Peter N. Kirstein
Professor of History
Department of History & Political Science
Saint Xavier University
Chicago, IL
Phone: 773.298.3283
Fax: 773.779.9061
kirstein@sxu.edu
Posted on 11/06/2002 6:17:31 AM PST by Apple Pan Dowdy
THE HATE-FILLED LEFTIST PROFESSOR
OK .. in response to nearly 100 very demanding e-mail messages, here is what I have been able to find out about that incredible letter from the history professor at Saint Xavier University in Chicago to that cadet at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
The Air Force Academy has a program called The Academy Assembly. You will read a description of The Academy Assembly below. An Air Force Academy cadet named Robert Kurpiel sent an e-mail to which ended up in the hands of Peter Kirstein at Saint Xavier. Here is the text of that e-mail:
Dear Sir or Ma’am
The Air Force Academy is going to be having our annual Academy Assembly. This is a forum for mainly but not only Political Science majors, discussing very important issues dealing with politics.
Right now we are in the planning stage for advertising and we would appreciate your help in the follow (sic) areas. Do you know of or have methods or ways for interschool advertising and or communications? What would be the best way for us to advertise at your school whether it is sending you the fliers and you making copies or by perhaps putting an advertisement in your local publication? We would appreciate your input and the cost of what your recommend. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Very Respectfully,
Cadet Robert Kurpiel
Now … here is the response from Professor Kirstein. Be sitting down when you read it.
From: Peter Kirstein
Sent: Thursday, October 31, 2002 1:46 PM
To: Kurpiel Robert C4C CS26
Subject: Re: Academy Assembly
You are a disgrace to this country and I am furious you would even think I would support you and your aggressive baby killing tactics of collateral damage. Help you recruit. Who, top guns to reign death and destruction upon nonwhite peoples throughout the world? Are you serious sir? Resign your commission and serve your country with honour. No war, no air force cowards who bomb countries with AAA, without possibility of retaliation. You are worse than the snipers. You are imperialists who are turning the whole damn world against us. September 11 can be blamed in part for what you and your cohorts have done to Palestinians, the VC, the Serbs, a retreating army at Basra. You are unworthy of my support.
Peter N. Kirstein
Professor of History
Saint Xavier University.
So … there you go. Through the instantaneous magic of the Internet these two messages were soon flowing through e-mail accounts and message boards, and before you could say “tenure” Professor Kirstein was up to neck in academic horse squeeze.
Kirstein is an odd bird. If you cruise through his Saint Xavier website you will see one page devoted to the gravesite of Karl Marx in England! http://www.sxu.edu/academ/artsci/history/pkirstein/pictures.html Now, does that give you any insight into this man’s politics?
I also perused some of the writings of this extreme left-wing (dare I say communist?) history professor. Here’s an excerpt from a letter he wrote in October letter to Arab News:
It is my hope that large segments of our armed forces would refuse to engage in aggressive military action that would disgrace their families, their nation and all those who have worn proudly the uniform of the United States. Air National Guard units should refuse activation in preparation for airstrikes. Aircraft carrier battle groups stationed in the Persian Gulf should refuse to refuel or preposition aircraft that could attack Iraq. Special forces such as navy Seals and army Rangers should refuse invading Iraq in a preemptive war against a non-threatening adversary. If additional ground troops are deployed, hopefully they would not obey orders to murder civilians or destroy wantonly the delicate infrastructure of Baghdad, Basra and other Iraqi cities.
Now that’s nice, isn’t it? Our history professor is asking American servicemen and women to disobey orders … to defect? Obviously Peter N. Kirstein would get along very well with Hanoi Jane Fonda. Maybe we should start calling him Baghdad Peter.
Moving right along. If you happened to uncover Baghdad Peter’s e-mail address, and if you sent him a blue-steam e-mail about his letter to the Air Force cadet, this is the response you would have received today:
Due to considerable off-campus interest in a private correspondence with a military person, I am posting this. The situation has been resolved with humility, mutual respect and considerable friendliness. Both of us consider this matter to be resolved. May nations also learn differences can be overcome, disagreements bridged and that peace and harmony are possible I will respond, as needed, to other e-mail.
Uh oh. It looks like the professor got taken for a quick visit to the woodshed, especially when you consider this short, terse e-mail response many got from the president of Saint Xavier University today.
Thank you for your expression of concern about the intemperate, angry words issued by Prof. Kirstein. He has apologized to the cadet, the Academy, and the University and all have accepted. His harsh words certainly do not represent Saint Xavier University!
- Dr. Richard Yanikoski, president
Yikes! It doesn’t sound like Professor Kirstein is on the presidents Christmas Card list this year, does it?
Up next ... an attempt by the Air Force Academy as they step in and try to calm the situation down a bit. Here is a letter from the Director of the Academy Assembly.
Subject: An Open Letter from the Academy Assembly
Ladies and Gentlemen,
There has been considerable attention given to an e-mail received by a Fourth Class Cadet here at the United States Air Force Academy from Professor Peter N. Kirstein of Saint Xavier University. Dr Kirstein's e-mail was a response to an e-mail he had received concerning the Academy Assembly.
The Academy Assembly is a forum to promote academic discussion of important issues of our day and to allow the student delegates from all over the North America to draft a report that is widely disseminated. This year our theme is America's Challenges in an Unstable World: Balancing Security with Liberty. I am pleased to say that a "cyber-episode" which started poorly has evolved into a more professional and academic discussion.
Please find below a letter of apology from Dr Kirstein which I received this morning, accompanied by a phone call. I have drafted this message in response to his correspondence and with an advance copy to Dr. Kirstein.
On behalf of the Academy Assembly I accept this apology in the same sincere manner in which it was given. Furthermore, I offer my own apology to Dr Kirstein for the way his original message, which was intended as private communication, was spread throughout the Air Force Academy and beyond. Since that e-mail was forwarded with such great vigor to many individuals both within and outside the Air Force Academy I would ask that you, the reader of this letter, please forward this e-mail to anyone to whom you sent the original message.
Two results of this are obvious and I want to share them with you. The first is that through well considered words and messages a situation that was initially highly inflammatory has become one in which diverse ideas can be compared and discussed; this is the essence of the Academy Assembly. Second, though emotions have run understandably high throughout the USAFA Cadet Wing in response to this e-mail, replies to this e-mail from our cadets have been, almost without exception, marked by great maturity and professionalism. I was presented nearly forty proposed responses to the original e-mail from cadets, but the one that best encapsulates the opinion of the cadet wing is a quote from their book, Contrails, which serves as not only a statement for others, but an admonition for themselves
"It is the soldier, not the reporter who has given us the freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us the freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who gives us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag." ~Father Dennis Edward O'Brien, Sergeant, USMC
I would dare to add one thought to the above quote; that we in the military, as servants of the public, must carefully guard and cherish our relationship with the civilian community. We must always remain open and responsive to legitimate criticism that is presented in a spirit of willingness to improve the forces that guard our country and make them an institution that all Americans can take pride in. I am pleased to say that this discussion, of which many of you only saw the first portion, has moved towards that high plain.
Respectfully yours,
Captain Jim Borders, USAFA
Director, Academy Assembly
Instructor, Political Science
And here, as promised in Captain Borders’ letter, is the apology written by the Professor.
Dear Captain Borders,
I have expressed to Cadet Kurpiel my regrets over what I communicated to him in my e-mail. I did not mean to impugn his character. I am sure he is of the highest character. I should have written him in a more thoughtful and contemplative manner. As one who believes in non-violence and the avoidance of conflict, I could have been more circumspect and creative in my communication with him.
Cadet Kurpiel has sent me several generous, thoughtful and impressive e-mails. He has also expressed "apologies" for the unwarranted national distribution of a private e-mail correspondence which has caused me and others to receive 100s of e-mail messages. I hope this update on my response and the cadet's kind communication will serve to inform the public that this issue has been resolved with dignity and honour between myself and Cadet Kurpiel.
I remain respectfully yours,
Peter N. Kirstein
Professor of History
Saint Xavier University
Do you think Professor Kirstein is truly sorry he wrote that letter to the cadet? Get serious! He’s sorry the letter became so widely disseminated … nothing else. He was made to look like a fool. He embarrassed his university, and he had to eat crow. But tomorrow he’ll be right back at work poisoning the minds of those wide-eyed kids entrusted to his care.
Peter N. Kirstein
Professor of History
Department of History & Political Science
Saint Xavier University
Chicago, IL
Phone: 773.298.3283
Fax: 773.779.9061
kirstein@sxu.edu
He said that he expressed "regrets". I'm sure he does regret making his hatred of America so explicitly known that it has had a negative effect on his career.
At no point does he say "I was wrong, I am sorry, I apologize".
He's a sniveling coward - and note how he put the cadet's apologies in quotation marks - implying that he felt the cadet's apologies were insincere.
All we need to know about Kirstein is this: if it were 1940, he would be marching in the streets to protest America going to war with Hitler, solely because his hero Stalin had signed a non-aggression pact with the Nazis.
That is his moral caliber.
In a more circumspect manner, I'm sure.
Wow, I never knew the U.S.A.F. hated the Auto Club so much.
Dear Dr. Kirstein-
Thank you for your intemperate, illluminating letter to the Air Force Academy Cadet. This sort of over-the-top, panties-in-a-twist squawling is EXACTLY what we militarists need to cut you lefties off at the knees.
Impugning this kid's honor, comparing members of the military to the nut-job snipers...your note is a shining & perfect example of the lefty hysteria so prevalent on American campuses today.
I'm sure your note is going to show up in newspapers and newsweeklies across the country- certainly radio talk shows are going to mention it- I imagine you're going to be recieving ever so many calls for interviews and comments.
But...you will probably not be afforded the opportunity to explain your views in any detail- you have already been pigeonholed as a loon. The only thing anyone is going to remember or hear about is your abusive email to the cadet. That email is going to make the rounds, and it is going to help us tar opponents of the war as whiny, unpatriotic, rude and intemperate nutjobs.
Again, I want to extend my sincere thanks to you for splatting a custard pie in the face of the left- reading your letter this morning made my day!
Who else thinks it's funny that a college prof doesn't know how to spell "rain"?
More from the professor's web site:
My Teaching Philosophy
- Teaching is a moral act.
- Teach peace, freedom, diversity, multiculturalism and challenge American unilateralism.
- Move beyond the ideological confines of academe.
- Instructors should be secure and unafraid to express their opinions. They have every right to do so and should be free to engage in academic revisionism in their field.
- When emphasizing key concepts in your field, confront the canon so that your "discipline" is challenged by questions and not affirmed with answers.
- Be demanding and have high expectations for your students. They will respond positively if they sense you are hard working, love your subject matter and are dedicated to their learning.
- Encourage student discussion and debate. Let them know you like to be challenged and that your ideas and values are not a form of proselytizing or domination but a honest effort at conversation.
- Teach what interests you even in a required "core" course.
- Publish papers and attend conferences that interest you. They always energize me and give me new ideas and fresh material for my teaching.
- Be prepared for occasional frustration when students don't always respond to your enthusiasim and dreams.
- Be who you are; don't try to reinvent yourself should you possibly be challenged by institutional culture. While you should be receptive to new ideas and respond affirmatively to formative and creative criticism, teaching is an intensely personal act-despite its public posture-and one should be true to one's beliefs and ethics.
It's forgivable in a poster, but pathetic in an academic.
He looks like a cross between Donna Shalayla and Janet Reno. He must really love to perform in front of his captive audience of college kids.
Xavier University of Chicago freshman class gender breakdown: 72% women, 28% men.
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