Posted on 03/07/2008 5:11:09 AM PST by tioga
I did half the clocks last night and the others this morning. The spouse is still snoozing.
I am, had he pulled the artwork it couldn’t have been stolen. He took NO stand on this issue. Sad.
my atomic clock reset itself.....
i really don’t think you have enough information to say that based on what was contained in that article, which is the only information you have. and it is false that he took no stand.
he's the topdog, and the problem is his. he could have removed the painting while stating she has the right to free speech, but not to insult the faith of the university and send the pic back to her...let her put it up somewhere else. in the end, most likely a student committed a mortal sin in stealing the pic. Sad. where was his leadership? you cannot straddle a fence and be a leader.
I respectfully disagree.
Based on what xsteen has heard on campus, and read in the school newspaper, and having met the man and knowing something about him, i see it differently. i put more stock in her evaluation of the situation, than i do that of posters, far from the scene, making a judgment based on a newspaper account.
Problem is it is a fiasco now with the painting stolen. Major sin. (I pray the painting is being returned to the owner.) Could have been averted. I suspect the president is out of touch with what happens at the ground level with the (some) students. It was a major miscalculation and he needs to step up and take responsibility. The whole situation is sad. But the buck stops at his office.....he is the head honcho. He may indeed be a nice guy, but he failed on this issue.
I’m late to the discussion but I’m going to say if we can catagorize sins as minor and major, I say we catagorize theft too! This theft was good because it got a piece of trash off of public view! ;^)
i don’t even consider the removal of the artwork to BE a sin. my point in bringing the story up in the first place, rather than to crucify the university president, was to make a point about the conservatism of the student body— that one of the students [i suppose it could also have been faculty or indeed anyone with access to the university building where it was housed] took the matter into their own hands rather than allow the administration to deal with the controversy.
I wonder how much red tape is involved in any type of University these days with law suits and the ACLU and such. I’m sure there are many places that have to deal with the Sheehans of this world when they don’t want to.
could have happened with the UD pres removing it himself.......and I might not catagorize it as sin, IF the thief had mailed it back to the owner. why does this guy have to go PC and keep the pic, instead of defending his faith and removing it?
where are you getting that the UD president removed it himself? that almost certainly did NOT happen.
He is attempting to balance academic freedom as well as the Catholic character of the campus. Same with allowing Sheehan to speak. There are competing considerations and not everything is black and white. Easy to be an armchair quarterback when one has never had the responsibility of running an institution.
I meant the offending pic could have been removed......obviously he didn’t. He should have. Instead he went PC, instead of defending the Catholic faith. He chose the secular world over the professed faith of the university. It is sad.
Truth is he cannot have both. PC and the Catholic faith differ. He made his choice and he must live with it AND die with it. It is a slippery slope our souls are on. I would have removed it in a heartbeat.
i am amazed at your ability to be so definitive about this situation, Ti. i don’t presume to judge someone in his position, because i am cognizant of the fact that i have never been in it and i have no way of knowing all of the factors involved here.
polititians are faced with these issues daily......everyone is.....to be PC in this world or to trust in your faith and live it to it’s fullest. we all make the same choices daily.
I beleive the the article stated that he was off campus when the display was being set up and had to return to see the offensive piece, which tells me he had no idea something like that would be included originally when the school agreed to the display.
I guess this type of thing could happen anywhere - agreeing to something you think is a usual art display then realizing it contained offensive material.
the university should have some kind of rules that preclude this very event from happening....free speech is all well and good, but the school professes to be Catholic, and that means something. it is apostasy to leave the picture up. that should mean more than PC in a Catholic university. sad that it doesn’t.
Rules happen AFTER something happens. Rules are a result after a consequence. We all live by rules because one person was out of control or evil. Rules are made to protect the innocent masses after someone has committed an evil act.
So it is all well and good to say the school should have had a rule against this, but until something happens, no one has rules set up to protect against an event.
Did you have rules set up for your kids as they were growing up covering every thing they may possibly have done wrong? I certainly didn't. We learn from other's mistakes.
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