Who knew wimpiness could infect macho Texas? Must be the transplants. How
else to explain protesters who require a noise-free protest?
The alleged ruckus took place earlier this month at Texas A&M, home of the
Aggies in College Station. Berkeley, this is not. Or it didn't use to be.
Following a Feb. 3 campus protest against war with Iraq, many of the same
people held a vigil later that day at the Lawrence Sullivan Ross statue. As
A&M's student newspaper, The Battalion, notes, the area around Sul Ross is
one of three free-speech zones where university-recognized student groups
may gather. Such zones have become popular in recent years with campuscrats
interested in controlling the flow of free discourse by dictating where and
when speech may take place and, ultimately, who hears it. Exactly what a
university experience should be all about.
At the same time the protesters were gathered in their university-designated
speech zone, the Ross Volunteer Honor Corps association was conducting its
daily training. The Corps is a select division of the Texas A&M Corps that
serves as the honor guard for Texas' governor. Every Monday and Wednesday,
as The Examiner magazine reports, the Ross Volunteers meet at the Sul Ross
statue to train and remember their namesake. Ross was a 19th-century
soldier, state senator, governor and A&M president. The Ross Volunteers
carry demilitarized rifles -- meaning they don't work, can't harm and are
ceremonial only -- and sing to keep rhythm while jogging.
According to a vigil attendee quoted in The Battalion, the Corps "ran around
the area screaming and yelling. Our ministers had to stop speaking. Some of
the cadets glared [at us]." Furthermore, said the Rev. Danita Noland in The
Examiner, "We had to stop talking quite often. It was so loud, with the
jogging and the commands being called out and answered to and the drills
being carried out. We could not be heard." And, she asserts, cadets pointed
their useless weapons in a "menacing way."
And the chant while jogging? "Some say freedom is free, but we know Aggies
who paid the price." Oh. No.
As often happens, recollection is in the eye of the beholder. While vigil
attendees felt threatened by glares and menacing brandishing of weapons that
don't work, an observer to the events told The Battalion, "There was no
contact between the groups. The group of about 150 [cadets] did their normal
drills, but they didn't do anything to intimidate the group. No one drew
their weapons or made any intimidating gestures."
So what's an in-charge type to do on a college campus when contradictory
information surrounds An Incident? Kowtow to the offended party, of course.
It's the higher-education way. Apparently without even a hearing, the Corps
was temporarily suspended and can't hold activities -- that's pending an
investigation, not after an investigation determined actual wrongdoing.
But reviewing available information would indicate nothing happened to
warrant a suspension anyway. The vigil attendees were outnumbered. So what?
They chose to hold an event at a place regularly attended by a 100-plus
group of jogging, yelling cadets. Grab a microphone or choose another place
or pick another time.
And what if some cadets tossed a glare or two? Look away. A scowl is still
legal, even within university-controlled, speech-zone real estate. As for
the pointing of nonlethal weapons: They can't hurt you. They're not real.
Where are the protesters of old? What happened to the grit, the
determination, the backbone? When did activists start getting riled by
meanies across the quad?
Alas, they've been squashed underneath the weight of the sensitivity
doctrine: Silence whenever possible those with whom you don't agree.
It feels better.
© Northwest Arkansas Times. Tresa McBee writes for the Northwest Arkansas
Times and can be reached at tresam@nwarktimes.com.
