I wrote a diary and didn't even know it

Yesterday I received a forwarded email from an associate that just set me off. The email was a sanitized version of an email Prof Wichman sent out from his Michigan State University email address to a (MSU) Muslim Student Organization.A link to the original email is here: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060425/NEWS05/604250381 The last word of the last sentence in the last paragraph of this repub automaton's forwarded email is what created this diary.

How's the left going to handle this one? If you're in favor of the
freedom of speech, as in the case of Ward Churchill, will the same
protections be demanded for Indrek Wichman?  I doubt it.

Hey folks, send this to everybody and ask them to do the same and tell
them to keep passing it around till  the whole country gets it. We are
in a war!

My response:

In my almost 38 years on this planet, and as a citizen of the United States, there has not been a day yet that this country has not been at war in my lifetime.  From Vietnam, to the Gulf War twice, the Balkans to Somalia, Beirut to Grenada, from the War on Poverty to the War on Illiteracy, the War on Drugs to the most current, most favorite War, The War that is going to be slightly less effective than the War on Drugs, The War on Terror.
I personally am finding it offensive that people reason this War on Terror, should excuse Vitriol.  Whether it is this poor spelling & hypocritical Professor Wichman or Ann Coulter, abusive or malicious forms of speech or feelings directed at a group should not be sanctioned under the Banner of War. Regardless of the War, regardless of the United States of America's involvement or non Involvement in it.  Talk all you want, you can be a racist, knuckle-dragging member of the KKK, or a bleeding heart Liberal librarian from Seattle, just don't wrap yourself and your ideas up in the U.S. Flag and expect me to call you patriotic.      

A comment from one of the Progressive Blogs on the Internet, that covered this event in May 06; Daily Kos: http://www.dailykos.com/  a fellow teacher put it this way.

"And here's my understanding:

As a private citizen, he can say what he likes, but not in his capacity as a professor.
Academic freedom doesn't cover statements like his -- he's speaking outside his area of expertise.
He wrote using his campus email, so it's implied that he's acting in a professional capacity. In addition, this clearly falls into the territory of harassment, because it was aimed at particular individuals, and has a hostile intent.

If he'd sent it from private email, he'd have a stronger First Amendment case, but given the power differential between a professor and a student, it could still get very messy.

As professors at public institutions, we're agents of the State, and are bound by the Constitution in ways that private citizens are not. For example, in my professional capacity I have to stay neutral on religion. As a private citizen, however, I'm protected by the First Amendment.

Prof Wichman is way out of line here."
http://www.dailykos.com/...

A fellow MSU Professional had this to say.
From:
The State News- MSU's Independent Voice.
"Free speech excuse is lame, prof abuses power"

Professor Indrek Wichman obviously does not get it. In his letter "Prof explains reasons for offensive e-mail," (SN 4/28), he seeks to portray his infamous e-mail as a free speech matter. It is not, and portraying it as such is self-pitying and disingenuous.

If he was interested in airing his views on free speech, Islam and the Middle East, he should have written a public letter, such as to The State News. Instead, he wrote a private e-mail directed personally at students. And during this incident he has, in fact, appealed to the "privacy" of that e-mail as an excuse.

The crux of this matter is the faculty/student boundary. In his e-mail, he referred to himself as an MSU professor, and proceeded to write abusive, harassing comments to students, some of whom could potentially be in his classes.

For me, the core question is one of abuse of power and position and violating the responsibility professors have toward students.

To address students in the second person and as "dissatisfied, aggressive, brutal, and uncivilized slave-trading Moslems," to tell, I presume, mostly U.S.-born Muslims that they are "free to leave" and to write that it is his hope to God that they return to where they came from is a clear act of aggression, abuse and hostility toward students.

That is the crux of the matter -- not free speech, not terrorism, not Danish cartoons and not the Muslim Students' Association protests.

Could a professor get away with writing a single e-mail of a sexual nature toward a student or group of students? No, and for good reason. That, for me, is the proper analogy.

Andrew March
assistant professor
http://www.statenews.com/...

The Professor Wichman, wrote his Email over a month ago.  The University did not & is not going to sanction him for these comments.
http://www.statenews.com/...
Officials: Prof did not violate MSU policy

My estimate is that we've heard the last of this professor; at least until such time as he gets a personal email address.

This battle is over, The Battle on Vitriol, Maybe that should be our next War.  After the War on Immigrants

For those that have read this far, you might have guessed correctly that I am not a Bleeding Heart Liberal but a Progressive. I'm also a 13 year U.S. Army Veteran, with both Special Forces Groups and Military Intelligence Corps.  For those thinking of responding rationally please do.  For those that want to respond irrationally, please just go get a stick, place it in the mud, however you see fit, and wait for the world to pass you by.

Signed
Attachments:
Partial transcripts from the original Wichman email.
"...beheadings of civilians, cowardly attacks on public buildings, suicide murders, murders of Catholic priests (the latest in Turkey!), burnings of Christian chirches (sic)..."
"I counsul (sic) you dissatisfied, agressive (sic), brutal, and uncivilized slave- trading Moslems to be very aware of this as you proceed with your infantile 'protests.' If you do not like the values of the West -- see the 1st Ammendment (sic) -- you are free to leave. I hope for God's sake that most of you choose that option. Please return to your ancestral homelands and build them up yourselves instead of troubling Americans."

Bill of Rights
Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

End of Email

I hope that I have given credit correctly to the people I have quoted in this email and diary.Thanks to the Kos community for having the tools to volley back a response.
One other noteworthy fact in all of this is that Repubs seem to be at least 2 months behind progressives.  Nothng new really just another observation.  Move along to the poll please nothing left to see here, just move along..

DF