Part-Time Pundit

Conservative Professors at U of I

I went to a talk last night, well an open forum, “National Security v. Individual Freedom” by Illinois Campus Deliberations (a great idea I think, by the way. To join their mailing list send email to abogdan2@uiuc.edu). There were 4 panelists: Prof. Mark Leff, Prof. Steven Beckett, Tom Mackaman (Look at the very bottom), and Billy Joe Mills.

The first thing that struck me about this talk is that there were 2 professors, 1 graduate student, and one undergrad. Why is it they can’t find one conservative professor to see on these discussions (and that’s not a dig into Billy who does well at these things, but we should have to resort to getting undergrads from the College Republicans to go up against faculty in discussing ideas). Well, I heard the answer. There are some conservative professors on this campus, they are just tired of going up there and debating wackos. Prof. Leff, the man who brought you the failed Union of Professional Employees who thinks that the Patriot Act is horrible on par with internment also thinks that academic employees (some of which get tenure like professors, and others are just academic staff like me) who get 5 weeks vacataion and 5 weeks vacatoin and, for that matter, employees who are fired with cause (albeit there are exceptions for cases where the person really needs to be removed) can get up to 12 months notice before they actually have to leave. This is not a hostile working environment. There is no where you can get 10 paid weeks off a year. Certainly none that will give you a year notice that you are going to be laid off.

Steven Beckett is a leftie, but reasonable. He had some fair skepticism.

Tom Mackaman ran for the state legislature as a Socialist trying to stop the Iraq war. Being that the state legislature has nothing to do with federal military activities, I think this speaks for itself.

Leff and Mackaman suggested that the term “enemy combatants” was made up by the Bush administration to not give Geneva Conventions privileges and it has never before been used or even considered. Article 4 of the Geneva Conventions determines who is a Prisoner of War. Guess what? Bush is right. Al Queda didn’t carry arms openly nor wear distinctive insigna nor have any respect for the laws and customs of war. Mercenaries are also not covered by the Geneva Conventions.

Mackaman seems to think that distribution of wealth in the US is without precedent. Might I suggest he look at Honduras where 17 families own EVERYTHING. Or how about Dark to Middle Ages when the King owned everything. Sure, there is an unequal distribution of wealth, but I don’t care about being a billionaire. I care about being able to feed and shelter my family and that opportunity is most prevalent in the United States.

The point where I left was when someone in the audience suggested Al Queda was made up by Bush to rescind the Constitution or something crazy like that.

I can see what conservatives don’t participate in these things.

April 21st, 2005 Posted by John Bambenek | University of Illinois | one comment