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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:...

If a Korean War veterans group had wanted a softball presentation by a speaker they would find agreeable, they shouldn’t have called Peter Kirstein. More than simply being anti-war, the St. Xavier University history professor just might be the sharpest and most outspoken critic of the military within a reasonable drive of the North Shore. In a sometimes heated exchange with a Wilmette- based veterans’ roundtable recently, Kirstein debated the impending conflict with Iraq, but also blasted the military’s growing role in foreign policy and its conduct in all modern wars. “We normally hear that it’s the military that is...

The Nutty Professor The other day a friend of mine forwarded an account of an e-mail exchange between a cadet at the Air Force Academy and a professor at St. Xavier University. The cadet was innocently informing the college about an event called The Academy Assembly, a gathering where political subjects are discussed and inquiring about the best methods of advertising in the St. Xavier area. The letter ended up in the hands of a certain professor, Peter Kirstein, and here is the professor’s reply: “You are a disgrace to this country and I’m furious you would even think I...

Tenured Adolescents For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Chuck him out, the brute!” But it’s “Saviour of ’is country” when the guns begin to shoot; … —Rudyard Kipling, “Tommy” (1890) We have been reminded of Kipling’s poem “Tommy” a good deal lately. Its most famous line—in which Kipling speaks of “makin’ mock o’ uniforms that guard you while you sleep”—has a special relevance at a moment when anti-war animus is bubbling out of the universities and other protected redoubts of politically correct sentiment. Living in the aftermath of the 1960s and its culture of protest, most of us...

During recent weeks Saint Xavier University has attracted national attention because a tenured professor of history sent a young Air Force Academy cadet some e-mail containing inflammatory, anti-military comments. Professor Peter N. Kirstein, an avowed pacifist, quickly apologized to the cadet and to the Air Force Academy for his e-mail message, but in the meantime thousands of other interested parties have taken offense. From the beginning of this incident, Saint Xavier University has worked to achieve four objectives: (1) to make things right with the cadet and the Air Force Academy; (2) to respond compassionately to the anger and anguish...

Statement regarding Professor Peter N. Kirstein, Ph.D. Richard A. Yanikoski, Ph.D. President, Saint Xavier University November 15, 2002 During recent weeks Saint Xavier University has attracted national attention because a tenured professor of history sent a young Air Force Academy cadet some e-mail containing inflammatory, anti-military comments. Professor Peter N. Kirstein, an avowed pacifist, quickly apologized to the cadet and to the Air Force Academy for his e-mail message, but in the meantime thousands of other interested parties have taken offense. From the beginning of this incident, Saint Xavier University has worked to achieve four objectives: (1) to make things...

Some of the dumbest people I’ve met have considerable formal education. For many, there appears to be some sort of reverse correlation between years of formal education and common sense. Making this more agonizingly apparent is the posturing of academic types who are self-styled deep thinkers and judge themselves to be so much smarter than the rest of us. Peter Kirstein holds a Ph.D. and is a professor of history at Chicago’s St. Xavier University. He recently received an email from an Air Force Academy cadet who asked for suggestions on how to publicize to the St. Xavier community a...