Hateful Letters to a Soldier - From a Leftist Professor

Front Page Magazine / Frontpage.com ^ | November 8, 2002 | peter kerstein

[doulau]

Last week I got a message containing an email exchange between an Air Force Academy cadet and a professor who responded very rudely to a polite request for information. I didn't run it because I couldn't verify it and the professor's response seemed so stereotypically rude and anti-military that I wasn't entirely sure it was real.

The Air Force Academy has a program called The Academy Assembly. An Air Force Academy cadet named Robert Kurpiel sent an e-mail to which ended up in the hands of Peter Kirstein, Professor of History at Saint Xavier University.

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

Here is the response from Professor Kirstein:

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

The Air Force Academy stepped in and tried to calm the situation. 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 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

[doulau]

I'm going to pay college tuition for three kids for this crap?

[patriciaruth]

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."

God bless our soldiers, airmen, and sailors.

[JoJo Gunn]

Captain Borders, and the Air Force, was way too accomodating, way too accepting, of an "apology" from Collaborating sewage.

[patriciaruth]

I'm going to pay college tuition for three kids for this crap?

I'd pass on Saint Xavier if I were you.

Try Bob Jones University.

That was a sort of joke, but actually sort of serious. I hope some FReepers can give you some leads on decent American and/or Christian colleges or universities that don't preach anti-American hatred.

[Coeur de Lion]

I'm curious why the professor changed his tune!

[patriciaruth]

The Armed Services are exemplary in their standards of courtesy toward the people of America whom they serve. They really believe and teach civilian control, and they learn manners that civilians haven't practiced for over 150 years.

God bless them all!

[ctnoell]

Please post this bastards's email/contact information so we can flood him and his university with the same hateful messages that he sent to one of our soldiers. The treatment that this cadet received was disgraceful. What makes it worse is that tax dollars are allowing this professor to spew this leftist garbage. And this cadet may someday put his life on the line to defend this clown's "right" to trash the United States. Only in America!

[stlrocket]

You can tell by the professors tepid reply that he still doesn't get it! He is ONLY embarrassed because his e-mail became known.

It no longer was a "private" reply when he signed it Professor from that University!!!!

Our Colleges and Universities are full of these vacuous morons. Think about that when you write your next tuition check.

[Pompah]

I would say that commrade kirstein is unworthy to draw a breath of Clean Free Air in this Wonderful Country. What a sorry Bastard.

[Tall_Texan]

This commielib let his true feelings out and, once this circulated, I'm sure the University put pressure on him to apologize.

Sometimes university professors, in their little cells of like-minded America-haters, forget that there is a real world out there with real consequences.

My only surprise was that this letter wasn't from UT journalism prof and op-ed idiot Dr. Robert Jensen or that kook in New Mexico who claimed that flying planes into the Pentagon was fine by him.

[patriciaruth]

There is something screwy about this article. The article is by Peter Kirstein, and he talks about the email exchanges as though he doesn't know the professor in question, BUT

the professor in question is labeled as Professor Peter Kirstein.

HUH???

[patriciaruth]

Ah, the author of the article is Peter Kerstein and the Professor is Peter Kirstein?

Is this a coincidence? Or did Kerstein get some flak from people thinking he was Kirstein?

[Tall_Texan]

Learn more, including pictures at:


http://www.sxu.edu/academ/artsci/history/pkirstein/

kirstein@sxu.edu

[ctnoell]

Never mind, I already found it: kirstein@sxu.edu . Give him a piece of your mind...I just did! And I feel alot better!

[Tall_Texan]

Don't know, but a Google search leads first to a Prof. Peter T. Kirstein who is not the guy!

Below that is Peter N. Kirstein which is the one who wrote the letter. I'm guessing the author name at the top of this page was the poster's mispelling.

[Truth29]

I tried to access their web site www.sxu.edu/) to search for Kirstein's email address, but the site would not open for me. I wonder if they are having problems with the number of hits or they have taken the site down. In any event, no words can ever apologize for the "professor's original email. He is an enemy of America and the Umiversity should receive thousands of letters explaining how outrageous are this man's views.

[Tall_Texan]

Some other pearls of wisdom from the prof:

My Teaching Philosophy
1) Teaching is a moral act.
2) Teach peace, freedom, diversity, multiculturalism and challenge American unilateralism.
3) Move beyond the ideological confines of academe.
4) 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.
5) When emphasizing key concepts in your field, confront the canon so that your "discipline" is challenged by questions and not affirmed with answers.
6) 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.
7) 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.
8) Teach what interests you even in a required "core" course.
9) Publish papers and attend conferences that interest you. They always energize me and give me new ideas and fresh material for my teaching.
10) Be prepared for occasional frustration when students don't always respond to your enthusiasim and dreams.
11) 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.

Just curious. Was his initlal e-mail an "honest effort at conversation" (point seven)??

[Truth29]

I see that others had better luck than I in accessing the site and getting the email address. Email away!

[JoJo Gunn]

I know. Sometimes I think we on the Right are too silent, though.

For the ones who tried to e-mail him, here's the robotic response I got yesterday:


Due to considerable interest in a correspondence with a military person, I am posting this. I have communicated my apologies and they were graciously and readily accepted. Full text is at:
http://www.sxu.edu/academ/artsci/history/pkirstein/
May nations also learn differences can be overcome, disagreements bridged and that peace and harmony are possible.

I also apologize for offending the countless men and women of the military who serve this nation with professionalism and
dedication to their mission.

[ctnoell]

I went to the university website at www.sxu.edu and clicked on "search university website". I then entered this professor's name and his website appeared (with email address). It's legit because it had a disclaimer "apologizing" to the cadet. I encourage everyone who appreciates the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform to deluge the professor and university with emails expressing your feelings. Time to stand against this anti-American PC b*llshit!