Lessons to be Learned

With so much of my attention focused on the actions the Butler administration keeps directing toward me, at times I almost forget the fact that I’m a student. Then I read something for a class that really helped me to remember what college is supposed to be about. I want to make it clear from the beginning that I'm not comparing myself to Dr. King nor am I comparing my situation to the struggle that characterized much of the 20th century: I simply aim to point out that many of his teachings are still very applicable, in a variety of places and situations, today.

Recently, I had the opportunity to read some of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s writings and they really moved me. Like so many great writers and impressive leaders, Dr. King was able to craft arguments that went far beyond the specific instance he was writing about. One of those pieces was his “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” written on April 16, 1963. He wrote this open letter after being arrested for participating in a protest against racial segregation in Birmingham, Alabama.

He said, in part, “I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial ‘outside agitator’ idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.”

He went on to say, “You may well ask: ‘Why direct action? Why sit ins, marches and so forth? Isn't negotiation a better path?’ You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored.”

And he said, “We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”

The racial justice he was fighting for, and for which so many are still fighting, is absolutely essential if we are to live in a fair and equitable society. His words are so incredibly powerful because they teach us about all sorts of injustice – and how to fight those injustices. Even more importantly, his words explain why we must fight against injustice when we see it.

President Bill Clinton quoted Dr. King on March 5, 2000 when he was in Selma, Alabama commemorating the 35th anniversary of the 1965 voting rights march. President Clinton chose to quote words Dr. King wrote in 1962, “It is history's wry paradox that when Negroes win their struggle to be free, those who have held them down will themselves be free for the first time."

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has been gone for over 40 years but his words still have much to teach us about injustice and the remarkable benefits that occur for all when injustice is finally overcome.

I wish that many in our community, and beyond, could learn the lessons that Dr. King was preaching.

Delayed Rights

I’m a little upset right now so let me apologize beforehand if this post comes off as whiney. My mom is in from out of town this weekend and all I really want to do is enjoy her company, introduce her to some friends and share some of what Indianapolis has to offer. It’s hard to do that, though, with the university, its president and its lawyers after me. So I don’t want to write too much.

This has been going on for over 10 months. In fact, it’s closer to 11 months ago that the vice president for student affairs demanded a meeting with me to discuss the True BU blog. After that meeting, the administration let it go and I didn’t hear about it for over five months and during that entire time the True BU blog was silent. Oh, the posts from the original blog, cached in some far recess of the net, made a brief appearance on another Butler student web site, but those pages were removed relatively quickly when fear entered the consciousness of the new bloggers.

The administration didn’t forget about me and my opinions, the were just waiting to raise the issue for a time when it was useful to them: when my dad was starting to make some waves over a completely different, and separate, situation, even though the president is quoted in the faculty senate notes from last week as saying that their desire to pursue the blog had waned. “Our intent is not to police the internet and the blog, however hurtful, was essentially let go,” he is quoted as saying. Well, it might have been “essentially let go” for them, but it certainly hasn’t been let go for me or for Butler’s high priced attorneys who seem fixated on this issue. For the last 4 months, the lawsuit and the threat of disciplinary action have been held over my head and threatened repeatedly and, frankly, I’m sick of it. It makes it hard to concentrate, it affects my classes, and it doesn’t get anyone anywhere: The University has nothing to gain and I certainly am not enjoying this. It seems to me that pursuing this right now is bad for every single member of the Butler community and all I want is for it to end. It seems that the only thing they want is for me to be quiet, and I really have no interest in calming down now just so they can threaten to do something later. It needs to end, and soon, because, no matter how hard I try, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to succeed in the classroom and in my other responsibilities.

The US constitution, a document I discussed in my post on Thursday, and a document that Butler seems to ignore in favor of its own rules, addresses this point. The sixth amendment to the constitution provides defendants with the right to a speedy trial. In New York, for example, the prosecution must be "ready for trial" within six months on all felonies except murder. Now I understand that even the administration isn’t claiming that I’ve committed any felonies, but if people accused of those sorts of crimes have a right to clear their name in a reasonable time frame, why don’t I? The constant threats feel completely inhumane and, honestly, it feels like harassment. The president, on the other hand, told the faculty that I’m a bully. With the university’s disregard of the rights outlined in the US constitution, I ask, as I did in my post last Monday, “Who’s the bully?”

Your voices are helping. They’re demonstrating that people on and off campus, people locally and around the country, are watching to see how the administration conducts its business. You’ve asked them for apologies and an end to all of this. I hope our voices get through to the administration. Occasionally, I will publish more posts written by others, like yesterday’s, in the hopes of encouraging more people to come forward, face their fear, and stand up for Butler. I also want to commend those who have already done so, even anonymously. I certainly am not one to judge people for feeling too afraid to use their names: I simply hope that someday soon they won’t feel so afraid.

Internal Bleeding

I’ve spent a good deal of time on this blog discussing the parts of the president’s memos that are simply untrue. Today, I’m going to focus on a part of his memos that I think is probably, but unfortunately, accurate.

The more I think about it, the more the president’s promise of on-campus disciplinary action scares me.

After all, in a real court there is the assurance of impartiality. The president, however, has eliminated any possibility of there being a fair proceeding in on-campus disciplinary actions. In the memos he circulated to the full faculty of the University (linked on the right), he has already convicted me.

The president writes that “Soodo Nym’s blogs and e-mail crossed the line from robust criticism of policy to character assassination and intimidation,” and the blog, “contained falsehoods that harmed the professional reputations of individuals.” These are but two examples of the rhetoric the president uses that convince me that I will not be treated fairly. While I categorically disagree with the president’s assertions, and so do the many people who have read the documents and shared their comments on blogs and news stories around the country, the fact remains that the president of the university is willing to publicly convict me before internal disciplinary processes are even initiated.

I’ll let that sink in for a minute.

What does that mean? It means that the person in charge of the disciplinary process has told everyone else who will be involved in the disciplinary process that I’m guilty. Now, I understand that the U.S. constitution offers me no protection at Butler because it is a private institution, but as stewards of an institution of higher education in the United States, the administration at Butler should embrace at least a semblance of our country’s most basic and inalienable rights. Instead, by denying me any hint of my due-process rights, the president has decided that he can structure things better than can the country’s founding fathers.

Isn’t that a scary thought? It sure is to me. The lawsuit was, and still is (remember, despite the president’s promise, it has yet to be dismissed-check out the counter on the right) precedent setting: According to The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (The FIRE) it is the first time a university has ever sued over online speech. In some ways, though, the precedent that the administration is trying to set at Butler by announcing my guilt before holding the trial is far more dangerous. It seems that soon it will be an old-fashioned thought that students at Butler can expect to be treated fairly and even with a dab of respect. When important civil rights begin to erode, we all have much to fear; at Butler and elsewhere.

The man in charge has issued an edict: The trial, when it comes, is now for show. So I’m scared, and I believe that that’s exactly what the administration wants me to feel. Estella Lauter posted a great comment on the Inside Higher Ed article (linked on the right) where she quotes Audre Lorde. Lorde wrote, “For we have been socialized to respect fear more than our own needs for language and definition, and while we wait in silence for that final luxury of fearlessness, the weight of that silence will choke us.” Please, don’t let the silence choke you: Tell the president and the board of trustees what you think of this dangerous and unfortunate situation. Speak out and speak up to save our rights.