Received an email the other day from my Alma Mater (not UT) regarding a statue they removed from campus. I was a bit upset (/understatement) and wrote this letter to the University President.
So very disappointed to hear that XXXXXXX has capitulated to those seeking to impose their view of political correctness on the rest of us. Their violence and vandalism has won.
Even the tone of your email this morning was one of capitulation. "above all to express the deep and abiding values of our university". What values are you expressing by capitulating to vandals? That you are afraid to tackle political correctness head-on? The notion that university values are somehow diminished by displaying a statue is ludicrous. Washington and Jefferson were unabashed slave owners. Are you prepared to wipe them from the face of American history as well? I assure you that this fight is not about slavery, it's about political correctness run amok and those that would make excuses for it by admitting, in the hope of avoiding further bullying, that a statue somehow diminished university values.
Freedom isn't "safe". Sometimes it requires standing up to bullies, even when there is risk of physical danger. Your actions reinforce the tactics of violence and vandalism and will serve only to encourage those that would employ those tactics to do so again. Who will be the next target of their ire?
Here is a teachable moment for the university. You may have the mistaken impression that running from this fight will make it go away, but it won't. It'll be back in some other manifestation soon enough. Don't shrink from this fight and lean on "safety" or "values" as an excuse. Your actions make the university less safe by rewarding violence as a means of protest. Don't let the bullies win, it just encourages them.
Money talks, bull walks!
