The Missouri Southern State University Board of Governors had no idea when scheduling its annual “retreat “that it would end with one governor resigning and the others in full retreat.
And it all started because of a comment about the school mascot, the lion. Board member David Ansley, during a presentation by the athletic director about the school’s logo said, “We went from the fag lion to the ferocious lion.”
One of the dangers of these so-called “retreats,” is they encourage a level of informality that is not usually seen in regular meetings and sometimes that brings out the worst in officials.
And not just Ansley. The Joplin Globe reports that immediately after Ansley’s use of the slur against homosexuals:
Board President Rod Anderson looked at reporters who were covering the panel’s retreat meeting on Saturday at the university and said, “That’s off the record.”
The Globe article says two other board members, Charles McGinty and Sherry Buchanan, said the comment should not be printed.
If Globe reporter Greg Grisolano had any doubts about whether he should run the quote, those pleadings should have settled the matter. My old publisher at The Carthage Press, Jim Farley had a hard and fast rule- “If someone asks us not to run something, we put it one page one.” Especially when it is news.
And that is exactly what the Joplin Globe did. Earlier today, Ansley, who apologized for his statement before the retreat had concluded, resigned from the Board of Governors.
Ansley, a personal injury and medical malpractice attorney from Springfield, Missouri, made the right decision, one that was probably made easier by the fact that his term has already ended and he is only serving until Gov. Jay Nixon appoints a successor.
Of course, the outcries came immediately in the comment section of the Joplin Globe. Ansley was a victim of “political correctness,” one person after another said, with many adding their own anti-gay slurs, some of them apparently intending to be clever, but falling far short of the mark.
No, David Ansley was not a victim of political correctness, any more than George Allen was a victim of political correctness when he called an opposition campaign volunteer a macaca.
Our institutions of higher learning should set the example for today’s society. We no longer tolerate slurs of any kind. That is not political correctness; that is simple civility.
9 comments:
Good riddance, but what in heck was the new athletic director doing when he spoke about the logo change. Was he taking credit for it? The change was effected by Sallie Beard.
Or was Bruggeman also presenting it as if implying a "sissy" lion had been turned into a ferocious one.
Maybe the AD is partly to blame. But only partly because Ansley is fully responsible. The jerk.
the town paper reports today that the a.d. mentioned the logo change took place in 07-08.
I'm so glad Ferocious Non-Lyin' excercised civility and restraint in his/her post. Wonder what Freud would say about his post. In any event, I am in awe of his intellectual prowess.MENSA must be proud to have you as a member
poor ferocious non-lyin'!
when someone says something he(and i think the writer is a he), his response turns nasty, vile, and full of hate. i think that mankind has reached its peak of civility and we now are going the other way....and he is the leader of the pack.
so now we get another lawyer on the board....I agree with Shakespeare when it comes to lawyers.
I'm convinced, as ever, that if you know a guy's a hopeless imbecile, you're not the only one who knows it, and it will soon be evident to all.
The anonymous supporters of Dr. Speck and his attorney on the board and their campaign to turn MSSU into a servant of Freeman Hospital are clearly showing their colours now! Read the comments here and see if you can pick out the fuming, foaming advocates of medieval inquisition. You can tell when they're full of it -- they're writing.
Similarly, when Dr. Speck is pressed, by students, by faculty, by news media, he can be relied upon to bluster, to mumble, to hurry his speech, to leave his sentences unfinished, and to come across as a totally unbelievable. One can only hope there's a TV camera on hand whenever he does it.
So far, we've not been disappointed.
gays and lesbians on campus are now emboldened and protesting discrimination.
One less board member later, AD Bruggeman surely opened Pandora's Box with his unnecessary observation about the new athletic logo.
He probably is very proud of himself.
I still don't think people fully realize how newspapers serve such an important purpose in ensuring freedom of speech remains a reality and not a figure of speech. The fact that a racial slur uttered during a public meeting would be frantically followed with "Don't print that!" truly shows the level of stupidity that some people still show when it comes to why the press exists and why it's so damned important for it to continue to exist, particularly newspapers. TV is loud and obvious and tapes splashes of this and that and then they're gone. Newspaper men stay quietly in their seats, eyes constantly roaming the field, pen whispering into the notebook, recording all.
People should be *DEMANDING* this type of reporting, not poo-pooing it, trying to hide it and defending the man who uttered the slur and those who immediately moved to cover it up.
Shame on all of them.
You truly don't appreciate the freedom of the press and what it represents until it's no longer there.
Keep that in mind.
"We no longer tolerate slurs of any kind" ??? I can't wait until a board member or high official says something demeaning about Christians. I'm certain he'll be hung on the spot.
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