Have you ever been hassled for reading a book? I have. For The Real Anita Hill and The Myth of Heterosexual AIDS, two must-reads from my days as a collegiate conservative, I received mere dirty looks (And a menacing phone call for a positive review of the former book.). Holding a volume of Jefferson Davis's Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government in a DC Burger King elicited a barrage of snide comments from a Whoppers but not of the Confederacy. Reading Will & Ariel Durant's final volume in The Story of Civilization in a DC bar brought unwanted attention from a lunatic further fueled by alcohol. Spotting a chapter entitled "The German People," the unhinged barfly launched into a tirade about Nazism and accused me, based on no conversation save the one he had in his had with another of his personalities, of secretly harboring the belief that "Hitler was the George Washington of the German people." For about five minutes, I was horrified that others in the bar actually believed what this angry man had said about me. Fortunately for me, unfortunately for a young couple, he accosted them, issuing similar charges, in an extremely loud manner, without provocation. He disappeared into the night, with the second outburst restoring my reputation among the strangers in the bar and allowing me to read next to the juke box in peace.
Strangely, after reading about 400 books by and about the American Left from 2003 to 2007, not a single person uttered an unkind word. There were no angry outbursts in fast-food restaurants and no tirades in dive bars. The moral? Team Tolerance isn't so tolerant.
I can empathize with John Sampson, a 58-year-old janitor that had been charged by his employer with--gulp!--reading a book on his break. That his employer is a university, Indiana University-Purdue University of Indianapolis, makes the accusation particularly outrageous. "You used extremely poor judgment by insisting on openly reading the book related to a historically and racially abhorrent subject in the presence of your black co-workers," reprimanded his union representative, Lillian Charleston, in a letter to Sampson. The school's affirmative action officer informed Sampson that reading the book, "Notre Dame vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan," constituted racial harrasment. Not only is the book a sympathetic account of how Catholics repelled attacks by the KKK, but Sampson actually checked it out from IUPUI's library.
Well, a few months after informing Sampson that he would be disciplined for his insensitivity, the school has apologized. That it comes after a spate of negative media attention makes it a rather self-serving apology. The situation is so idiotic, why couldn't the university's president have said sorry and dismissed the matter six months ago? Why won't he fire the affirmative action officer whose judgment is borderline insane? Why isn't Sampson's complaining coworker reprimanded for being a nuisance?
There are quite a few members of the oppressed minorities who do not look kindly on having anyone stand with them. The fact that the Klan was so rabidly anti-Catholic -- in addition to their other targets -- is very often overlooked.
It kills me to imagine the conversations this guy must have had with the University officials -- the janitor turns out to be the smartest guy in the room!
That's really the most interesting part of all this: how do so many ignorant people end up in prestigious academic positions or in other hierarchies where they wield power? You would think a rudimentary grasp of informed logical decision making would go along with all of that education. Or does ideology trump all and blind them to common sense?
That's one for the ages I guess.
This was one of many 'black hole' type incidences. Not to be the last.
My college writing tutor caught me reading "The Closing of the American Mind" by Allan Bloom (this was at the U of Chicago, where Bloom was still on the faculty). He asked if I was enjoying it, and before I could answer, he shouted "I hope not!" It did not occur to him apparently that he was providing corroboration for fitness of the book's title.
"Book burning" seems to occur only on the left.
Blacks/Leftists are like dogs in a sense that they hear or see what they want to. All dogs understand is, "blah, blah, blah, Rover, blah, blah". Blacks/Leftists see a book lambasting the KKK but yet all they see on the cover is the eeevil acronym KKK and they go apeshit.
C'mon, RRW. Why are you comparing human beings to dogs? Apart from the viciousness of it, who are you going to win over with words like that?
