer’s fulminations, let’s see... I’m to foresake tenure, granted only after rigorous and extensive peer review, both external and internal, of my scholarship, teaching, and service, cleared at multiple levels of the university, and do so on a whim because of a random posting on a message board by an anonymous person who hasn’t the integrity to divulge their identity and who doesn’t evince any understanding of how universities work, only showing a know-nothing and anti-intellectual animus toward all of the academy, but promises me $100,000 if I do give it up. If I turn down this amazing, tantalizing, too-good-to-be-true offer—almost as good as spam notifications of winning the U.K. lottery or Nigerian bank account transfers—I am guilty of cowardice. Or is it wisdom? You be the judge, readers.

My last post, friends. I’m sure more absurd attacks will follow, but there’s only so much time in a day, and I’ve used up my quotient.

It’s too bad the IHE boards are so full of abusive, silly non sequitors rather than dialogue that might actually advance a discussion. Perhaps IHE should consider moderated boards.

In order to bring this full circle, my original point was merely that those calling for greater civility ought to practice it, not just preach it. I still maintain that some on this board who demand civility of adjunct instructors would benefit from displaying a bit more of it in their own communications.

Christopher Phelps, Department of History at The Ohio State University, at 2:41 pm EST on November 26, 2005

Whose ox is being gored...

I agree that what happened to Daly has troubling implications for academic freedom.

However, I do find it ironic that in his email to Beach, Daly promises to do everything he can to silence groups such as hers and make sure that their views are not heard on the campus. So there’s a bit of hypocrisy in his claiming the protection of free speech for his own views.

As Cato noted: suppose Daly — or some far-right intellectual twin of his — had written, “Abortion will end when someone turns their guns on the abortionists.” Suppose, moreover, that he had written this to a student who had emailed him about a pro-choice event. Suppose he had also written, “I will continue to expose your pro-death, godless views until groups like yours won’t dare show their face on a college campus.” And suppose he had objected to an overly negative portrayal of Nazism (or even South African apartheid) rather than Communism.

Honestly, how many of the people who are now upset at the violation of Daly’s First Amendment rights would still be defending fredom of speech for his right-wing counterpart?

See more on my blog:

Academic freedom, extremism, and whose ex is being gored

Cathy Young, Reason Magazine, at 10:44 am EST on November 27, 2005

Professor Daly and his decision to quit job

I was heartened by Professor Daly’s decision to quit his job. It seems the best course of action for all involved. Mr. Daly’s comment that he did not know he was addressing a student in his email sounds spurrious, at best.

Other people on that campus have written that posters announcing the lecture were placed throughout the campus by the student group involved. In any event. Mr. Daly’s reaction to this group clearly violated every tenet of academic freedom.

My greater concern is the “mental straitjacketing” on our college campuses by those who cry out the loudest for academic freedom. Far too often their idea of academic freedom does not extend beyond their own myopic field of vision.

Feudi Pandola, at 2:29 pm EST on November 28, 2005