http://www.flathatnews.com/news/1872/breaking-nichol-contract-not-renewed

there's more to this than first there seems.  Believe it or not, I think the BoV's after the right goal.  All science and learning and progress lives by controversy.  but, while nurturing when calm and rational, when controversy reaches the point where it's all vitriol and name calling, then it becomes damaging.  This is where things are w/ Nichol.  all the fights, the BoV has done its level best to end the controversy, and failed at every step.  So, they take the next step and try and remove what they see as the root cause.  remove Nichol and the poison drip at the center of all of this will go away and the controversy will go away.  the BoV is trying to ride above the debate, by releasing Nichol and claiming it's not about the policies.  it's the only way they can end the fight now.

it won't work.  w&m has become a battlefield of the culture war.  the rancor continues on both sides, just read the comments.  and now one side has a martyr; now there's blood in the water, and the fight will be re-energized, and certainly will ascend to a new level.  both sides will now begin eating their young, if they aren't already.  all of w&m should take comfort in the fact that American institutional/historical memory is 17 minutes long.

the darkest days of this fight are ahead.

tonight, I sent the email below to info@savethewrencross.org.  I am tired of this issue and want to be over.

To Whom It May Concern:

 

Word first reached me about the removal of the Wren Cross in early November, 2006.  Having been raised in the Catholic tradition, and as a current practicing Catholic, who attends mass every week, and works hard on his faith outside of mass, I immediately thought it inappropriate that a chapel should be without a cross.  As such, I moved quickly to sign the petition posted on www.SavetheWrenCross.org, a petition that I understood to be drawn from the College’s student and alumni population.  I am happy to see that it generated sufficient publicity to create a debate about the policies the College and President Nichol should apply regarding the cross on the space in the chapel, which I would dare to refer to as worship space.

 

But, since November, several things have changed.  First, as a student of government policy and democratic process, I am well acquainted with the role, and indeed necessity of compromise in open, pluralistic societies, no matter whether they are as large of the United States or India or as small as the individual halls in the dorms across campus.  It is my opinion that President Nichol’s recent decision to display the cross on Sundays, while it is available upon request for display all other days of the week is an acceptable compromise solution to this issue.  I will not claim that it is my own, personal ideal solution, but I find it acceptable in the context of America’s public schools and my desire to make all people feel welcome in whatever community I also belong to.  Second, the petition has moved largely out of the hands of students and alumni.  Of the over 16,000 names, less 4,400 names come from students and alumni; students and alumni now make up only slightly more than one quarter of the signatories.  Both as a cause of this and as a result, the College has garnered a great deal of outside attention on the issue, much of which I believe is in bad-faith on the issue, and which uses the petition in a way that I neither anticipated nor to which I wish my name to be used.  I humbly request then that my name be removed from the petition.  The entry is listed as follows:

 

(omitted for privacy)

 

As of this moment, it is listed as entry # (omitted for privacy), when the names listed are limited to only students and alumni.

 

I thank you for raising this issue when action was first taken.  And I was heartened by the response the college community gave in the months immediately following the decision to remove the cross.  Since then, however, the course of the debate has seen me move from heartened to concerned to annoyed to exasperated, and even, at times, disgusted.  I now believe that the debate has within its reach the ratification of a valid compromise solution.  It is my hope that the college community may be given a chance through the tools of debate within the community to ratify or reject that solution, and in so doing, bring this scandal to a close and move forward.  Unfortunately, my location, removed from the campus as it is, renders me unable to truly assess whether the issue has been settled.  But, while the debates continue, I no longer consent to the use of my name in the manner in which the petition is now used, and so request that it be removed.

 

Thank you,

/undersigned w/ my graduation and program information/

I have a new apartment!  contact me directly if you want details about location/contact

So, I was reminded tonight of the variety of ways that people decide whom to give Christmas gifts and what to give.  So, I'm curious about what everyone thinks about that.

Also...it's a good way to find out if I've gotten anyone's attention for this journal yet...

Ok.  It's been suggested many times that I start one of these.  So...here goes:  1st entry, and, already, I'll get back to doing this for real some time later.