Applauding Professor 89
They wield their words without the facts
When wrong, they obfuscate
Truth is trivia to them
Reality...open to debate.
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As Spring, then Summer passed us by
And their "assumptions" were proven false
Not ONE has said "Here.. I got it wrong.
Accept my sincere remorse."
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They respond with tortured rhetoric
Even they could not define
So we were sad when Crowley seemed
To become "Prof 89"
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But Crowley's made of stronger stuff
Rock-solid, you might say
We note today's apology
Made in a very public way.
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Any one of us can get it wrong
Even with the best intent
And speak before we have the facts
But it takes a finer man...
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To speak again and set things straight
If only more would follow suit...
Crowley moved the earth a bit today
And the "climate" has improved
Joan Foster
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Yesterday the Herald-Sun published an apology from Duke earth sciences professor Thomas Crowley for his November 13th guest column about the Duke lacrosse case. Crowley’s original letter was widely denounced here and on other blogs. To his credit, Crowley did not simply duck the criticism. Yesterday, Crowley stated, “I have subsequently been informed of errors in that letter. In particular my blanket statement about behavior of the lacrosse team was neither fair in general nor applicable to the particular case now in dispute. I apologize for this and any other errors.” We commend Professor Crowley for acknowledging the errors. This marks the first time, to our knowledge, that anyone at Duke has apologized for mischaracterizing the lacrosse team or making a mistake of any kind during Duke’s response to the allegations. The response from Duke to criticism has all too often been similar to the response KC Johnson reported from Wahneema Lubiano, “Do not email me again. I am putting your name and email address in my filter.” Perhaps the quote, “my blanket statement about behavior of the lacrosse team was neither fair in general nor applicable to the particular case now in dispute” can form a starting point for the next Group of 88 ad in the Chronicle. We can at least hope.
16 comments:
he just caved in to the pressure you dukies put on him and the avalanche of emails and calls and general hatred you all spewed out. he did this to make it stop. too bad for you that your real enemy, nifong, could give a shit about the hate you dish out.
to 12:23
Why so much hate in you ? Where does it come from?
I suggest we leave 12:23 up for all to see the type of support Mikey has.
The Stubbornness of Facts claims another victim in 12:23.
The first commentor creates a scenario that I did not find in my exchange of emails with Dr. Crowley. Instead, he realized he had made some errors and wanted them to be corrected.
Believe me, other faculty members have been hit with a lot of emails and comments, and they certainly did not think of themselves as being intimidated. In fact, the only person intimidated was a faculty member who wrote an article condemning the bad treatment of the accused, and he said that some people needed to be "tarred and feathered." He immediately was accused of racism by members of the Gang of 88.
However, the poster is correct in saying that Nifong does not care. Indeed, Nifong has ignored all evidence, lied, and broken the law. I guess the poster thinks that is a REALLY GOOD THING. Tells you about the potential jury pool in Durham, does it not?
On one other note, Joan Foster DOES NOT spread hatred. There is not a more decent person on the blogs, period.
To 12:23
I wish you would argue a point or go away. I wish you had a better vocabulary to express yourself. Are you saying that Crowley:
Cannot think for himself
Writes for pubication whatever is more popular
Did know about the negative tox screen in his first article and refuses to admit it
If he buckels under to pressure, why don't you wirte/email/call him and get him to retract his retraction?
PS I also wish you knew basic capitalization rules.
My emails with Professor Crowley also tells me 1223 is wrong. Crowley did what those in education should be doing - evaluation, including self evaluation, fact gathering, integration and assessment. He learned he was wrong, and then very much to his credit admitted it. He is open to that learning....perhaps something 1223 is not?
Great work Liestoppers - it is important to recognize those very few people that have admitted they were wrong and apologized. Kudos to them and to you.
Dear Joan,
You knocked out a great post which, among other things, gave us all an example of how we ought to treat those who indicate they want to move from the group that is wrong to the group that is struggling to wring as much justice and reconciliation as possible from a series of gross injustices committed by certain individuals.
You do great work, Joan.
Best,
John in Carolina
I wish Professor Crowley would have been more open in correcting all the errors in his original column. Just apologizing for errors seems to little, to late in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, I understand that it was difficult for him to acknowledge the errors, but for the record, he would have been a bigger man, if he had corrected all the errors instead of just one. He needs to rewrite his original column and submit it to the H/S with all the errors corrected.
12:23...
"general hatred you all spewed out"
Guess you've talked to Prof Crowley yourself and he told you this?
"nifong, could give a shit "
painfully obvious
it is obvious that the poor man has been deluged with hateful emails from the likes of you duke supporters. he wanted it to stop. you admit emailing the man. the other professors had to put up safeguards because you guys were flaming them as well via the internet. even the N and O article written today by Neff, the defense's shill at the N and o, says a lot of what you people have been sending to the governor and the ag are "obscene rants from phony email addresses", which would be typical of the sort of people you guys are. you all are the ones full of hate. hate for blacks, hate for the victim, hate for nifong. you support those who hate as well, the racist and misogynist lax team, which is why you all think their racial slurs are ok and try to minimise that aspect of the case. too bad for you that everyone in durham heard the truth and will hear more about their true characters(and it will be ugly and pornographic) if this case goes to trial, God willing.
anonymous 6:23am --
Hard-hitting, densely-argued comment. Can you say a little bit about your perspective? Do you keep up with what folks in Durham are saying, or are you a Duke student or employee, speaking from that point of view? Thanks in advance if you choose to elaborate.
To 6:23 AM:
Are you saying that anyone who believes the Duke 3 are not guilty of rape believes so because he or she hates blacks and women?
Now, I do NOT support the anti-black posts on these blogs, and I do not read the racially-obsessed blogs, as they just make me angry. My two sons are black (yes, adopted), so I would have to gather from your logic that if I think the Duke 3 are innocent, then I hate my own children.
It seems to me that the black community in Durham believed all the charges at first, but when the evidence came out, it began to seem as though the "white boys are slipping from our clutches."
I realize that no one likes to be played a fool, and my sense is that had the accused rapists been black (and the accuser also black), that people in the black community there would have had their b.s. detectors up and running and would have recognized the accuser was lying.
However, because of the racial nature of the accusations, the usual b.s. detectors were not in place. Because blacks often have mroe dealings with the courts and have seen their abuses, they are much more likely to be skeptical of prosecutors and police, and rightly so. In this situation, however, people let down their skeptic guards, and this is what we get.
I would urge you to look at the various statements, the timelines, the medical evidence, and the like, and ask yourself whether or not this looks to be a false accusation. Look, if the evidence showed otherwise, I would want the defendants tried and convicted. I want to operate on the evidence, not my emotions. That is all I am asking.
E-mail has a DELETE button. Crowley had a choice to read or not read his e-mails. Poor Man indeed. I think his lawyer explained the position he had put himself into. Bloggers - please do not critize peoples spelling and grammer - not helpful.
Anonymous 6:23
The next time you fel compelled to babble,think of this."Reality,what a concept."
the problem for you is that i do see reality and so do the black people of durham. they know racist bs disguised as something else when they see it and they know that anyone that is white that does not go along with the defense's statements is targeted and harassed. nifong has to have extra security and has a screening program on his computer to detect the identity of all the people writing him emails and threatening him because of all the hatred you guys are raining down on him. he gets deth threats daily. the professor was in the same boat and he caved in so the harassment would stop. end of story.
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