"the INDY endorses Nifong"
Is that the paper Lee Coggins is associated with?
" Butch Williams, a defense lawyer representing an unindicted lacrosse player, stated it well: "It seems to be unfortunate that the man is being judged for a lifetime job on one set of facts," he told The N&O."
Butch Williams, attorney for one of the unindicted players...
Yes the INDY, the potbanger rag
kept afloat by all the sex ads in
the back pages--
There do seem to be many conflicts
of interest in this affair.
A collegiate fumble
by ALEX LEKAS, Up & Coming Weekly, October 25-31, 2006
David Evans, Collin Finnerty, and Reade Seligmann played the wrong sport at the wrong school. Imagine how much less complicated their lives would have been as, say, on the football team at a school such as ... oh, how about Miami, instead of lacrosse players at Duke. Pardon, ex-lacrosse players. And ex-Duke students, for that matter.
As football players, their university president would have defended them as "young men of great character," ignoring the fact that they had committed crimes on live television. Their president would have been resolute in telling the assembled media, "I will not hang them in the public square; I will not take away their scholarships. It's time for the feeding frenzy to stop."
Duke President Richard Broadhead*, of course, said nothing of the kind, choosing the politically expedient route and throwing the players, their coach, and the entire lacrosse program under the bus as a sacrifice to the gods of racial and gender sensitivity. The three, after all, are white boys who grew up in affluence and were attending a snobby university where they played a preppy sport. It would be difficult to come up with a less sympathetic bunch. They were further tainted by the fact that the allegations of sexual assault came from a black woman. A single mother, to boot, the dominant badge of honor of our time. As the feminists have always told us, no woman would make up a rape allegation. As the race hustlers continue to tell us, pimpin' ain't easy.
The quotes above are from Miami President Donna Shalala, who tried to defend the honor of the football team and the university in the wake of the riot that interrupted the Hurricanes game with Florida International. What she succeeded in engineering was perhaps the best whitewashing job Tom Sawyer's picket fence caper. She defended the one-game suspensions to 12 players as adequate, suspensions that ironically enough meant the Dirty Dozen sat out last week's game against Duke.
The ivory tower of academia remains a living contradiction where pointyheads talk the talk about high-minded ideals but seldom walk the walk. Broadhead tosses away bedrock principles like due process and the presumption of innocence when they become politically inconvenient. Shalala rationalizes criminal behavior that is caught on camera, sanctimoniously refusing to take serious action "for instant restoration of our image or our reputation."
I have news for you, Donna. Miami's image as Thug U dates back to the Jimmy Johnson era in the '80s. The new zero tolerance policy on athletes who fight isn't going to change that. The directive does not make either you or the institution look serious and decisive. It makes you look arbitrary and pretentious, holding the diving and softball teams hostage to the mentality of the football program.
In their respective corners, Evans, Finnerty, and Seligmann must be shaking their heads. Their lives are forever stained by an accusation that looks flimsier by the moment. While the trio's legal case may be strengthened by video showing their accuser dancing within days of the alleged assault, regardless of where they finish college, the whispers and sideward glances will follow them to graduation and beyond. And unlike the Miami 12, their playing days are through.
During his fall convocation speech to incoming Dukies, Broadhead made reference to civil liberties, respect, and civility, tenets that carried some weight in the day when a liberal arts education did not invoke negative connotations. He preached the gospel of inclusion, mutual support, and engagement, leaving out how none of the above had a place during the signature moment of his tenure, a time Broadhead referred to as "a great trouble."
While acknowledging that the episode raised questions about responsible student behavior and acceptable conduct, the Duke President also made clear that it was not his job alone to answer them, calling on students to bring forth any "experience collectively imagining how to define and implement a good society." Presumably, that society does not include the chance to defend one's self and reputation against serious charges; it does not require thinking when knee-jerk, simplistic reactions will suffice; and, it no longer includes institutions of higher learning as places that can be taken seriously.
Like many universities, Miami and Duke both cloak themselves in the principles of highbrow mottos: 'Knowledge and Religion' in Durham, 'Great is the Truth' in Coral Gables. Perhaps another saying is more appropriate for each: 'tough times don't build character, they reveal it.'
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1147&dept_id=483434&newsid=17375046&PAG=461&rfi=9
* Poor guy can't get his name spelled right half the time.
The fact that Butch Williams supports Nifong makes me want to throw up. I don't know how he can look himself in the mirror.