<HTML><BODY STYLE="font:10pt verdana; border:none;"><DIV> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Dear Visionaries:</FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Believe it or not, a small strip of Pollyanna still clings to me.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(I think it must be on the sole of my left foot because periodically it itches, and I have to sprinkle it with Gold Bond powder.)<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It was this tiny, annoying strip of optimism that made me assume Paul Kimmell chose Robert E. Lee as a leadership model for the Chamber of Commerce because he wasn't thinking clearly.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I assumed that he'd just made a stupid mistake, albeit one in a series of stupid mistakes, beginning with his failure to pay the Chamber's payroll taxes for two years and moving on through his dodgy hiring practices and poor oversight of the Chamber's bookkeeping.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But perhaps I was wrong.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Perhaps Pollyanna, blinded by her rose-colored glasses and deafened by her loud singing of Zipedee-doo-dah, led me down the primrose path. It wouldn't be the first time.</FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>An insightful friend has suggested to me that this Robert E. Lee business was no mistake; it was instead a calculated move on Doug's part to keep the pot stirred.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We all know where this Lee business comes from -- admiration for Lee is an integral part of the Logos/NSA curriculum.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It could be that there's some nose-thumbing going on here, a little f--k you gesture from Doug via Paul to the Chamber and hence to us.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If Paul is obliged to apologize or step down from his position at the Chamber over this (and other concerns), will he claim religious persecution?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Will Doug and Company trumpet this from the NSA rooftop as an example of our supposed liberal intolerance?</FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>As I look over the list of the Chamber's board members, I can't help but note that nearly one third are directly affiliated with Doug.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I suspect that the veneration of Robert E. Lee is nothing new to these members and consequently might have seemed entirely appropriate or even laudable.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>One board member, Bob Hieronymous, represents the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:place><st1:PlaceType>University</st1:PlaceType> of <st1:PlaceName>Idaho</st1:PlaceName></st1:place> in the Chamber.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Is veneration of Lee now official university policy?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Does the university want to be a willing participant in the neo-Confederate rewriting of history?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What does President Tim White think about this?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Can a college which has failed to meet any of its minority recruitment and retention goals possibly imagine that membership in our Lee-admiring Chamber of Commerce will do anything but hurt its diversity efforts?</FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3> </FONT></o:p></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>I'll be writing to Tim White later today to ask him these questions, and I will post any response I receive to the list.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Let's hope that he's more forthcoming that Mr. Kimmell has been</FONT></P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><o:p><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3></FONT></o:p> </P> <P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=3><FONT face="Times New Roman">Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></FONT></FONT></P><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML><br clear=all><hr>Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : <a href='http://explorer.msn.com'>http://explorer.msn.com</a><br></p>