The battle’s heating up at Southern Methodist University in Dallas over the possibility of the George W. Bush Presidential Library being built on campus. Negotiations have divided the college community, pitting the administration and some alumni against members of the liberal-leaning faculty who say the project would be an embarrassment to the school.
Some professors have complained that the combined library, museum and think tank would celebrate a presidency that unnecessarily took the country into a war. The fear is that the library “will continue to espouse the philosophy and practice of the Bush administration, which has seriously divided our nation and has brought the ire of other countries,” this according to retired theology professor William McElvaney. Report from the AP.
Nobody cares
Nobody cares what the faculty has to say. SMU is not a state school so nobody cares what the ‘taxpayers’ or ‘community leaders’ have to say. They don’t really care what the students have to say (few schools do).
They care what the donors, who are primarily rich white males think. I guess that most of the SMU donors are RWM.
So no matter your, the faculty’s or anyone other than the donors’ anger they just don’t care.
Oh no some university professors have their knickers in a knot. BFD, the RWM (and in case you didn’t know SMU is in the heart of RWM Texas) like the idea of the Bush Library and therefore it will stay.
I think I’ll send a check.
N.B: The link is hosed. Try this
Re:Nobody cares
The George W. Bush library will be built somewhere. In a decade or two, the politics of the moment will recede, and whoever builds this library will benefit from it for a long time to come.
Imagine if you will if Southern and liberal anti-war faculty were opposed to a Lincoln Presidential library in 1866. The politics of the day would have killed a Lincoln library at that time at SMU. Go forward to 2007. Who would deny it now? The worst president in history in 1866 according to popular opinion is now ranked number 1 by historians. Is George W. going to rank high? I doubt it but historians will tell us long after we are dead.
In the meantime, the library will be built. Why not SMU? If not there, it will be built somewhere else. Who wants this piece of history and the economic benefits that will follow? I know many institutions of higher education who would be quite pleased to get this library. SMU will regret a rash rejection for a long time to come if it happens.
Re:Nobody cares 🙂
Well that is a much more cogent argument than mine. I curse you
Exactly
To have the research library for the most notorious and underhanded president in history on campus will ensure the college’s liberal status in perpetuity. The open minded professors should think ten years ahead.
article on this in today’s New York Times
A Discordant Chorus Questions Visions for a Bush Library at Southern Methodist
Re:Nobody cares
I doubt it but historians will tell us long after we are dead.
I assume this is about as likely as my waking up in the morning dead? It’s a neat trick though. Of course, I do believe in reincarnation, so I’m sure I will hear what the historians say about dubya…if they say anything at all….
And universities and colleges shouldn’t be allowed to have the same sets of initials. It’s confusing. Around here, SMU is NOT southern methodist!
s/
Re:article on this in today’s New York Times
I wonder if they put on their tinfoil hats before signing that missive?