“The Worrisome Veteran”
Or Should more aptly be called The Worrisome Educator…
Penn State University’s “Department of Counseling and Psychological Services” has a video presentation that should leave any decent American shocked, saddened, and yes, even enraged. Credit David French of National Review Online for posting what might be the most definitive four minute expose on the tragedy of higher education in America. Indeed, Penn State’s shameful video production of “The Worrisome Veteran” can provide all Americans some priceless insights into the kind of surreal institutions liberals create when left unchecked.
“The Worrisome Veteran” is part of Penn State’s “Worrisome Student Behaviors” video series which is designed to provide faculty and students the ability to “minimize risk” when encountering problematic students on campus. Each video presents actors reenacting possible confrontations that may occur in various environments and suggests appropriate responses. The subtitle of the “Worrisome Veteran” presentation is: “I deserve a better grade or else . . .” In other words, to the progressive staff at Penn State, students who are veterans returning from the war in Iraq are simply potential criminals who’ve forgotten how to reason politely.
I will break this disturbing portrayal down into several sections:
1. PSU and other institutions for higher education are singling out veterans and young military white males, specifically, returning home from war to receive an education. The fact that veterans are being segregated is horrendous and discriminatory as should be clear to any clear-thinking human being.
2. The female professor talks about feeling uneasy and uncomfortable with the veteran and why would that be? It would seem like she is making the assumption that all military vets are aggressors and women-beaters on the brink of snapping at any moment. This may be something portrayed in Hollywood or by the media who may harp on one individual to classify the entire group as such, but this happens to all people and more so for the average non-military type.
3. The video uses the argument of the ex-officer having and using bad grammar as a reason to give a low grade. What struck me was that they make an assumption that men and women in uniform are uneducated hill-billy’s another misconception that was echoed by the likes of the traitor, himself, John Kerry, when he said that only uneducated men and women join the military.
4. Why is the professor only telling him what he is doing wrong and making it very vague? She should be giving him specifics should she not? I would expect that a professor or any teacher would sit down with me during office hours to take the time and point out to me what areas of my english need improvement – do I have too many run-on sentences? Am I incorrectly using prepositions? Is my punctuation off? One would think that an English Professor would be able to do this more so than, let’s say a Math Professor!
5. The mere fact that this video has to bring up the fact that the student is feeling singled out and discriminated against due to the professor’s views on the war and political leanings, tell me more about the educators at this university than anything else. They are basically saying that these views are held by a vast majority of the faculty at PSU and this could be a reason why students get upset. Why would any English Professor espouse their views in such a class? It’s not like this is a foreign diplomacy class or some type of political science class.
6. Why does the teacher feel that it is acceptable to diagnose the student by telling him he needs counseling or help? This is something the student must come to grips with if he or she in fact asks for help or discloses they are having issues. The assumption made by the teacher is incredibly condescending and yet again discriminatory. Many men and women coming home from war have been getting diagnosed with PTSD lately, but that does not mean that the majority of these cases are military folks. In fact most PTSD cases are those who are not associated with the military at all since PTSD is incredibly common and can occur due to any type of traumatic experience! PTSD also does not mean that someone will snap… another common misconception.
6. PSU is a PUBLIC school and has land grants this means that the PEOPLE own this land and there shouldn’t be political bias allowed in such institutions. If the faculty would like to discuss their views and opinions behind closed doors among one another or at happy hour then so be it, but inside the classroom and in front of children that are not their own should be banned.
7. Could there be any coincidence with the latest DHS report and this university creating this video? DHS did tell us that veterans returning home are more susceptible to right-wing extremism!
This is becoming insane!
Update: Fighting Irish Lay Down; Fighting Irish Backlash
UPDATE:
Notre Dame is keeping Obama as the commencement speaker or so says the Chicago Sun Times. It appears that the alumni, parents and others may still try to fight this with petitions (linked below), funding and phone calls.
There are parents, alumni and some students who are not all that ecstatic over President Obama conducting the commencement speech at Notre Dame’s graduation this year. The college itself (not the young student body) has historically been more conservative and many students come from conservative backgrounds when they arrive at the school, some stay that way, but most change ideologically, as could be expected. The current student body is typically liberal, but many of the alumni go back to their conservative roots as they get older. The biggest issue for Notre Dame is its deep Catholic roots. Catholicism has very conservative opinions and views in regards to abortion and embryonic stem cell research – this becomes a very big issue since Obama is the most radical pro-choice president in the history of this nation.
As reported here on First Read Friday, President Obamawill be speaking at the University of Notre Dame commencement ceremony on May 17th. While the president will also be speaking at the Naval Academy and Arizona State, those appearances haven’t caused as much uproar as his trip to South Bend, Ind.
In today’s edition of the student newspaper, The Observer, letters to the editor, which are usually reserved for debates over the color of The Shirt or whether it’s proper to chant “Sucks” at sporting events — was expanded to cover a lively debate over whether Obama should be speaking.“Obama choice unacceptable,” read one headline, and “Obama a disgrace” shouted another.
The point of contention? The president’s record on issues related to abortion, the majority of which clash with the strict anti-abortion stance of the Catholic Church. An online petition has sprung up urging people to voice their complaints to Father John Jenkins, president of the university.
Jenkins said in an interview with the student paper Monday that while there are clear differences between the president and the Catholic church on some issues (abortion and embryonic stem cell research), it was a great honor to have the president accept the university’s offer and that he had no plans to rescind the offer.
A majority of the student body is enthusiastic about President Obama coming to speak — he won the campus’ mock election 52.6% to 41.1% over Sen. John McCain — but an active alumni base that skews more conservative than the increasingly liberal campus has been vocal about the selection of the commencement speaker.
Maybe that’s why they call them the Fighting Irish!
There were several petitions for this item of interest as well.
