Being Fair to Someone I Disagree With

A constitutional law professor at Suffolk University Law School in Massachusetts has drawn fire for expressing his views that it is "shameful" for the university to promote sending CARE packages to deployed soldiers.

"I think it is shameful that it is perceived as legitimate to solicit in an academic institution for support for men and women who have gone overseas to kill other human beings,"

Fair enough.  A citizen has the right to hold any opinion or conviction he or she wants to, no matter how misguided or despicable.  Honestly, if the good professor truly believes that young American men and women join the military so that they can go over seas and kill people, well, I guess he can believe what he wants to believe.  And if he doesn't want to contribute to the CARE package drive, or even wants to discourage others from participating, that's also his right.  Far be it from me to force anyone to do anything against their convictions.


Just out of curiosity, I looked up Professor Avery's profile at the university website.  When someone has such a low opinion about me and those like me, I try to understand how they came to that opinion.  Who knows, maybe he's a combat vet who has seen too much horror and has swung way to the other side of the spectrum, or maybe he's been the victim of brutality at the hands of some third world dictator, either of which would explain his opinion that military servicemembers are nothing but cold-blooded killers looking for a world tour of mayhem.


No, nothing here about military service, or working with the military.   Don't see anything in his bio about being roughed up by Third World thugs either. 


Wow, he's had quite a few jobs, but I suppose that would make him a well-rounded attorney and constitutional law professor.  You know, I think President Obama was a professor in constitutional law.  Wow, small world.  Lots of work for the ACLU, but I've held jobs I'm not proud of too, so who am I to cast aspersions on how this man earns his living?  A man's got to eat, you know.


Has a few books listed here, and quite a few articles of his got published too.  Well, I've heard the term publish or perish, so maybe that's it.  Seems to fall a bit left of center in his titles, but then again, it takes all kinds.


Hmmm, educated at Yale.  Not too shabby.  Lots of good people come out of the Ivy League.  You know, like President Kennedy and both Presidents Bush.  You remember those guys, don't you professor?  Those were Ivy Leaguers who volunteered to join the military because they felt it was a good thing to do for their country.  


Did undergrad work at Moscow State University in 1968 and 1969.  Wow, this guys old enough to be my father.  You know, I've always thought that part of Idaho was beautiful.  Can't begrudge him going to college there.


What?  Not Idaho?  What's that?  U.S.S.R?


You're kidding, right?  No?


So let me get this straight:  This jack-n-ape did his undergrad education at Moscow State University in the U.S.S.R. at the height of the Vietnam War, then came back and attended one of the finest and most sought after law schools in the world.  He's held a succession of jobs through the years, including working as a counsel for an organization that believes in protecting civil liberties, just not all of the civil liberties.  He was strolling down the Arbat making googly eyes at all the pretty Comsomol Ladies Auxiliary candidates while my father was manning a 105mm howitzer at a firebase in Vietnam and he wants people to not send our troops overseas baby wipes and paperback novels because he thinks they're nothing more than hired killers?


I've got some news for you professor.  While you were enjoying cheap vodka and all the Communist literature you could carry, your hosts were slaughtering innocent Czech civilians for no other reason than the fact that they were 23 years ahead of the Soviet Union in figuring out that Communism was a load of crap.  I'm not going to attack your stance on CARE packages too much.  Honestly, if I was deployed, I wouldn't ask you to piss in my mouth if my teeth were on fire.  


But someone who fits the textbook definition of "useful idiot" ought to spend a little less time spouting the pseudo-pacifist dreck that was fed to the American left during the Vietnam era and more time doing a little introspection on whether or not everything he believes about people's motivation to serve their country was absolute bullcrap thought up during an alcoholic haze in a dorm room a couple of miles from Red Square.