Bloggie has already given a very good response to the None letter so there's not much to add. I would just note that when all else fails people resort to personal attacks and throwing the race card is typical of such actions. Some folks believe that by declaring something to be racist that they can walk away "victorious" when in truth all they have done is walk away. There was nothing racial in Jim Nemeth's remarks. But then, there was nothing racial in either of the other two instances either. The goal is to shut down the blog. That isn't going to happen. I have always found it astounding that whereas a university should be a place where free speech reigns, it is often the opposite. Dr. Tinkle has found that people are generally in favor of free speech as long as the speech favors their opinions. Real dialogue occurs when individuals are willing to actually have a discussion in which opinions other than their own are considered. A truly rational discussion requires this. But then colleagues rarely engage in truly rational discussions.
There's actually a name for this: the Planck Problem. Max Planck noted that really intelligent people almost never change their mind, because to do so would be to admit they were wrong in the first place.
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This poison letter writer has revealed him/herself as horribly twisted, so much so that it is difficult to imagine this person being on faculty. Is there some entity living in the bell tower that we don't know about? I don't think anyone sensible will ever take anything seriously that this person ever again says. The difficult thing, though, is to imagine the motivation of such a person. But then there is no accounting for the demented. I don't feel sorry for this person--for it must take a lot of work to become so detached and vicious, and this person has obviously dedicated his or her life to achieving such a horror. But I do feel embarrassed for all concerned at UT, especially Nemeth who has not only been maligned, but is really the intended victim of that person's hate speech.
The race charge is laughable. I doubt our anonymous blogger really believes it The purpose of the poison blog is probably to use intimidation through smear tactics to silence criticism of the roundtable. Why else would the blogger call on key administrators to take some sort of unspecified action against Jim Nemeth ? Or demand that the faculty itself censure him ? The College should now insist that the administration issue a statement disavowing this harrasment and maligning of a valued colleague and affirming the faculty's right to debate fundamental academic issues
I was at the ASC meeting today and heard that assertion about racism by faculty made by a person who could not even identify what was allegedly racist. Reading the blog, I don't see it. This assertion is a slander against a professor and faculty.
Note there is a gross distortion of Nemeth's meaning on the part of the anonymous denouncer who so baldly accuses. Nemeth is talking about the problems that have afflicted urban schools in a programmatic sense, and worried seemingly hat the same programs will affect UT because of the Roundtable. How is this racist? This attack is either a deliberate distortion or the work of people who cannot read. Read it your self and confirm
Free Nemeth and apologize to him.
Curious, the reason you didn't see anything about racism in Dr. Nemeth's post is because it simply wasn't there. This whole thing is a fabrication and, as the Anonymous here says, harrassment and smear tactics against one of our most engaged and caring faculty colleagues, by this "anonymous" person for whatever reasons he or she has.
I believe you are throwing the word intelligent around rather willy nilly.
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