Posted on 11/22/2005 6:21:40 AM PST by pookie18
Emergency meeting scheduled tonight on remark soldiers should kill superiors
New Jersey college's board of trustees has called for an emergency meeting tonight to discuss how to handle the controversy surrounding an e-mail by a professor suggesting soldiers in Iraq should kill their superior officers.
As WorldNetDaily reported, the e-mail by adjunct English instructor John Daly of Warren County Community College was a reply to freshman Rebecca Beach for her announcement of a campus program last Thursday featuring decorated Iraq war hero Lt. Col. Scott Rutter.
Daly wrote: "Real freedom will come when soldiers in Iraq turn their guns on their superiors."
Daly said Sunday he was worried he would be fired tonight and already had been told not to show up for the three classes he was scheduled to teach today, according to Inside Higher Ed, an online news source.
The instructor said he stood by the e-mail message, but it was being taken out of context. His comment about soldiers turning their guns on superiors was meant "in the most metaphoric sense," he explained.
Daly also said that because Beach was never one of his students, he thought she was a "Young America's Foundation organizer and sent the message with that in mind.
He would have used a different tone if he had known she was a freshman, he said, although the content wouldn't have changed.
In his e-mail, Daly said he would ask his students to boycott the event and also vowed "to expose [her] right-wing, anti-people politics until groups like [Rebecca's] won't dare show their face on a college campus."
Young America's Foundation, which came to Beach's aid, said that besides organizing the event, Beach's offense was hanging up fliers contrasting the number of people killed under communism to those liberated under President Reagan.
Beach responded to Daly's written tirade with a demand that Warren President William Austin institute seminars on free speech and sensitivity to teach intolerant faculty members to be respectful of differing opinion.
The college has issued three statements since the controversy began, with support for Daley apparently declining with each one, Inside Higher Ed said.
On Thursday, the college posted a statement on its website saying:
The viewpoints of this professor in no way depict the views of Warren County Community College, its administration, or the Board of Trustees. The College does however support the constitution, the first amendment, and the right to free speech.
Additionally, Mr. Daly's message was sent as a one-to-one message, via e-mail, to one person, and not to the college community. Finally, the College is viewing this message as a personnel issue and will be addressing it according to the policies and procedures of the College.
Austin attended the lecture Thursday night, and the next day, the college's statement, noting the speech went well, added criticism of Daley, quoting Austin as saying the e-mail was "disgraceful and offensive."
Saturday, the college announced the board had scheduled the emergency meeting, noting Tuesday was the first day such a meeting could be held legally.
"The Board of Trustees intends to consider the welfare and rights of its students, the college community, and the public in lieu [sic] of recent events. The board will also consider personnel issues," the statement said.
In the interview last night, according to Inside Higher Ed, Daly said it was entirely appropriate for him to criticize "a pro-war rally."
People should be outraged that military recruiters are able to attract the college's students to enlist because they can't afford tuition and find good jobs when they graduate.
"The YAF is trying to turn back affirmative action and to promote the war, and I have a right to speak out," said Daly, who noted he's been teaching at Warren for about a year.
He also teaches at another school but declined to give the name because of the current controversy.
Referring to the threat of being fired, Daly said his situation reflects a trend for non-tenured instructors.
"As more and more professors are teaching part time, this is a direct attack on our academic freedom," he said.
Daly's e-mail also claimed that "capitalism has killed many more" people than communism and that "poor and working class people" are recruited to "fight and die for EXXON and other corporations."
I guess they will just let any total, blabbering idiot be a college "professor" today.
Referring to the threat of being fired, Daly said his situation reflects a trend for non-tenured instructors.
"As more and more professors are teaching part time, this is a direct attack on our academic freedom," he said.
Daly's e-mail also claimed that "capitalism has killed many more" people than communism and that "poor and working class people" are recruited to "fight and die for EXXON and other corporations."
BARF!
Gee. I may need another hanky.
Using your position as a faculty member and using university resources to promote your own political views is not freedom of speech.
We can't send you to jail for it. But we can end your employment, just like my company could end my employment for promoting my views in such a public and controverisal manner.
Translation: lets sit on this till the heat gets turned up and we have to suspend him with pay
Doogle
Terminated....like killed? Maybe by his students, that turn on him, like he suggested of the US Troops?
"... terminated ..." Such a deliciously broad word in this case ...
People pay huge amounts in tuition in order for their children to be given a college education. The obvious trash that is now taught in college along with the professors that are trash is a crime in itself.
Termination is excessive. I'd settle for an old-fashioned tar-and-feathering of the traitor.
"Real academic freedom will come when students in college turn their guns on their professors."
Adjunct English instructor John Daly of Warren County Community College needs to be sentenced to live in an islamic country for about 5 years. After those five years of being an infidel and getting treated as such, he may have more respect for the American military
I heard the young lady who received the email on Sean Hannity's radio show yesterday. She made a terrific point. The professor is an employee of the state and her right to free speech was being threatened by him and those like him, not the other way around.
That's what I suggested at the time. If fragging superiors is correct behavior, he should have every reason to fear his own death at the hands of his students.
He said if he had know she was a freshman he would have used a different tone, but the content would have been the same.
How is this an apology? I can you tone down the words "rise up and shoot your officers?"
Daly just found out theat even though we have freedom of speech there are responsibilities and consequences when we use it.
Like they say in the Mexican Marines--el tougho sh!to!!!
Boo hoo widdow baby! Sombody infwinging on you widdow academic fweedums? Now you know how it feels, ahole. About time someone infringed on the academic freedom of liars, instead of normal people with normal values.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.