Posted on 04/23/2007 9:50:42 PM PDT by goldstategop
America's news media, an amoral university, an opportunistic district attorney, and a police department that seems to have collaborated in framing innocent students all combined to nearly destroy the lives of three innocent young men -- members of the Duke University lacrosse team.
The attorney general of North Carolina announced that all charges -- of rape, sexual assault and whatever other charges a mendacious young woman got Mike Nifong to bring against the Duke lacrosse team players -- were being dropped. He pronounced the students "innocent," not merely "not guilty." And the attorney general also declared Nifong a "rogue prosecutor."
The lessons of this terrible story are obvious, but given the political correctness of our time and the inverted values that prevail among America's elites -- particularly the news media, the universities and the legal profession -- these lessons will rarely be expressed, let alone learned.
First, the rape of a name is also a rape. A false accusation of rape can be as devastating to a man and his family as a real rape can be to a woman and her family. Sometimes a real rape is more destructive; sometimes the rape of a name is more destructive. It is therefore a grave injustice not to prosecute the woman who brought these false charges.
Second, moral Americans of every race must acknowledge that our society has a problem of anti-white prejudice in parts of the African American community. Proportionally, it seems that more blacks unfairly mistrust whites than whites unfairly mistrust blacks. Mike Nifong won his race for district attorney largely by appealing to this prejudice.
Third, it is utterly unjust that the families of the Duke lacrosse players had to pay millions of dollars in attorneys fees to defend their sons against a lying woman and a morally corrupt district attorney. Such injustices happen every day because the American legal system, unlike that of other countries such as Great Britain, forces those who win lawsuits wrongly brought against them to pay all their legal bills. Trial lawyers and the Democratic Party, which trial lawyers fund, prevent all reform in this area in order to allow frivolous lawsuits and their accompanying high lawyer profits to continue. That is why three young men who did nothing wrong have cost their families much, if not all, of their life savings.
Fourth, while Duke University has good individuals, like most universities today, Duke is a moral wasteland. Eight-eight professors, abetted by Duke's president, created a mob mentality against the young men not unlike that of a lynch mob. Of course, nothing will be done to Duke's president or to those professors. To get fired as the president of an elite American university, one must suggest that men and women are innately different. Politically incorrect truth telling -- not race-, gender- or class-baiting of whites, athletes or males -- gets you fired. And Duke alumni will continue to fund Duke, just as Columbia University alumni are funding Columbia with record donations despite Columbia's reluctance to discipline radical students who violently disrupted a conservative speaker on campus last year.
Fifth, the moral vision of much of the Left, which led the anti-white athlete hysteria, was revealed again. It views the world not as a conflict between good and evil but between white and black, male and female, and rich and poor. The athletes were rich and white and male. For many on the Left, that alone made them villains. As a general proposition, subject to exceptions that accompany all generalizations, the Left has considerably more compassion for groups (racial, ethnic, socioeconomic and sexual groups it favors) than for individuals.
Sixth, any time Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson get in front of cameras on a race matter, assume that they are there to inflame, not heal. We await their apologies to the three Duke students. But we are also awaiting Al Sharpton's apologies to those he libeled in the Tawana Brawley rape hoax.
Seventh, the next time you hear that someone was indicted by a grand jury, unless you have knowledge of the case, or reason suggests possible guilt, don't assume it. As Joe Cheshire, one of the accused boys' lawyers said, "A grand jury would indict a ham sandwich for the death of a pig."
Eighth, it is time to drop the anti-male bigotry and either hide the names of accused rapists -- at least until their indictment -- or also reveal the names of their accusers. Short of that, the press and justice system surely have the moral obligation to reveal the names of false accusers of rape. It is almost beyond belief (but little is anymore) that news media like The New York Times will still not reveal the name of the lying accuser. For the record, it is Crystal Mangum. Shame on her and her supporters.
I weep for those boys and their families. And I fear for America.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
as usual, dennis is right on target!
Ping!
Excellent piece by Dennis Prager, thanks for posting. He is correct on every point.
The kicker for me is that our dem controlled Congress is finding everything they can in Washington to undermine our president and his administration simply because they hate him.
Here is a miscarriage of justice that most of the people in the country know was wrong and other than one Congressman speaking out it is ignored by the rest.
Our elected lawmakers should be trying to remedy this situation through legislation so it doesn’t happen again.
Liberals only care about dividing us and setting us against each other so they cn control and repress all of us.
Such a sad waste! I pray that these boys will have a good future and that this travesty will come back to rest on the accuser and teach her a lesson. I don’t hold my breath for Al and Jesse to do any repenting because that word doesn’t exist in their vocabulary. To them, this is reparations for slavery, even though few of our ancestors ever owned any slaves.
Outstanding column by Prager. Send to all your liberal friends.
Absolutely right -- and don't forget to include Affirmative Action Alberto Gonzales and his so-called Justice Department among the ranks of those who did absolutely nothing.
...”Like Dennis Prager, because of the political correctness and moral blindness among the Left, I too fear for the future of America”...
Down the road, these young men will not be the only tragic victims in all this. With faculty and staff like this, the very core of educational and professional skills required to meet the needs of our nation are at stake. An example is medical education. Duke and Columbia have both been known as excellent schools for medical training. Top notch physicians have trained and worked there. I have a strong interest in medicine, and I am curious as to whether these departments show signs of disintegrating or of being dismantled in the name of “political correctness.” We will know the answer to this in ten years or so after those responsible for the “genesis” of the problem have moved on, leaving a mess for future generations to cope with.
saving
Ping
With regards to Sharpton, does anyone remember that jogger in Central Park who was gang raped? I have some memory that Sharpton was involved, but I don't remember exactly how.
Couldn't agree with you more.
Bump
We need to shake off atomistic libertarianism in order to get together and do anything about it. What would make it difficult is that in the American psyche, the discernment and the abiding of truth have long been obscured by arbitrary self-assertion and a formidable sense of revoltedness that holds the ego in very high esteem. Many people assume life is one big interplay of Hegelian conflicts between people with ulterior motives (this is a worldview promoted by school and big business alike), notwithstanding our legal tradition which stretches back many centuries and points to higher things.
Here’s a good summary of Sharpton, which includes that:
Media skip other side of Sharpton
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/opinion_columnists/article/0,2777,DRMN_23972_4494836,00.html
Well said. Thanks for the ping.
I agree. For the prosecutor to say that he's not bringing charges because she is confused, or mentally ill, or delusional is no excuse. Nifong didn't think she was confused, or mentally ill, or delusional.
Maybe that will be her defense. Maybe she will be found not guily because of it. But the charges should be brought nonetheless.
Excellent article; thanks for posting it! Whether you call it “moral bankruptcy” or “intellectual vacuum”, Duke epitomizes what is wrong with most American universities these days: that they are political indoctrination centers rather than havens of learning and free debate.
One quibble, though: this reads like a transcript of live remarks rather than a proofread written piece. Prager’s comments about the loser-pay judicial system came out garbled, as if he was praising that the winner should pay attorney’s fees. And the listing of what can get a university president fired was likewise confused in its construction. As I said, it seemed more like the flow of spoken comments, which occasionally have these kinds of switches, than a written column. (/grammar police)
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