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'White trash' Texas town written off by a professor
Daily Telegraph ^
| February 22, 2004
| Julian Coman in Washington
Posted on 02/21/2004 11:47:11 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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By Lee Hockstader Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, February 19, 2004 -
Is Texas Really a State of Mind? The Professor May Disagree. ***ALPINE, Tex. -- The cowboys, ranchers, retirees, immigrants and artists scattered around this sparse region of West Texas tend to live and let live, drawn more by the immense spaces and dizzying beauty than by one another. Cell phone service is now-you-see-it-now-you-don't, and it's easier to glimpse a roadrunner than another car when you drive through the region's sumptuous desert mountains.
Atomized, loosely knit and fiercely individualistic, citizens here are not much given to consensus. Or they weren't until Larry Sechrest came along and called them all a bunch of morons.
Sechrest, 56, is a jowly, acid-tongued economics professor at Sul Ross State University, an institution best known for producing schoolteachers and rodeo performers. The chain hotel manager has lived in the little town of Alpine for 13 years, more or less without incident. But it is not a gross overstatement to say that if an unpopularity contest were held here these days, he might give Saddam Hussein a run for his money.
In January, Sechrest published a 7,000-word article in Liberty, a tiny libertarian journal, titled "A Strange Little Town in Texas." After dispensing with the things he likes about Alpine -- great climate, clean air, awesome scenery, low crime rate, friendly locals, frontier spirit, robust theater scene -- Sechrest came to his main point.
"The secret problem is that the students at Sul Ross, and more generally the long-term residents of the entire area, are appallingly ignorant, irrational, anti-intellectual, and, well . . . just plain stupid," he wrote. ***
To: All
And what is the consensus on university professors?
To: Cincinatus' Wife
Dr Sechrest is one funny dude.
3
posted on
02/21/2004 11:50:02 PM PST
by
pax_et_bonum
(Always finish what you st)
To: Cincinatus' Wife
Tell Larry McMurtry how dumb west Texans are.....
4
posted on
02/21/2004 11:50:24 PM PST
by
woofie
( If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried)
To: pax_et_bonum
I wonder why he is stuck in a hick town teaching "borderline retards"? From what I can see he is not up to the task.
To: woofie
Prefessors like him are very bitter because the rest of society doesnt take them seriously or value their superior knowledge. He is probably resentful that he has not been called upon by the common people to solve all their problems or direct their daily lives.
6
posted on
02/21/2004 11:52:18 PM PST
by
raloxk
To: pax_et_bonum; woofie; Texasforever; raloxk
***Many wanted to know why, if Alpine and Sul Ross were filled with airheads, Sechrest stayed. (He said it was because of the money -- he makes $96,000 a year as a professor -- and his academic freedom, "most likely because no one has any idea what I'm writing about.") Almost everyone in Alpine was furious. Most insisted Sechrest was simply wrong.
........The reaction to Sechrest's article didn't stop at hostility. A petition circulated on campus calling on students to boycott his summer course offerings. Earlier this month, the university, citing budget cuts, informed him that he would be teaching -- and paid for -- just two summer courses, rather than the four he expected; the move would slash his income by $12,000. Furious, Sechrest accused the university of punishing him for his views and trying to drive him to quit. *** Source
To: Cincinatus' Wife
Hey, Perfesser, if you is so smart how come you is living in a town full o' retarts...?
8
posted on
02/21/2004 11:56:19 PM PST
by
freebilly
To: Cincinatus' Wife
two of whom have responded with death threats. Only two? I'd say that's pretty tolerant of them. If I lived in Alpine, I'd gladly make it three.
My advice to the professor is to be packed and out of town by sunset. Go to Berkely or Cambridge where such bilge is swallowed whole by the student populace.
In Texas, it will always be football, beer, sex and church - in one order or another. If he doesn't like that, I'd suggest he hook up with his kindred spirits in Vermont.
9
posted on
02/21/2004 11:56:48 PM PST
by
Tall_Texan
((Tagline withheld pending notification of next of kin))
To: Cincinatus' Wife
I bet this guy is a liberal democrat. Kind of funny that a guy like this and the people he is talking about will both end up voting for John Kerry. Maybe he can use some of his vast knowledge to explain that one.
10
posted on
02/21/2004 11:57:45 PM PST
by
Contra
To: Cincinatus' Wife
he makes $96,000 a year as a professorThat's one powerful heap o' money for edukatin' ignoremuses....
To: Tall_Texan
In Texas, it will always be football, beer, sex and church - in one order or another.Jest another Sunday 'round mi casa en Californica...!
To: freebilly
LOL
To: Cincinatus' Wife
"And what is the consensus on university professors?"They are, for the most part, narrow minded liberal snobs without a grasp of reality.They have never left the womb of the university and smelled the real world.
To: Cincinatus' Wife
Hey Prof!
If ya hate Texans so much....
Well.....
Just Leave
and
Dont' let the door hit ya where the Good Lord split ya
Bye
15
posted on
02/22/2004 12:04:50 AM PST
by
Fiddlstix
(Tag Lines Repaired While You Wait! Reasonable Prices! Fast Service!)
To: blackbart.223
You forgot "arrogant".
16
posted on
02/22/2004 12:04:53 AM PST
by
Tall_Texan
((Tagline withheld pending notification of next of kin))
To: Cincinatus' Wife
Well, I wonder who the stupid one is now? What a dumb one our professor is.
17
posted on
02/22/2004 12:09:22 AM PST
by
jpsb
(Nominated 1994 "Worst writer on the net")
To: Texasforever
"I wonder why he is stuck in a hick town teaching "borderline retards"?He's just pissed MIT or Harvard didn't want him.
To: Tall_Texan
"You forgot "arrogant".No one is perfect.
To: blackbart.223
They have never left the womb of the university and smelled the real world.Bump!
The professor is tenured so the university president, who's under pressure to fire him, can't.
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