UNC-Chapel Hill’s leftist listserv carried the following missive today:

Sent: Wednesday, November 10, 2004 1:14 PM
To: SEAC
Subject: [seac] Pope

Sorry about the late notice, but I thought this would be interesting for those of you concerned about academic independence here at UNC. The attachments regard a grant proposal from the Pope brothers [sic] for the establishment of a Western Civ department (i.e. history dealing solely with the disenfranchised plight of rich, white, Protestant men) and why the University should turn down the Pope brothers.

The protest to the meeting between the university and the Pope brothers — which no students are allowed to attend at this point — will be tomorrow. Details are enclosed in the attachments.

Mark
NEW WEBSITE ADDRESS: http://www.unc.edu/seac

This is in line with the Independent’s hit piece on the Pope Foundation’s proposal to bring Western Civilization courses (back) to UNC-Chapel Hill. (Funny how none of them worried about “Compromising [UNC-CH’s] Curriculum” when the Williamson Fund was created.)

The email author’s snide comment about “history dealing solely with the disenfranchised plight of rich, white, Protestant men” demonstrates the lack of understanding of Western Civilization that the Pope proposal would address. Students accustomed to the blight of area and interest studies now come to expect that a new track of study will address someone’s race, religion, income level, sexual preference, or some other neo-Marxist topic of division dreamed up to further spread discord (and thereby, it is hoped, pave the way for a “Glorious Revolution” here).

But the study of Western Civilization is the study of liberty. Put in campus buzzwords, it is indeed the study of the seedbed of diversity and tolerance of differences, the struggle with and victory over religious tyranny, racial division, class division, and so forth. It is the study of how ideas and the respect for individual liberty and God-given human rights either brought about or created an environment that fosters diversity and toleration.