Posted on 11/12/2019 12:49:33 AM PST by Impala64ssa
Citing “gun violence,” the University of Virginia has canceled the 21-gun salute portion of its Veterans Day ceremony, an annual tradition that dates back at least a decade. In a statement posted to social media on Saturday, university President James Ryan stated the reason was two-fold: “to minimize disruptions to classes, given that this event is located at the juncture of four primary academic buildings and is held at a time that classes are in session; and second, recognizing concerns related to firing weapons on the Grounds in light of gun violence that has happened across our nation, especially on school and university campuses.” According to the local ABC news affiliate WHSV, the annual ceremony “marks the conclusion of a 24-hour vigil by ROTC cadets and has included the 21-gun salute for more than a decade,” but the decision to nix the salute was made by the provost’s office in conjunction with the colonel of UVA’s ROTC program. Backlash has been so severe Ryan said the university will revisit the issue in 2020. “[C]ommunity responses have helped us to understand that many see the 21-gun salute as an important element of the Veterans Day ceremony at the University of Virginia. Given that the plans are already in place for this year, we will follow the event organizers’ recommendation to proceed without the 21-gun salute in our Veterans Day Ceremony. Following this year’s ceremony, however, we will work with our ROTC officers and cadets to take a closer look at options for our Veterans Day events, including those that would enable us to re-introduce the 21-gun salute to the program,” Ryan stated. According to media outlets in Virginia, the decision prompted anger. The Daily Progress, the newspaper in Charlottesville, Virginia, published several letters to the editor lambasting the decision. One letter argued that the decision disrespected the fact that the university’s rotunda hosts plaques honoring hundreds of alumni slain in previous wars. Another argued “veterans deserve better.” The decision also sent “an unfortunate message about students: That they are too fragile, too delicate, too distractible to deal with the ‘interruption’ of the salute. That they are too insular, too wrapped up in their own worlds to comprehend and accept this longstanding practice. That they must be protected from the reality that exists outside academia,” another letter writer chimed in. Some Twitter users responding to Ryan’s statement were a little more blunt. Among them: “How ‘we’ reached the decision? The buck stops with you. Score one for the snowflakes.” Tweeted another: “As a @UVA #UVA student veteran, thank you for marginalizing my community. That is a direct, unmitigated slap in the face to those of us who have served, and especially to those of us who have served and lost. I am deeply sorry that you decided to make this incorrect decision.” However Ryan garnered some support, too, with one replying “people forget that rampant mass shootings are commonplace now, so it makes sense not to be firing off guns near classrooms,” and another noting that “as a long-ago alumna, I want you to know how much you continue to impress. You do our university and your role proud.”
They do not want to celebrate the 2nd amendment.
ba4tards of a much dirtier name.
UVA has gone to the leftist dogs just as VA politics have.
S’OK, they’ll roll out the guns and the fireworks for the May Day Show. Where these Stalinist Prisons called “colleges” are concerned, if you ain’t a RED on campus, you better be dead.
The number 21 is derived from adding the number 1, 7, 7, 6
1776
Snowflakes/weenies/losers of the world unite!
/s
/eyeroll
Thank God my kids are through college.
The infection has shown its face already.
Why is school in session on a holiday?
I can kind of see this, because no matter how much you publicize that you are going to do it, there will be 50 or so snowflake millennials who don’t get the message and at the sound will go into full on panic, running and screaming and locking themselves in closets. Some of them might not ever mentally recover.
The Pres is just another precious Ivy League coward. The guy looks like Howdy Doody and leads like him.
On Sept. 15, 2017, the University of Virginia Board of Visitors selected James Ryan as the University’s next president. A respected and accomplished educator and legal scholar, Ryan earned his law degree from UVA and previously served on the School of Law faculty for 15 years. From 2013 to 2018, he served as dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Charles William Eliot Professor of Education.
A real Fg moron....
A 21 gun salute predates the United States.
Yeah, all those mass shootings with cannons.
Reminds me of how the Washington Bullets of the NBA changed their name to the Washington Wizards, because the nickname Bullets triggered liberals as an endorsement of gun violence.
I remember. As if that meaningless gesture put a dent in crime in DC.
In my best Apu voice, "Thank you, come again."
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