As always check those threads. There is a lot of serious discussion and some great humor on them.
Jack says Duke is a lost cause. The future, he feels, is with the 88 and those sharing their views.
Jack makes a strong case for his point of view. I hope he’s wrong. By the end of the week I’ll post on why I think, with all its problems that the Hoax has uncovered, there’s a chance to turn Duke around somewhat, although it will be a hard struggle and will take many years
But if it isn’t at least tried, that will be bad for Duke and for America. Many of you have rightly pointed out that a good many of Duke’s problems are ones you find on most campuses. I agree with that. We all need to be working to change the slide of so many schools to the Left.
Someone asked if I’ll be here when the lacrosse case is over. The Good Lord willing, yes.
I plan to keep pushing on the Addison matters. One reader said he didn’t seem as important as some of the others involved in trashing the team and working the attempted frame-up. I agree. But Addison is still very important for what he knows and the undeniably of what he did..
I just purchased Mike Presser’s book and I can’t wait to see how Addison plays out in it. The book has no index so I’ll have to go through the entire book.. In the meantime, if sny of you have read the book, please comment on it
More tomorrow.
John
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Talking to Readers & Commenters – 6-23-07
Posted by JWM at 8:54 PM
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4 comments:
John:
Keep fighting the good fight. You're doing important work here and it is much appreciated.
Mike Lausten
The present of Duke: Larry Summers. One toenail out of line and you're gone. You can forget that, but Brodhead never does.
The future of Duke: ever more left-indoctrinated cohorts coming up through the "education" system for the next two decades.
Canute just tried to stop the tide. Saving higher education in the USA requires stopping a tidal wave.
You think it's bad now? Just wait.
Everyone I know are capitalist. Rabbi Gellman has an old essai entitled "hanging out with billionaires". Makes the point, in the end, if you don't help the money machine - they turn off the tap. This is what needs to happen at Duke for the AMNIN to get the message. Keep fighting
JWM,
Pressler was interviewed by ESPN during the lax playoffs. It was, for a man far removed from Durham, Duke, lacrosse and North Carolina, another eye-opener in a case that never seems to lack eye-opening statements, opinions and facts.
Classy was the word that came to mind. Competent was another. Educator, and even moreso, coach, were evident in his demeanor, in the words he said, in the answers he gave.
"Coach" is a loaded word in many ways, and yet, I have found time and time again the best coaches are the best teachers.
From my own athletic experiences, to my military service, to my entering the newspaper biz as a sportswriter, every good coach, leader, educator has shared the same traits -- a love of the subject and a willingness and selflessness to pass knowledge along.
Whether it was Joe Decker (may he rest in peace) teaching me how to properly pull an inch and three quarter hand line from the back on a fire engine, or how to search a building or how to pull a drowning man from the surf, it was never a matter of 'boss-to-underling', but a transfer of knowledge from an older man to a younger man.
Pressler, shown during the title game, exhibited those virtues, in spades. The video of him following the game, in the locker room, hugging his former pupils, players, charges, crying with them, sharing their pain, but also sharing their triumph over the adversity that beset them in the course of the past year, was yet another example of the best our education system can produce.
One of the best sports articles I have ever read was printed in ESPN magazine not long after its premiere. The writer did an extensive piece on the relationship between Larry Brown and Allen Iverson (I'm a Philly native).
The money quote, however, belonged to Iverson's mother, and I paraphrase, but in essence she said, "young men need older men to show them the way, the path. That's because the old men are further up the side of the mountain of life. They have a greater view of life, a broader perspective that can only come with time, experience."
That's what I saw in Pressler's interview, a man passing his wisdom, his knowlegde, his love and his experiences along to younger men, thirsty for the chance to learn.
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