Nikki Giovanni Changes Her Tune

You said — “Gee, now I wonder where he learned to hate and despise people like myself? Was he born that way? Or did learn who to hate over time and from whom?”

Oh, that one is very easy... I can tell you very clearly how people get that way. The Bible has expressed it in no uncertain terms. It’s simply the rejection of God as their Creator God. Paul in the book of Romans states it very clearly for us.

Romans 1:16-32

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,

19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.

20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,

21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

22 Professing to be wise, they became fools,

23 and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.

24 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves,

25 who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.

27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.

28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting;

29 being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers,

30 backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,

31 undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful;

32 who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.

There’s your answer. This is the *cause* that you’re looking for.

Don’t look at the *results* which are evident in our society. Those are simply the “end results” of the rejection of the Creator God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the rejection of His Son, Jesus Christ as our personal Savior.

You’re looking at the symptoms. I’ve just given you the *cause* — up above...

Regards,
Star Traveler

"Actually, a professor is master of the classroom. Any prof can have any student dismissed from their class for disrupting. Not dismissed from the university, but dismissed from the class."

I taught on the university level for 25 years, and this was absolutely NOT true at the university where I was employed. Professors generally had no control over who was or was not allowed to register for their classes, and getting a threatening one removed was very difficult.

During the years I taught, I can remember about half a dozen crazy students who were very hard to deal with during their times in my classes; perhaps only three of them were really scarey. I actually asked my husband who was, and still is, employed by the same university to come and sit with me during the final of one class with a threatening student. Another time I asked a very kind, older faculty member. Both helped me by sitting with me during the finals and no incidents occurred.

Once a student came to my office door and threatened me over a disagreement I had had in class earlier that day with his girlfriend. I was all alone in the hallway since I was prepping for a night class. I explained the situation in as calm a manner as I could; then the student grabbed me and HUGGED me, and then left. Weird.

I had a similar incident with a former student who also caught me alone in my office at night. He was angry about another course he was taking at the time that he thought was unfairly difficult. He was incoherent, and his whole diatribe included a whole lot of grievances in one long, long, long sentence that I thought would never end. Eventually he ran out of gas verbally and left, as well.

I had a crazy student accuse me of harrassing her by actions such as tapping her phone and following her around campus. She was getting a D in my course after having received fairly high grades in community college. She recounted a long list of fictional incidents involving me and named students who were witnesses. None backed her up. She got a real hearing from the Dean of Students; however, before her case fell completely apart. She had told all this to her mother who showed up at the Dean of Students office weeping over her daughter's supposed ill treatment at my hands. That set off the whole investigation and hearing, initially. Eventually the Dean of Students told her and her mother that he "didn't believe a word" of her story. He walked them both back to their car to leave campus since the "hearing" took place on a Friday afternoon. The student was by then angry at her mother for showing up to the Dean's office. The next semester I got a message from the Dean letting me know that the student was not coming back to campus and expressing his relief that "she chose not to return".

Just a sample of the kinds of incidents with students that can happen to a university instructor over the course of 25 years.

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.


	Nikki Giovanni's Moving Speech from Today's Service Tuesday, April 17, 2007 WSLS NewsChannel 10		Students feared gunman for 18 months Wednesday, April 18, 2007 This is London



	We are Virginia Tech. We are sad today and we will be sad for quite awhile. We are not moving on, we are embracing our mourning. We are Virginia Tech. We are strong enough to know when to cry and sad enough to know we must laugh again. We are Virginia Tech. We do not understand this tragedy. We know we did not deserve it but neither does a child in Africa dying of AIDS, but neither do the invisible children walking the night to avoid being captured by a rogue army. Neither does the baby elephant watching his community be devastated for ivory; neither does the Appalachian infant in the killed in the middle of the night in his crib in the home his father built with his own hands being run over by a boulder because the land was destabilized. No one deserves a tragedy. We are Virginia Tech. The Hokie Nation embraces our own with open heart and hands to those who offer their hearts and minds. We are strong and brave and innocent and unafraid. We are better than we think, not quite what we want to be. We are alive to the imagination and the possibility we will continue to invent the future through our blood and tears, through all this sadness. We are the Hokies. We will prevail, we will prevail. We are Virginia Tech.		Students described Cho's descent from campus oddball to chilling loner with a loathing for "rich kids" as he began secretly photographing pupils in class, started going to the gym to "beef up" and had a military-style haircut. It emerged today that at one stage students were so scared of his behaviour that only seven out of 70 turned up for class, forcing lecturers to give him one-to-one tuition. One teacher even suggested today he was given A grades because he was so "intimidating and staff wanted to keep him happy". Nikki Giovanni, who teaches poetry, said she threatened to resign if Cho was not taken out of her class. She said: "I think he liked the idea he was a scary guy. Some people like that. That is how they define themselves. Kids write about murder and suicide all the time. But there was something that made us all pay attention closely. "Students absolutely would not come into class. They said, 'He is taking photographs of us. We don't know what he is doing. It is very strange'." When she first heard of the killings Professor Giovanni said she immediately thought it would be Cho. "When they said it was a shooting, I said, 'Okay...' When they said a young Asian, I said, 'For sure'. I knew when it happened that that was who it was. "There was something mean about this boy. I've taught troubled youngsters, I've taught crazy people. It was the meanness that bothered me. It was a real mean streak."



*************************		*************************



	Nikki Giovanni's Moving Speech from Today's Service Tuesday, April 17, 2007 WSLS NewsChannel 10		Student Wrote About Death and Spoke in Whispers... Wednesday, April 18, 2007 Washington Post



	...We are strong and brave and innocent and unafraid....		...Days later, seven of Giovanni's 70 or so students showed up for a class. She asked them why the others didn't show up and was told that they were afraid of Cho...