This week Duke University reached a "non-disclosed settlement" with the three lacrosse players who were savaged by the District Attorney in Durham, Mike Nifong. He wanted to hoodwink black voters into putting him back in office. That succeeded, but he has now been removed from office, and disbarred.
These three students were also slandered by the Duke administration and by 87 bigoted professors. (88 professors signed a newspaper ad that, in effect, found the students guilty before trial. One of the 88 admitted he was wrong, and apologized.)
The apparently-fat settlement released the University and all its assorted minions from further liability to the students and their families.
Is Duke now off the hook? I hope not. I'm doing my part to keep them on the hook.
For those who've been out of the country, or under a rock, here's a quick recap:A year ago, a stripper who'd been hired by members of the Duke lacrosse team claimed that she had been raped at a team party where she and a friend were hired to perform. DA Nifong then held the first of a series of press conferences, saying that there was definitely a rape and he expected to charge some students. He set up a line-up with only Duke players in it and charged three players with rape.
The President of Duke then cancelled the lacrosse season and fired the coach. A group of 88 professors jointly signed a full-page ad in the campus newspaper, the Chronicle, saying that what the students did was part of the climate of racism at Duke, and presuming that the students were guilty.
In time, the stripper's story changed, her companion denied her version, and DNA evidence showed the stripper'd had sex with several men recently, but not any Duke players. In time, the NC Attorney General took over the case and did his own review. He dismissed the charges, apologized to the students, and started the investigation of Nifong which led to his dismissal and disbarment. From the President and 87 faculty members at Duke, however, there was no retraction, no apology.
Dr. Thomas Sowell is one of the great minds in understanding American society and politics. Anyone unfamiliar with his work and books should go here to see what he has to offer. [http://www.tsowell.com/] I suggest you begin with Sowell's Basic Economics. His latest column is about Duke, "Unfinished Business,"
That is a scathing indictment of the University. You can find it here:[http://www.townhall.com/columnists/ThomasSowell/] I decided that Sowell's words should appear in front of the whole Duke community. So, I called the Chronicle, the campus newspaper.
I found out that none of three Duke students I talked with had ever heard of Dr. Sowell. They have black professors who fill their students' heads with the sort of bigoted claptrap that appeared in the infamous newspaper ad. The students know lesser professors, but not the nation's best.
I also learned was that it would cost almost a thousand dollars to reprint Dr. Sowell's column full-page in the Duke newspaper. The last issue of the paper is not only circulated on campus, it is also mailed to the homes of all students.
There, the students' parents, who are paying upwards of $30,000 a year to put their children in the care of this faculty and administration, have a right to see what is happening to their children and their money.
So, I got in touch with my friends. As this is written, it looks like we'll make the target, and Dr. Sowell's column will appear in front of, and be read by, almost every member of the Duke community. If that happens, it may be that some people who deserve to be fired, will be fired. It may be that some who stay might learn what it means to seek the truth, rather than biased political advantage, and change their ways.
As Dr. Sowell notes, the correction of the bias in the Duke community is far more important than the millions which the students and their families have received from the coffers of a university that has lost its way. I write as well as I can, but I do not hold a candle to my colleague, Dr. Thomas Sowell. So here are his closing words. I'll see to it these are read by the people at Duke. "...be aware of how wide and how deep the moral dry rot goes.
"That such people are teaching students at an elite university is a chilling thought. That they promote a campus atmosphere where political correctness trumps the search for truth is painful.
"That such attitudes and such atmospheres are not peculiar to Duke University, but are common on elite college campuses from coast to coast is a time bomb with the potential to destroy individuals and ultimately undermine the whole society."
