Our college-age population consists mostly of 18- to
30-year-olds, and likewise our armed forces. I wonder whether they shared
common responses to the 2016 presidential election. Many college administrators
provided students with therapy dogs, play dough, coloring books, bubbles,
videos of frolicking kittens and puppies, and soft music. They even canceled
classes and postponed exams so that their 18- to 30-year-old snowflakes could
better cope with the election results. There are numerous internet photos and
videos of these youngsters screaming and in outright grief and panic. Here’s my
question: Were our military leaders as accommodating as college administrators?
Did commanding officers of our aircraft carriers provide their young people
with therapy dogs, play dough, crayons and coloring books, and soft music? Were
sea training exercises canceled? Were similar accommodations ordered by
commanders of our special forces, such as the Army Rangers, Navy SEALs and
Delta Force?
I’m guessing and hoping that
our military leaders, unlike many college administrators, have not lost their
minds. That brings me to this column’s title: “Not a Day Care.” That’s the
title of a new book written by Dr. Everett Piper, president of Oklahoma
Wesleyan University. Piper reminds us that today’s law students are tomorrow’s
lawyers and judges. Based on what they are taught, there’s no mystery why
lawyers and judges seek to legislate from the bench. Students who want to rid
college curricula of dead old white men such as Plato, Aristotle, Voltaire and
Kant will be on tomorrow’s school boards or be professors. This doesn’t bode
well for our nation’s future.
Many colleges have become
hotbeds of what might be labeled as enlightened racism. Students at the
University of California, Berkeley created “safe spaces” for people of color. Resident
advisers at Scripps College posted two signs to educate students about
“emotional labor,” one aimed at white students and one for “people of color and
marginalized backgrounds.” University of Michigan students demanded a
“designated space on central campus for Black students and students of color to
organize and do social justice work.” That was after the university caved to
student demands and spent $10 million to build a multicultural center.
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In Chapter 6, Piper discusses an attack by a Muslim Somali student at Ohio State University. Fortunately, he was shot dead by police officers before he could add to his toll of 11 injured students. The Islamic State group praised him and called him one of its soldiers. The administration responded to the incident by inviting Nathan Lean, author of “The Islamophobia Industry: How the Right Manufactures Fear of Muslims,” to lecture about Islamophobia. A few days after the attack, protesters gathered on campus to read the names of people of color killed by police in the previous two months. The Muslim Somali student made the list, going from a terrorist to a victim virtually overnight. Piper asks whether it is possible to imagine President Franklin D. Roosevelt taking to the radio waves after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor to announce a forum on diversity and prejudice.
In Chapter 6, Piper discusses an attack by a Muslim Somali student at Ohio State University. Fortunately, he was shot dead by police officers before he could add to his toll of 11 injured students. The Islamic State group praised him and called him one of its soldiers. The administration responded to the incident by inviting Nathan Lean, author of “The Islamophobia Industry: How the Right Manufactures Fear of Muslims,” to lecture about Islamophobia. A few days after the attack, protesters gathered on campus to read the names of people of color killed by police in the previous two months. The Muslim Somali student made the list, going from a terrorist to a victim virtually overnight. Piper asks whether it is possible to imagine President Franklin D. Roosevelt taking to the radio waves after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor to announce a forum on diversity and prejudice.
Among
the many other ugly things going on at our universities is the withering attack
on free speech. Diversity is the highest goal of students and professors who
openly detest those with whom they disagree. The content of a man’s character
is no longer as important as the color of his skin or his sex or his political
loyalties. This intolerance has won such respectability that even politicians
have little shame expressing it. In 2014, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo basically
told people who disagreed with him to leave the state. He said people who defend
traditional marriage, are pro-life and are anti-gun control “have no place in
the state of New York.” That’s progressive ideological fascism that ought to be
put down by freedom-loving Americans.
Dr. Everett Piper’s “Not a
Day Care” is a short but powerful book by a university president who is not
afraid to maintain civility and common sense, traits all too rare among today’s
university administrators.
Walter E. Williams is
the John M. Olin distinguished professor of economics at George Mason
University, and a nationally syndicated columnist. To find out more about
Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate columnists and
cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page.
Copyright © 2017 Creators.com
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