Over the course of my life, I have pondered many improbable situations. For example, what would it be like to play first base for the Atlanta Braves? What would it be like to work as Anna Kournikova’s live-in masseuse? Just how many Muslim terrorists could I kill if the military would ignore my age and let me serve as a sniper?
But I never pondered what life would be like as a Jewish student at the University of Texas at Austin – that is, until I read a letter written by 27 anti-Semites and self-hating Jews who teach there. The letter – addressed to Secretary of State Condi Rice – is reproduced below in its entirety:
We write to you out of growing dismay about the escalation of violence by Israel in Lebanon, which with U.S. military and political support threatens to spread into Syria and to engulf the region. As educators we are compelled to remind you of a fact of which you are well aware of the thousands of Americans in Beirut, several hundred are U.S. students studying in Beirut who have been evacuated. However, our concern extends to our students, former students, and colleagues who remain in Lebanon and Palestine/Israel, indeed to all the citizens of these countries, because they are from the region and have no place else to go. Daily bombing raids continue, increasing the death toll of children and other civilians, civilian infrastructure (including the airport) has been destroyed by the Israeli army with U.S. munitions, and the refugee crisis inside Lebanon is so severe that many are without food and water. There is no doubt that the scale of Israeli military response to Hezbollah military activities is unjustified and disproportionate.
At all times – especially in times of war and conflict – University faculty, and those of us in area studies, and international studies in particular, have a special obligation to protest U.S. foreign policy when it endangers the educational mission of the University. Unconditional U.S. support for Israel at this moment not only endangers the lives of our students, colleagues, Lebanese, Palestinian and Israeli civilians, but undermines the purpose of training students to do international work that can contribute to greater cross-cultural understanding and respect, and equipping them to become the next generation of leaders in international relations. Not only this, but we firmly believe that the social, political and economic costs of an unprovoked and illegal war in Iraq, coupled with U.S. support for Israel at this time only serves to isolate the United States in the court of world opinion and is not in the long-term interests of the people of the United States. We call for the U.S. government to suspend arms shipments to Israel, to call for an immediate cease-fire and to participate in an internationally brokered settlement arrived at by all parties at the negotiating table that is not pre-determined by the greater military strength of one party over another.
In the event that readers of the letter to Dr. Rice wish to respond, the names and email addresses of its 27 authors are reproduced below for your convenience:
Dr. Kamran Asdar Ali [email protected]
Dr. Jafari Allen [email protected]
Dr. Mia Carter, [email protected]
Dr. Dana Cloud [email protected],
Dr. Brian Doherty [email protected]
Dr. Maria Franklin [email protected]
Dr. Kaushik Ghosh [email protected]
Dr. Edmund T. Gordon [email protected]
Dr. Charles R. Hale [email protected]
Dr. Barbara Harlow [email protected]
Dr. John Hartigan [email protected]
Dr. Jeanette Herman [email protected]
Dr. Syed Akbar Hyder [email protected]
Dr. Robert Jensen [email protected]
Dr. Joni L. Jones/Omi Osun Olomo [email protected]
Dr. Ward Keeler [email protected]
Dr. Jemima Pierre [email protected]
Dr. Pauline Turner Strong [email protected]
Dr. Sharmila Rudrappa [email protected]
Dr. Yaron Shemer [email protected]
Dr. Shannon Speed [email protected]
Dr. Kathleen Stewart [email protected]
Dr. Brian Stross [email protected]
Dr. Joao Vargas [email protected]
Dr. Kamala Visweswaran [email protected]
Dr. Karin Wilkins [email protected]
Dr. Samuel Wilson [email protected]
*Note: The University of Texas student newspaper misspelled Dr. Karin Wilkins’ first name as “Karen” in their recent printing of the open letter.
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Mike S. Adams was born in Columbus, Mississippi on October 30, 1964. While a student at Clear Lake High School in Houston, TX, his team won the state 5A soccer championship. Mike Adams graduated from C.L.H.S. in 1983 with a 1.8 GPA. Mike Adams was ranked 734 among a class of 740, largely as a result of flunking English all four years of high school. After obtaining an Associate's degree in psychology from San Jacinto College, Mike Adams moved on to Mississippi State University where he joined the Sigma Chi Fraternity. While living in the fraternity house, his GPA rose to 3.4, allowing him to finish his B.A., and then to pursue a Master's in Psychology. In 1990, Mike Adams turned down a chance to pursue a PhD in psychology from the University of Georgia, opting instead to remain at Mississippi State to study Sociology/Criminology. This decision was made entirely on the basis of his reluctance to quit his night job as member of a musical duo. Playing music in bars and at fraternity parties and weddings financed his education. Mike Adams also played for free beer.
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Upon getting his doctorate in 1993, Adams, then an atheist and a Democrat, was hired by UNC-Wilmington to teach in the criminal justice program. A few years later, Adams abandoned his atheism and also became a Republican. He also nearly abandoned teaching when he took a one-year leave of absence to study law at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1998. After returning to teach at UNC-Wilmington, Adams won the Faculty Member of the Year award (issued by the Office of the Dean of Students) for the second time in 2000.
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After his involvement in a well publicized free speech controversy in the wake of the 911 terror attacks, Adams became a vocal critic of the diversity movement in academia. After making appearances on shows like Hannity and Colmes, the O'Reilly Factor, and Scarborough Country, Adams was asked to write a column for Townhall.com.
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Today Mike Adams enjoys the privilege of expressing himself both as a teacher and a writer. Mike Adams is also an avid hunter and reader of classic literature. Mike Adams published his first book, Welcome to the Ivory Tower of Babel, in 2004. His second book, Feminists Say the Darndest Things: A Politically Incorrect Professor Confronts "Womyn" On Campus, was published in 2008.
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