So please tell me I was hallucinating when I read in yesterday’s paper (“OSU students protest…” Jan. 21) that Earl Mitchell, associate vice president for multicultural affairs, compared our current movement toward aggression to German i.e. Nazi i.e. The Big Bad aggression in 1939.
Please tell me a representative of this school – albeit in a position that has the influence, vision and direction of a spastic kangaroo – did not make a comparison that would link G.W. with Hitler and America with Nazi Germany.
Please tell me that either this newspaper drastically quoted him out of context – well, paraphrased, it wasn’t a direct quote – or please tell me that he is packing his crap into a box today and looking through the want-ads for a new job.
Mitchell was one of a few keynote speakers at Tuesday’s peace rally in front of the library, though one would judge by such inflammatory statements he forced himself back into a world where he was chucking rocks at National Guardsmen. Fortunately, I only had about 10 minutes to give to the rally for had I stayed for festivities such as Mitchell’s statements I might have been chucking rocks myself (and thereby writing this from jail).
“But what about freedom of speech?”
What about it? Ask Trent Lott about freedom of speech. I consider Mitchell’s statements no less appalling than the ones that cost Lott his leadership position. Mitchell is in a quasi-influential position funded by taxpayer money. He can say whatever the hell he wants when he’s not receiving a paycheck from people who expect him to be, um, well, er, what the hell does the VP for multicultural affairs do, exactly? Slather poster board with non-toxic paint depicting people of all colors joining hands around the triumphant arc of a rainbow?
I can endure many things (“many things” would include the fact that we even have a VP for multicultural affairs or, for that matter, an office of multicultural affairs), but gonzo comparisons while preaching to the converted in a public forum by an academic bureaucrat is not one of them.
Maybe I’m a bit of a fascist here, and a hypocrite to boot. It wouldn’t take a clever person to point out that I have a tendency to say things which may or may not be construed as a bit outlandish. At the same rate, I’m a columnist – it’s my job.
However, Mitchell’s comments only serve to strengthen the thoughts of not-exactly-dovish, not-exactly-hawkish types such as myself that peace activists are nothing more than a bunch of left-wing kooks who will say whatever they can get away with so long as they’re not interrupted. It reinforces the position held by myself and a slew of moderates that the peace/antiwar movement as it stands today is really an anti-Bush movement, an anti-America movement, an anti-capitalism movement, an anti-industry movement and an anti-Semitic movement. If this is your thing, just say it.
However, if you’re an “educator,” please remember that your words make deep impressions on students who want and need to believe in something. Use your office wisely.
Mitchell should be reprimanded, demoted, or – better yet – fired. We don’t need leaders with tongues wagging of idiocy.
Ciao.
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