cringe and purge
by Edward Savoy
Published: February 20, 2008
Contained in the response to every threat, real or perceived, is a capitulation to the worst instincts of the masses. If the threat is potentially having a president with the name of Obama, which sounds vaguely Muslim, the capitulation is to play to the worst instincts of the electorate and affirm that you are a practicing Christian who was, in fact, present at the Last Supper. If the threat is to the starchiness and staidness of higher education, the capitulation is to cower behind your desk and cave to the demands of the alumni and the rectors and grin while you’re doing it. To the credit of Gene Nichol, he did not cower, he did not cave and he did not capitulate. If only others followed his example.
Gene Nichol was the president of the College of William & Mary who fulfilled the Chinese curse of living in interesting times. He caused controversy in removing a cross from a chapel, which had purposes which were secular, and allowed a student-funded presentation by sex workers to proceed without interference. The proper response in the former instance would have been to stand in the chapel door with a Bible in one hand and a gold cross in the other and bar construction workers from the building. In the latter instance, the ideal response would have been to ban the presentation, then burn the First Amendment on the William & Mary quad and dance in the ashes. Gene Nichols did not do these things. That’s why he is no longer president of the College of William & Mary.
Nichol was recently informed that his contract would not be renewed and, as a result, he resigned rather than limp through the rest of his term. He has made accusations that a Chairman of the Virginia House of Delegates threatened members of the William & Mary Board of Visitors in order to ensure his ouster. But according to Delegate Robert G. Marshall, the real threat was elsewhere. The AP quotes Marshall as saying that “the fact is his (Nichol’s) behavior was threatening the commonwealth. That was the only threat around here.” The nature of the threats posed to the commonwealth by a removed relic and sex workers talking about turning tricks remains a bit obscure.
Even when offered a generous retirement package if only he would leave quietly, Nichol stood on his principles and detailed his actions in a resignation letter where he stated that he has “believed it vital to understand, with them, that though defeat may at times come, it is crucial not to surrender to the loud and the vitriolic and the angry - just because they are loud and vitriolic and angry…so I have sought not to yield.” With Nichol’s insistence on principle, it is clear that he could never have a career in politics.
Clearly, there is a coward’s way to deal with a threat to the established order and there is a courageous way. As I have mentioned, Senator Obama, whatever his other virtues, has taken the cowards way of appealing to our worst prejudices in loudly disavowing any connections with the Muslim faith, with the subtext that, if he were a Muslim, it would be an abomination. He does it to appease the bias of an electorate that, in all reality, would not put a Muslim in the White House. In a campaign based on hope and faith for a better America, one would hope that the Senator could take a cue from Gene Nichol and embrace his heritage instead of being embarrassed by it. But, Obama knows the score. In 2008, Christianity trumps Islam as the religion of choice, and cowardice rather than character wins delegates.
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