Amherst College: Named after the town, not the General
At least they didn't vandalize the sign
Combine that with my favorite saying, "If a tree falls in the forest and a digital journo is not there to cover it, it does not make a sound," and you will understand why I shake my head over the First Amendment issues that seem lost on student protestors.
Blood was spilled on the streets of Chicago
When Chicago police were beating the daylights out of Hippie/Yippie protestors at the Democratic Nation Convention in 1968 the bloodied youth started chanting, "The whole world is watching, the whole world is watching." And indeed it was.
Just as they were in the early 1960s when the Freedom Riders were being persecuted by southern mobs as good old boy police stood by and did nothing. But the images beamed back to middle class America awakened the silent majority thus giving "voice to the voiceless."
Indeed "The pen is mightier than the sword" -- especially now in the digital age -- but your ideas still need to hold up in the open marketplace provided by the mainstream media where they receive wider vetting.
Click to enlarge/read
More than a majority of AC students are non white
Preaching to your already converted followers on Twitter or Facebook and holding closed-to-the-media events defeats the purpose of an "uprising."
Besides, if can't deal with criticism or the challenge of a debate then maybe your cause is not all that sustainable.
And here's the other "intentional parody" account, that has since been terminated:
I'm still trying to figure out of this is a parody Twitter account
The good news is the Lord Jeffs beat arch rival Williams and went undefeated for the season
Larry, that was a fake Twitter account, the real one is @UprisingAmherst. You can check about that in their Facebook page.
ReplyDeleteFor Hod's sake, why do we keep dividing ourseleves up so? Why, why, why, is the ethnicity of students important? Is there really some ideal mix that would make everything okay? If we strive to control diversity according to skin color-and it doesn't get more superficial than that-we indeed will have none at all. Isn't diversity of ideas more important? Oh no! Can't have that!
Deletehttps://www.facebook.com/AmherstUprising/
ReplyDeleteLarry, this was a fake account. The real one is @UprisingAmherst. You can check about it in their Facebook page
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/AmherstUprising/
Larry,
ReplyDeleteAs a student at UMass several years ago this movement at Mizzou and other institutions scare me greatly, and I am a decently progressive fellow on the political spectrum. Ironically, what my grandfather and your father fought on the beaches of Normandy has made its way here not by guns but by "education," which is what kept fascism out to begin with. I hope Amherst, UMass, and the other institutions hold strong against these students seeking to torpedo the first amendment. I really worry about the future of the US though, it seems that these special snowflakes can't handle any criticism.
But Victoria, that doesn't answer my question. Is it a parody account or do they really believe in that nonsense they are spewing?
ReplyDeleteThis doesn't answer your question, but whatever they believe, they are not local kids, because they posted a photo of UMass and said it was Amherst College.
ReplyDeleteWell I hope they post photos of the "Lord Jeff merch" bonfire.
ReplyDeleteBut if they really wanted to garner attention they would have done it on the Town Common rather than Putt Putt snack area (where ever the heck that is).
What do they have against Jeff, anyway? It's nice to live in an era where you don't have to worry about being attaked in your sleep by bloodthirsty savages. Or Do you?
DeleteStudents cannot torpedo the first amendment, their parents and grandparents fought for it, then came home and promptly gave it up. Speech, assembly and religion are all subject to significant non constitutional, but widely accepted, restrictions by the government, the citizens said we don't care, the govt abliged. A few protests mean nothing, there is no real change to be had, real or fake social bs account.
ReplyDeleteAs Larry kinda pointed out and Amherst takes to an extreme, the court of public opinion trumps laws unless we are talking about drugs, which must be accepted as bad murder, just because.
Ed, we can always tell when its you.
ReplyDeleteAnd we can never tell when it's You, 5:34. Now why is that?
DeleteI'm curious as to why someone would choose to attend a school when they find the mascot so offensive. Do they really think that their parents $$ gives them the pull to change that? #entitlement
ReplyDeleteTo hell with the mascot. This is what's deemed important by these jerks? Really, it's just about trying to feel important themselves. Protest the Democrat party instead. The party of slavery, JimCrow, lynchings, and the Ku Klux Klan. Now there's something that needs abolishing.
DeleteLol. Not to mention, the party of Japanese interment during WWII.
DeleteWhy shouldn't the students have the right to change the mascot? Who is the mascot for if not the students?
ReplyDeleteYes the mascot, (whatever it is) is for all students. But it's also for alumni. What if They do Not care to have their tradition changed? This is what's important? In This world?
DeleteIt's not a high threshold, but these students certainly have more intestinal fortitude than the anonymous cowards who comment on this blog.
ReplyDeleteRich Morse
If these students had "intestinal fortitude," they would concentrate in their studies.
DeleteIt wasn't me....
ReplyDeleteAnon 7:33, the mascot is also for all the alumni, many years and decades worth, it is near and dear to their hearts. Why should a small handful of malcontents from one class be given that power over history? It is after all, just their opinion of a man. Richard Marsh
ReplyDeleteHear, hear!
DeleteSure seemed like the (winning) Lord Jeffs had no interest in changing things.
ReplyDeleteTimes change. The Lord Jeff mascot belongs to another era and should be retired. Stanford changed theirs in 1970. Amherst is not exactly on the leading edge of this issue. They are way behind. The alumni will get over it, and these students will graduate and be the next generation of alumni. If you want them to give money someday, they better change it.
ReplyDeleteHowzabout they change it yearly? That way each freshman class gets their own. And no one has to study suffering under an outdated mascot. So important to have an up-to-date cartoonish symbol.
DeleteYou belong to another era. But no one wants to get rid of You, do they?
DeleteThis is bigoted bullying of the very type that those perpetrating it claim to be victims of. Like the Klansmen of the "Jim Crow" South, they try to give meaning to their petty, insignificant lives by promulgating hatred toward others. Others whom they blame for all of their problems, others whom they wish to subjugate.
ReplyDeleteI hold these schmucks in greater contempt than I do Bull Connor because Bull Connor "didn't know any better." On paper, Bull Connor only had a high-school education -- in reality, he probably didn't even have that as he was a star football player which, back then, meant that the cheerleaders did his homework and his teachers graded him on his performance on the gridiron. If asked about Locke, he'd probably have thought of something one opened with a key, and that a light switch was somehow related to The Enlightenment.
Furthermore, our society learned something in the 1960's -- the true gift of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was his ability to show White America that their own values (i.e. the values of the White Americans) precluded discrimination against Blacks, that -- independent of how it harmed Black Americans, and independent of any "Realpolitik" aspects of the consequences of that, the mere fact that segregation existed harmed all of us.
That part about evaluating folk on the content of their character rather than the color of their skin, which is a far cry from where we are today at ARHS where the color of a student's skin precludes the evaluation of the student's character, but I digress.
OSHA may be asinine at times, but the end result of the Memphis Garbagemen's Strike and those "I am a man" signs was a national realization that no one deserved to be crushed to death in a garbage truck -- which is what that strike was all about. Not only were members of the crew riding IN the compactor unit, but the wiring on the then-old trucks was such that the crusher unit often started on its own and did not respond to the controls -- several men had been crushed to death in front of their horrified co-workers who were unable to do anything to stop this.
(OK, I would have popped the hood, ripped the positive lead off the battery and grounded it -- that's the end of any electricity in the vehicle, and as they had gasoline engines back then, the engine as well -- and as the hydraulics were being powered by one or the other, this would have stopped the crusher. But I have the advantage of an education that those guys didn't have -- which is my point about Bull Connor and the rest of the bigots.)
A statistic from my Student Affairs days -- only half the population even goes to college, and of that, half go to a Community College. Hence anyone going to ANY 4-year college (even those less reputable than Planet UMass) is in the top 25% of American society -- someone going to Yale or Amherst College is truly privileged!!! I didn't get that, nor did you Larry, and my blood boils when I hear those schmucks implicitly (or explicitly) alleging that I am somehow oppressing them.
I am already being oppressed by Affirmative Retribution and they want more of it?!? How much longer are folks like me supposed to tolerate this crap? And why should we?
"Yale or Amherst College is truly privileged"
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me you really mean "remarkable" as this is the most selective college in the nation, and these are therefore academic achievers of the highest order, who had test scores and accomplishments so outstanding as to warrant admission.
Test scores, however high, do not make one a good person.
DeleteCollege in this country is daycare for narcissists.
ReplyDeleteEven UMass is under fire now as apparently the Minutemen and Minutewomen (i) were colonists and (ii) do not adequately represent all genders. At this rate, it will not be long before PETA and its allies declare that animal names are now off-limits. No more wildcats, bears, lemmings, whatever. We will soon have to refer to sports teams by tax-ID number only. But perhaps that will be considered "numberist" by the mathemetician special interest group?
ReplyDeleteSeriously, people need to chill.
Why on earth does the left wing get to tell you what to do, what to think and even how to speak? It's to laugh. And somehow, people go along with it. Astounding.
ReplyDeleteDr. Ed said..
ReplyDeletewho is this nut case and what kind of doctor is he????
"Nut case" is defined as 'one who does not agree with me and my ilk.'
DeleteLord Jeff Amherst DID NOT initiate biological warfare. Geesh, get your facts straight. Do some research from credible sources.
ReplyDeleteMy bad; I forgot that facts do not matter. Noise does.
He advocated the extermination of Native Americans. Not exactly an inclusive role model. I'm not clear why all you people feel so strongly about defending good old Lord Jeff. He was on the side of the enemy that the colonists came together to fight against. You remember the British don't you? They're not the heroes of the American Revolution.
ReplyDeleteNative Americans advocated his extermination, too. So on that score, they're even. Why do we live in New England? Still kinda long for the old sod, don't we? Hindsight is our specialty these days. So EZ to pick apart those who went before us. Wait until history picks Us apart.
ReplyDeleteUmmm, 2:30 -- Lord Jeff resigned his commission rather than fight the Americans.
ReplyDeleteIn this he showed solid good judgment. I vote for him as mascot. And while we're voting, I propose naming a town after him.
ReplyDeleteThe Town of Amherst must renounce its name immediately!!! This will require a consultant, an administrator, and an appropriation.
ReplyDeleteAnd while we're at it, let's get rid of the sexist "sister city" designation and call insist that we be referred to as a "sibling city." Or Town or whatever.
Argh.
Lol
ReplyDeleteAnd then there is this in neighboring Vermont:
ReplyDeleteA "White-Only" event that apparently is acceptable in the name of Political Correctness.
What the hell ever happened to "thou shalt not discriminate"?!?!?
And for those who are serious about not being able to understand me, understand that this is a basic bedrock principle of mine: We are all "Children of the Lord", and "Thou Shalt Not Discriminate." Race is, after all, only a social construct -- and there are so many other -- legitimate -- reasons for not liking people.
Or as Walter Williams often says, he discriminates against women -- in favor of Mrs. Williams, as she expects him to...
Don't make up commandments. Thou actually must discriminate every day or you wouldn't be able to choose anything ever. Like socks.
DeletePrejudice is laziness and the refuge of the ignorant & incompetent -- it is a way to avoid having to make individual judgments of unique situations and of unique individual human beings. It is ethically wrong because it is often factually wrong.
ReplyDeleteCase in point, upon seeing a disturbance related to an individual whose hand was wedged between a car bumper and the jack that the car had rolled off of, I used my own jack to get the car off his hand. I literally had just pulled into the parking lot and was getting out of my vehicle.
I later told the investigating officer that "I'd never seen [the victim] before in my life" but that getting the car off him "sorta seemed like the 'Christian thing to do' at the time." Just because he was "known to the police" because of his past criminal activities didn't mean that I was a criminal -- the dufflebags in the bed of my pickup truck were dirty clothes that I had brought down to take into the adjacent laundrymat.
It's the "False Positive" that makes prejudice wrong -- but in all contexts, and when you try to kill a police officer, which *is* what happened in Ferguson, the officer has every right to use deadly force to defend himself. Even if racist cops are going out & shooting innocent Black men at random (and they aren't), that officer had every right to do what he did -- the facts say so.
And what the Amherst College kids will accomplish is to provide cover for the real racists, a few of which there actually are....
Thanks kids, for drawing our attention to the difficulties of being in the minority. Gee, I had no idea it was so tough on some people. You know, because of your protesting, I've decided to continue being the person I was before your acts. Now if you just get the POTUS to get the racism out of his Own DNA...
Delete