Good Night, and Good Luck

"I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence."

-Frederick Douglass

Well, the day I have awaited for has finally arrived.

The leftist backlash against me has begun. In today's Moscow-Pullman Daily News Birgita Ingemanson, an Associate Professor of Russian(!) at WSU had this to say about me:

In a world full of conflict, it is perhaps not strange that human relations on the Palouse also are becoming perversely infected. I am not a member of the Pullman Alliance for Responsible Development, nor do I sign their petitions, but I watch in dismay as the proponents of Wal-Mart are turning what could, and should, be a debate on facts and logic into verbal attacks on PARD's leaders, including Cynthia Hosick and T.V. Reed.

Personal invectives are not facts. Having views that differ from those of the pro-Wal-Mart campaigners does not make one a bad person. A local writer by the name of Tom Forbes often mocks Hosick and Reed, as if civic debate is a game; indeed, Forbes seems quite gleeful about, "proudly annoying Pullman's left-wing intelligentsia" (a quote from his blog "Palousitics".) It would show more wisdom and maturity proudly to remember, and cleverly to apply, the splendid old traditions in these United States of the kind of civic debate that - despite differences of opinion - manages to remain both civil and factual.

I guess it's only fair to note that since my hobby is "proudly annoying Pullman's left-wing intelligentsia," one of Professor Ingemanson's research areas is the "work of socialist women."

She claims not to be a member of PARD, but she obviously must know PARD's Media Coordinator, Christopher Lupke, who is an Associate Professor of Chinese(!) Reach your own conclusion.

Given the recent abysmal track record of free speech at WSU, Ed Murrow's alma mater, it is only natural the liberals there would try to reach out and squelch me. But this is America and I am not a student teacher in the College of Education.

We all know how PARD feels about free speech. They shut down their online discussion board back in May within a week after pro-Wal-Mart people began posting there. There have been rumors floating around town that merchants that supported Wal-Mart have been threatened with boycotts and students have been told not to publicly express support for Wal-Mart.

A "civil, factual and logical debate" about Wal-Mart? T.V. Reed, Cynthia Hosick, Christopher Lupke, et. al. have been engaged in an outright fear-mongering campaign in Pullman that would have made "Tail Gunner Joe" McCarthy proud. First it was that Wal-Mart was going to be digging up dead bodies. Then there were going to be dead kids lying in the streets around Lincoln Middle School and Franklin Elementary. Now they are claiming Wal-Mart is going to destroy the public education system. Ms. Ingemanson considers this "civil, factual and logical debate?" It's not a game, it's a circus.

How about PARD calling me a "boob" on their homepage? Professor Ingemanson must have surely seen that if she's been reading this blog. Was that "wise, mature and clever?"

The leaders of PARD have made themselves public political figures by preaching this pablum, all of it willingly gobbled up by our local media with no refutation or critical examination. I am only holding the PARD leadership up to the ridicule which they so richly deserve. There is no debating with these anti-Wal-Mart jihadis anyway.

One thing I have always dealt with in my letters to the editor and on this blog are the FACTS and LOGIC. PARD has neither, so now they try to marginalize me by calling me a "perverse infection." So typical of the Left. Things must be getting pretty desperate over there at PARD Headquarters.

There is no right in the Constitution to not be offended. If Professor Ingemanson finds my writing distasteful, there is a very simple solution: DON'T COME TO THIS SITE!