[Vision2020] NSA Vandalism by Joe Campbell

[Nick Gier]

Greetings:

My WSU colleague in the thinking arts has asked me to post this for 
him.  He's tried to no avail to join the Vision, but he seems to be having 
computer problems.  He expects to be on by next week.

Thanks to Tom Hansen for posting my letter to the editor from yesterday's 
Moscow-Pullman Daily (8/17/05).

I wanted to say a few things related to another item, also appearing in 
yesterday's paper: a news article entitled "Moscow's NSA hit with 
Nazi-oriented graffiti."

The article says that NSA President Roy Atwood "speculates the incident 
stemmed from an opinion piece that ran in a regional newspaper last week." 
Hansen has a link to Dale Courtney's blog, Right Mind, where a similar 
accusation is made. And in a previous thread of vision 20/20 Donovan Arnold 
carries the charge even further: "Well Mr. Hansen, your website is finally 
doing what you intended it to do. You should be proud of yourself along 
with Saundra and Rose. Just look at what bigotry, ignorance and intolerance 
can do. What wonderful followers you have. At what point will you stop and 
leave people alone, before or after some kid going to NSA gets hurt?"

First, we can all agree that there is no place for vandalism and I hope 
that the police do make a complete and full investigation of the matter, as 
Hansen suggests. That said, it is worth pointing out that the graffiti in 
question was written in CHALK. This seems to be very far removed from any 
situation where "some kid going to NSA gets hurt." Of course, that doesn't 
make the act any less loathsome.

Furthermore, it is absurd to suggest that there is some causal connection 
between an op-ed piece and an act of vandalism. In is far more likely 
(though no less absurd) to suggest that the vandal was inspired more 
directly, by reading "Slavery as it Was" or the most recent edition of 
"Credenda Agenda." I can promise you, too, that as soon as the folks at NSA 
and Christ Church stop writing their nonsense, my critical comments will 
cease. But not until then.

Lastly, Atwood, Courtney, and Arnold would be better off trying to find 
intelligent responses to their critics, rather than more creative ways to 
silence them.

Joe Campbell


"The god you worship is the god you deserve."
~~ Joseph Campbell

"Abstract truth has no value unless it incarnates in human beings who 
represent it, by proving their readiness to die for it."
  --Mohandas Gandhi

"Modern physics has taught us that the nature of any system cannot be 
discovered by dividing it into its component parts and studying each part 
by itself. . . .We must keep our attention fixed on the whole and on the 
interconnection between the parts. The same is true of our intellectual 
life. It is impossible to make a clear cut between science, religion, and 
art. The whole is never equal simply to the sum of its various parts." 
--Max Planck

Nicholas F. Gier
Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy, University of Idaho
1037 Colt Rd., Moscow, ID 83843
http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/home.htm
208-882-9212/FAX 885-8950
President, Idaho Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO
http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/ift.htm

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