No, this graphic makes no sense here, but neither does anything in the post…
A whole set of ethical guidelines were built upon the infamous episode in the District of Columbia government when a white executive was disciplined for using the word “niggardly,” because some of the products of the District of Columbia public schools were unfamiliar with the word and took offense. Then there was the time the Los Angeles NAACP attacked Hallmark for a “talking card” with an outer space theme that mentioned “black holes,” thinking the card was talking about “black ‘ho’s.”
These and similar episodes are usually fairly filed under “Morons” and can be recovered from if not forgotten. College students, however, engaging in this kind of race-obsessed word confusion is too much for my always combustible brain. This caused my head to do its best Krakatoa impression.
Ready? You are warned:
Students at Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania are demanding the college rename “Lynch Memorial Hall,” named for Dr. Clyde A. Lynch, the LVC’s president during the Depression.
Yup. That’s the reason, all right. The black students find the name offensive because it evokes lynchings, and the white students find the name offensive because they want to be sensitive to the black students.
As it happens, the word “lynch” is American,arising from the Lynch laws named after William Lynch (1742-1820) of Pittsylvania, Virginia, who led a vigilance committee to keep order during the Revolution. However, the name itself has never had “racial connotations” for the sane or educated. Lynch is the 235rd most common surname in the United States, near other common surnames like Dean and Fuller. (I have friends named Fuller, Dean, and Lynch.) Our current Attorney General is Loretta Lynch, who is black: imagine her going through life wincing every time she heard her name!
There are cities named Lynchburg in both Virginia and Tennessee. Another famous Lynch is Jane, the actress-comic who is a stand-out in Christopher Guest’s improv film ensemble ( “Best in Show;” “A Mighty Wind”). Then there’s the word “linchpin,” which will undoubtedly bother the LVC students: if they can’t think, why would they be able to spell?
Giving any respect to a per se ignorant demand like this should be grounds for an administrator’s dismissal. I’d recommend requiring, as a condition of even discussing the demands, every student involved to sign a notarized affidavit stating that they find the name Lynch to be offensive and why. The document should be attached to their student records, and sent to any inquiring graduate school or potential employer.
At least that makes sense now, but what do I know? My brains are on the ceiling.
Ethics Alarms 
I have no response. I don’t even know how you try to show people their error when they are now figuratively shooting at sounds in the darkness.
By the way, as town marshalls were key law enforcement officers, and we know that law enforcement is racist, you should consider yourself soon to be in the crosshairs.
But really, this sounds like the purges you hear about coming from radical revolutions, sans the bloodshed. “What? We killed off one set of scapegoats during ourideological cleansing campaign? Dang it! Go find some more…trump up something so we can cleanse some more!”
It’s astounding what ignorant people can do to a community when they gather together in a “lynch” mob to support one ridiculously irrational cause after another. If they don’t have a valid cause they just gather together on the streets and let their mob mentality make up more stupid shit.
When is our society as a whole going to get off our duff’s and put a stop to this kind of illogical childish insanity?
That extra L is crucial…
Gads. I’m reading a dictionary tonight.
Speaking of law enforcement,weren’t horse thieves lynched too?
If this is true, then it gets a well deserved WTF is wrong with these students?!
Is it my imagination or is common sense slowly crumbling away like rotting un-maintained concrete.
This event brings the following back to the forefront…
The way things are heading these days, it not so far fetched for something similar to take place in the United States. Please watch The Wave
I loved that special! I saw it when I was a kid and was my first exposure to Bruce Davison. Glad to know someone else saw it, too.
It was required in my history course back in the early 70’s; it’s short, it’s to the point and it sticks with you. I have a friend that used it in an ROTC history course; he said it inspired a fabulous classroom debate.
235rd? is that after the 234sh?
Truth be told though… This isn’t the kids fault. It isn’t. If it’s one kid, he’s the exception, if it’s two, it’s a tragic coincidence, but when it’s an entire generation of young people, we have to look at the process that got them to where they are. College has historically been one of the stops to adulthood where people learn and test boundaries, the difference is that there used to BE boundaries. You don’t want to play by the rules? We don’t care… You don’t pass and we have your money. Now when people don’t want to play by the rules, they’re pandered to, to ridiculous extents, and invariably part of the equation is that they require a non-retaliation clause. Because they know what they’ve done should have consequences, but they also know that administrators are mewling, bleeding heart Liberals, When is the last time a Liberal actually stood up to someone when it was brave for them to do so? Obama? Pfft. Michelle would have to tell him to first, and at that point, it wouldn’t be brave so much as expedient. Hillary? Never. Not once in her life. Bernie? Not bloody likely, remember when BLM hijacked his rally? Biden? Maybe… I can’t think of once, but he’ll say anything. Wasserman Shultz? Pelosi? Reid? I mean sure, they say things that they get flack for… but you can’t tie your shoes in DC without someone yelling at you for it right now. When’s the last time any of them told their base they were asking for too much?
I blame Chemtrails.
…and fluoridated drinking water, and the methanethriol in vaccines.
Methanethiol, rather.
No – BHT in breakfast cereals.
(“BHFCS” – Before High-Fructose Corn Syrup)
This is easy. Simply explain that the Lynch Hall is now named in honor of our current AG. Nothing else need change. King County in Washington State decided that it was named in honor of Martin Luther King, despite existing prior to his birth, and simply ignores all prior history. This was done without any public hearings or vote, which is perfect for Lebanon Valley College. Nothing says Liberal like governing by edict!
Is this an Onion piece?
I know, I know. That was my first thought before the explosion.
I’m just here so I don’t get fined…
Does Loretta Lynch have to change her name?
Apparently.
To Cloris Lynch.
(I’ve always loved that joke.)
What’s really strange is that this is happening at a small Christian college that doesn’t really have a sports program or any well known strong degree program. (I was accepted but wanted a much less conservative culture) If even the conservative schools like this and an earlier post about Wesleyan are convulsing from the extortion, they are ensuring their uselessness for teaching mature thinking and skills. This is even more a death knell for colleges than the cost and shyster programs.
I can grieve that and wonder who will teach the wider views. The number of these students says no institutions are teaching it.
New game: look at the Wikipedia article and spot how many more demands could be made. For instance, the team name “Flying Dutchmen” could be construed as both sexist and evocative of Wagner and, therefore, the Nazis.
I pray that 95 percent of this generation are just using the most gullible 5 percent to entertain themselves by seeing what they can get them to be outraged over. It would be unethical but I sure would feel better about the future.
In reality schools have done this, they have made these kids religious zealots. They have indoctrinated them to think they live in an unjust society and that it’s up to them to correct it. The schools have given them religion and they follow their church. It is a matter of faith with them that everyone is driven by self-interest and that it is ok so long as they don’t sin. They have been instructed that if someone doesn’t agree with their church they are irredeemably evil and must be destroyed. There is no quick fix, the cult needs to destroy itself before we can begin to repair society. It is already starting to happen, the clergy, I mean professors, are seeing them turn on them. Tribes are forming within the church, these tribes will eventually break away weakening the beast and making it easier for moderate citizens to bring society back to the center.
The dictionary must render these students catatonic!
And yet. I have to say that well over 75% of the students I come in contact with at the high school level are smart, articulate, polite and kind.
That may have something to do with the fact that they’re still living at home, a relatively stable environment. The school schedule is intact, daily, and there continues to be a sense of regularity. The high school peer pressure (and promises of all-the-good-stuff-you-haven’t-tried-yet-in-real-freedom) isn’t quite enough to tear away the last strands of family bonds and school discipline. The transition to college — especially to monster univer-cities further away than drop-in distance — is more extreme with every generation. The bottom line is that students are less prepared, mentally, emotionally, than ever before.
I think it reasonable to rename it the “Clyde A. Lynch” Memorial Hall.
Much as I’d say renaming the “Sandy Hook Celebratory Fair” to “Sandra Hook Celebratory Fair”.
There is something that activists, like these students, don’t understand…
Just because we the people have the right to do and say whatever we want, does not make what we do and say right.
Any Questions?
The other scary side of that assessment, is that younger generations, as a product of Left wing dominated education (read as indoctrination) increasingly believe that if what you say is “wrong”, you ought not have the right to say it.
What gives these worthless students the idea that they should have any say over the affairs or organization of a college that likely existed before they were born and two which they’ll probably pass through in no more than four year’s time? Respectful suggestions for improvements from the student council to the college president is one thing. Demands and protests- and over things of no consequence or relevance- with the plain intent of intimidating or usurping legitimate authority need to be rewarded with a clean kick right off the campus.