The Cover-Up at Washington & Lee University

The shameful silencing of free speech throughout American higher education is a terrible blot on the whole idea of American education. Today’s college students, led astray by their professors and college administrators, have interrupted, harassed, and even prevented invited conservative speakers from speaking at their institutions.

At UC Berkeley recently a young man distributing conservative material was punched in the mouth by a leftwing protestor who could not tolerate any dissemination of material with which he disagreed. At Middlebury College a few years ago, esteemed political scientist and best-selling author Charles Murray was harassed by students after being invited to speak. And so it goes, one after another conservative voice is drowned out by subversive college students who are routinely supported by their progressive professors and administrators who apparently don’t give a damn about The First Amendment.

Of course, there are degrees of silencing free speech. Some may seem mild, but totalitarianism can creep in on little cat feet.

The Cover-Up
At Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, the first step in silencing free speech has been to cover up the recumbent statue of Robert E. Lee in Lee Chapel during school assemblies.

It’s been decided by the president of the university that it’s necessary to appease those in the faculty, among the administration, and within the student body who disapprove of Lee. But the real question is: Why are those who disapprove of Lee attending or working at an institution named, in part, to honor Lee’s reputation?

Furthermore, why would a young man or woman want to matriculate at W&L if he or she didn’t respect the man the university is named for?

To solve what some thought a blemish on the university, a commission was formed to consider changes to the university, even to renaming it. But why? Was it only after the events in Charlottesville, where the statue of Robert E. Lee was going to be pulled down, that W&L administrators and faculty members thought maybe they, too, should reconsider the prominence of Lee?

What Does Diversity Mean?
The other worry was that W&L was not diverse enough. Most progressive academics consider “diversity” to mean attracting students of multiple races and income levels. The truth is, W&L has always attracted students from throughout the country. But the bottom line is: W&L seemed deficient in comparison with other similar liberal arts institutions.

But to have true diversity among the student body, prospects of every race, gender, and income level must be able compete with everyone else and be admitted on merit. True diversity at a competitive institution depends on fair, not manipulated, competition.

Prospects from lower income families, too, should have a equal chance to attend W&L, assuming they qualify on merit. There should always be enough grants, scholarships, and work-study programs to fill their need.

Solving the Problems at W&L
At W&L there are two obvious problems: One is to find a way to admit more blacks despite being named after a southern Civil War general. The other is to make sure all students feel proud to attend W&L.

The answer to these problems depends on making sure prospects realize how much Lee, the educator, contributed to Washington College–named after its first benefactor, George Washington—to transform it into the outstanding university it has become.

First, they must understand how Lee improved an existing honor system, administered by the students, that enables students to walk out of a classroom while taking a test, only signing a pledge that they have neither given nor received aid during the exam. It also enables students to leave their books, bikes, electronic devices, or articles of clothing anywhere on campus, without worrying that someone will take them.

The fact that W&L has a journalism and a law school is also due to educational innovations instituted by Lee, who, as president during the last years of his life, understood that the defeated south needed to equip itself to play a meaningful part in a newly united country. This aspect of Lee’s life after the War marks him as a man who understood that defeat can also lead to resurrection.

Why Robert E. Lee Must Be Honored
All of Lee’s achievements as president of a struggling southern college prove that he believed the south could rise again and could overcome the disgrace of slavery, which, by the way, was not only a problem in the south. No wonder Lee was honored by having his name added to the name of the institution he served so well.

The true story of Robert E. Lee, however, includes graduating from West Point, rising to become an outstanding officer in the U.S. Army, serving as superintendent of West Point and, finally, being appointed president of Washington College in 1865.

Covering the recumbent statue of Robert E. Lee in Lee Chapel is a mistake. It superimposes a political point of view that diminishes the virtues implied in the statue of the man it hides. And it reinforces the violence of those who wish to silence free speech.

Jim’s Daily Rant is owned and operated by James I. Greene. All rights protected by copyright from reproduction without permission.

“The World Will End in Twelve Years If We Don’t Address Climate Change”

It must be true because a 29-year-old American female socialist said it was. That was after she said we should eat fewer hamburgers. And that was either after or before she said earning 10 million dollars was “enough.” It’s getting hard to keep track of all the prophecies and advice this newly elected US representative from Queens, NY, who captured 16,000 votes, offers Americans. However, as a former bartender, she’s probably used to handing out free advice to strangers.

Her multiple proposals are so mindless and utopian it’s no wonder so many left-wing politicians have jumped on board. In the Age of Trump, when so many things are going so well for most Americans, the lefties have to scream “fire” to get noticed. It no longer matters to them whether or not their policies make sense, are affordable, or even possible to achieve.

Instead of Freedom, “Free” Stuff
And, when you stop to think about it, it makes sense that a young, mixed-race women should be leading the left. She radiates identity politics, and with her long black hair, bulging eyes behind oversized glasses, and garrulousness, she has the attributes of a bona fide pied piper. In fact, she personifies what the Marxist college professors have been teaching nineteen-year-olds for decades.

Ever since the Sixties, the scruffy, wild-and-wooly bunch who hung out at Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco have found a home as humanities professors, eager to instruct the young-and-restless in the joys of utopian living. Imagine a world in which all you have to do is hang out smoking grass, listening to John Lennon warble “Imagine,” while reading Hermann Hesse’s “Siddhartha.” Meanwhile the government will be sending you monthly checks, picking up your doctor bills, and delivering free contraceptives to your front door.

Though the government may provide you with a job, probably in the government, there’s no need to actually work, when the government provides you with virtually everything you need to not work.

In case you’re beginning to wallow in this lefty dreamland, here’s a pin to pop the bubble. As presidential advisor Sebastian Gorka says, “Never let facts get in the way of a leftwing narrative.”

Predicting the End of Fossil Fuels While Using Them
It’s not just that AOC is leading Democrats to the edge of the cliff, it’s that so many Dems sound as if they’ve just gone to confession. No, not the confession where you receive absolution from the priest. But the one where you admit your intentions openly, as in a therapy session.

What’s so eye-opening about the Dems’ confession is that they’re unabashedly revealing their plans to overtake the government with a kind of totalitarian agenda that involves a major overhaul of our country’s energy system, eliminating the use of fossil fuels in twelve years.

Why twelve, rather than ten or thirty? Well, apparently only the new member of Congress from Queens knows. But it’s no secret. She likes to share her remarkable insights on Instagram, while cooking her macaroni-and-cheese dinners. It’s so interesting to watch her cooking with real fossil fuels, while insisting we no longer will need them in the future. What about electricity? Will we need that to recharge our battery-run cars? And how about coal and natural gas? Won’t we need those to generate electricity?

Don Quixote Rides Again!
If you’ve ever read about or heard of Don Quixote, you know he tilts at windmills, imagining them to be knights in armor. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes has a lot in common with the man of La Mancha, whose imagination outstripped his sense of reality. Yet AOC goes beyond, offering all of America what could be termed pie-in-the-sky.

In fact, this young ex-bartender has figured out that by 2031 the entire country will be run by windmills and solar panels. Of course all those oil company workers around the country will be out work. But not to worry, since the government will always provide. And just how will the government provide? With your money of course. So you might as well empty your pockets, because the government, under AOC’s omniscient leadership, will need every cent you’ve got.

For Progressives, It’s Always 1930
As always, when Democrats talk about taxing the rich, they really mean casting the widest net, which has to include the middle class. As John Dillinger once said when asked why he robbed banks, “Because that’s where the money is.”

AOC dubs her plan the Green New Deal. It’s as if she thinks of herself as a young FDR attempting to tame the Great Depression. Except we’re not in a depression, or even a recession. More people are working than ever before. Many available jobs can’t even be filled because of a lack of people to fill them.

The left, therefore, has to create an imaginary world, where the poor are always waiting in bread lines, blacks are always considered slaves, women are always stopped by a glass ceiling, and an endless number of illegals always deserve asylum.

If you’re just a hard-working citizen, forget about your rights. Under the Brave New World, defined by the left, your only purpose is to serve the victims they have carefully assembled to put you in your place. And keep you there.

Jim’s Daily Rant is owned and operated by James I. Greene. All rights protected by copyright from reproduction without permission.