In his article, ‘Just Checking in on the State of Our Free Speech and Democracy’, Dr. Constantinos E. Scaros takes liberal elites to task. He and I are on opposite ends of the political and ideological spectrum, so if you’ve read either one of us over the last 13 years, you know where we stand on that debate. Now, after over 40 years of teaching, I will proudly take my elitist stance as a member of the “looney leftwing thought control establishment” and respond.
“I kid you not: the faction that hijacked genuine liberal (small ‘l’) thinking, infused likeminded indoctrination into lectures and textbooks, and inflicted intellectual harassment upon those who dared introduce skepticism or otherwise exercise independent thought, now cries foul because the Trump administration seeks to end preferred pronouns, barking, and meowing in school.”
The unmitigated chutzpah of that remark boggles my liberal mind. Any thoughtful mind, for that matter. Apparently, Dr. Scaros is modeling the rhetorical strategies of the trump administration. “If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, then baffle them with b******t!” “Barking” and “meowing”? Why not name the substantial assaults on learning and thinking that the loons are protesting. The book bans, the DEI purges, the defunding of research projects, libraries, and museums, the elimination of the Department of Education. The dumbing down of America by executive order.
Implying that I am among the “biggest saboteurs of the marketplace of ideas,” did he actually write that his ilk “dared introduce skepticism or otherwise exercise independent thought” into the academic conversation? What, exactly, has been evidence of critical thinking from this administration and its spokespuppets? Where in the book bans is this an example of “independent thought”?
Rather, this is the group that cannot hold two opposing viewpoints in their heads without fear that they will explode. This is the group that is so afraid of American history, it bans classics like ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’ rather than critically, curiously, and – dare I say – excitedly explore the implications of these stories. Their empathy for all the little white kids who may feel bad about themselves is insulting and dismissive of the little black kids whose ancestors actually lived through this history. So afraid of their own bodies that they don’t dare read ‘The Diary of Ann Frank’, a private record, never intended for publication, of a 13-year old girl’s normal preoccupations with boys, her changing body, and her exasperating mother in an anything-but-normal situation. The overarching story is the Holocaust and the courage of the Franks, the others hiding with them, and the brave people who protected them for two years. That’s what they should be focusing on. And the bitter knowledge that this articulate, at times annoying typical teenager is not going to live to realize any of her dreams. And she doesn’t even know it.
Why would people think that talking animals in ‘Charlotte’s Web’ and ‘Winnie the Pooh’ are “an abomination and insult” to God? Why not, instead, be grateful to a God who bestows such gifts on E.B. White and A.A. Milne. Why not, instead, appreciate the lessons that we learn from these anthropomorphized characters. What do you say to kids who talk to their stuffed animals and their imaginary friends? What about Greek mythology? Aesop’s fables?
Condemn, instead, the words of Keith Self, Republican representative from McKinny, TX. During a subcommittee meeting in April, Self quoted Joseph Goebbels, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to 1945. “It is the absolute right of the state to supervise the formation of public opinion.”
Condemn, instead, the removal of international students from college campuses without due process for protesting government policies. Isn’t the American Revolution the biggest government protest of them all?
Condemn, instead, the detention of Amir Makled, an immigration lawyer who refused to turn over his phone to the Tactical Terrorism Response Team at a Michigan airport because it contained confidential client information, including that of a student charged in connection to a pro-Palestinian protest at the University of Michigan. “The purpose of searching my phone doesn’t have anything to do with terrorism, there is only a chilling effect, and it’s done to be intimidating.”
Condemn, instead, the indiscriminate disappearances of young men who wear Chicago Bulls swag and sport tattoos without due process, and the willful refusal to acknowledge their mistakes.
Condemn, instead, the deletion of military service by Jackie Robinson, Medgar Evers, the Tuskegee Airmen, the Navajo Code Talkers, and Ira Hayes from the Department of Defense website. Condemn, instead the deletion of the Enola Gay from world history because of the word ‘Gay’. They were restored because of a public outcry, not because anyone in the administration thought it was wrong.
Dr. Scaros criticizes that a graduate professor once “actually had the audacity to say aloud: ‘I can’t imagine anyone in here voted for Bush,’” but he didn’t respond. Pity the lost opportunity. Imagine the level of engagement had he just asked “Why?”
