Tuesday, September 20, 2011

The Letter

[Originally produced in printed form]

To the students and faculty of Saint Francis University,

The letter you hold in your hands is fantastic.  Truly, truly fantastic.

It’s not fantastic because of the paper it’s printed on.  At best it might be recycled, but other than that it’s your average printer-friendly paper.  It’s white, it’s flat, and it really shows off black ink.  Ta-da. 

 This letter is not fantastic because of the words printed on it.  At best I’m a decent writer who appreciates the written language.  At worst I’m a hack who writes cliché love poetry and is only an English major because I lack the smarts to be an OT, PT, PA, or any of the other esteemed majors we offer here at SFU.   I certainly hope I’m at my best for this work, but again, I simply can’t compare to the letter itself.

This letter is fantastic because you—and only you—decide what you want to do with it.  You can keep reading it (I hope you do), but you don’t have to.  No one’s forcing you.  You can crumble it up and throw it away.  That’s fine with me.  In fact, I’d be elated if you did that.  All I ask is that you don’t litter.  Then again, you can fold this letter into a paper airplane.  Or a pirate hat.  Or, if you’re dexterous enough, you can craft it into an origami swan.  The possibilities are endless because your freedom is endless.  I’m not standing next to you, gun in hand, demanding you read this.  If you’ve made it this far then you’re reading because you want to, because you find this letter (for whatever reason) interesting. 

Some here at Saint Francis seem to have forgotten about this freedom.  Car keys, birthdays, and the  name of that guy you met at that party two months ago: these are things which are okay to forget.  The freedom of speech should never be forgotten.  Never.  If you can’t remember than that, then you need to get this tattooed right above you belly button, upside-down, so you can remind yourself every time you step out of the shower: “Say whatever you want.”

I’m not so naïve as to believe many of you get excited about the annual Furlong Lecture.  Unless you’re an English or Communication major, in need of CES credit, or your professor is offering bonus points, then you’re not going to the Furlong Lecture.  You go to class Monday through Friday and you don’t want to listen to another speech.  I get that, fine, “different strokes for different folks….”  You also probably won’t be upset to hear this year’s Furlong Lecture has been cancelled at the last minute. 

But you should care, even worry, about why it’s been cancelled. 

If you will, allow me to set the stage.  This year’s speaker was to be Ellen Goodman, nationally syndicated columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner.  This isn’t someone from the Altoona Mirror who was going to come and speak about how newspapers are going out of business across the country.  All respect to the Mirror, but there’s no doubt Ms. Goodman is on a higher tier.  She’s got the pedigree.  She’s got the readers.  We should have been thrilled to have her, and we were.  No, ecstatic.  We were ecstatic to have her.  Whether you like her work or not, you have to admit, this was a big draw for Saint Francis.  Penn State usually gets these types of authors, not us.  But the stars aligned, the gods smiled, and we got a Pulitzer Prize winner.

Last week, however, an announcement came from the higher-ups that Ms. Goodman was to be uninvited (read as “cancelled”).  Why?  Surely there had to be a good reason for such a seemingly rash decision, especially considering it was less than a month before Ms. Goodman was to arrive on campus.  Had she renounced writing and decided to dedicate her life to mathematics?  Had she recently been convicted of a heinous murder?  Had she left the country and claimed sanctuary on foreign shores?  All of these would have made more sense than the actual reason.

We uninvited Ms. Goodman because she’s pro-choice. 

She wasn’t speaking on pro-choice.  The title of her speech was “A Civil Tongue.  Welcome to the era of polarized politics, food fight cable shows, and ballistic blogging.  How civility was shattered, who is winning, who is losing, and how do we call a truce to the mud wrestling.”  To summarize, Ms. Goodman was going to speak about cooperation and compromise.  Abortion was nowhere on the agenda.  She just happens to be pro-choice, so we “uninvited” her. 

Let’s go back to that word: uninvite.  Microsoft Word doesn’t even recognize that word.  Currently on my monitor it’s underlined with one of those swiggly red lines, and this is for good reason; it’s a stupid word.  It is.  It really is.  To uninvite someone is call them a year in advance, say, “Hey, we’re having this party on October 12th and we’d love for you to come as our guest of honor!” only to call them back in mid-September and awkwardly mutter, “So, um, yeah, that invite?  Yeah, well, we found out you’re {insert inane excuse for prejudice here}, so we’re kind of uninviting you.  Yeah, so, uh, have a good day.”  If that example seems ridiculous to you, it’s because it is.  So let’s call a spade a spade.  We cancelled Ms. Goodman, no polite way to put it.

Saint Francis is a Catholic university, but it claims to welcome everyone and anyone.  Protestant?  Come on in.  Jewish?  Sure.  Atheist and agnostic?  Why not.  Democrat?  Uh-huh.  Republican?  Yeppers.  Gay? Okie-dokie.  Black?  You betcha.  Asian?  Indian?  Arabian?  All ethnicities are welcome.  Even pro-choice?  Of course.  We accept everyone and anyone (so long as your check clears…).  But try and host an author whose personal views contradict that of the Catholic Church and it’s no thank you, right this way toward the door, let me kindly kick you through it.  SFU claims it doesn’t want to be represented by Ms. Goodman.  I actually go here.  I attend classes.  I go to the sporting events.  I eat at Torvian.  I’m asked to work the open houses because this university wants me representing them.  I represent Saint Francis more than Ms. Goodman and I, a noted atheist, have yet to be asked to leave campus.  Maybe if Ms. Goodman offered to pay the university to come speak they might look the other way.   

Now let’s jump back to a year ago, right before we booked Ms. Goodman.  Let’s pretend we found out she was pro-choice before we even called her.  Let’s imagine the university denies the request to host Ms. Goodman.  That’s fine.  They have that right.  Like I already mentioned, we are a Catholic university.  When you sign on to attend here you have to expect there are certain lectures the university will never support, like “God’s Dead, Become a Hedonist,” or “Catholics: They’re Just Plain Wrong,” or even “Jesus Christ vs. Elvis:  Why the Latter King is Better than the Former.”  Never will we hear these lectures, and not only do I understand, but I’m okay with it.  I knew what I was getting when I signed on to SFU. 

To be honest, I’ve never felt confined by Catholic dogma the entire time I’ve been on campus (until now, that is).  No one forces me to go to church on Sunday.  Philosophy courses teach something besides the Bible.  All in all, we’re a pretty liberal Catholic university.  I thought SFU respected opposing viewpoints.  In fact, I know they do.  Like I said, I’m not Catholic but the friars still treat me with the respect I deserve.  Fr. Gabe, Fr. Nathan, and Fr. Malachi all smile and talk to me when they see me, along with anyone else wearing a black habit or white collar on this campus.  I’ve never had any of them for class.  I promise you they don’t know my name. They have nothing to gain by being kind to me.  They’re kind because they’re kind.

Saint Francis isn’t a run by tyrants; I know it’s run by good men and women who’ve simply had a lapse in good judgment and good taste.  Maybe they don’t want Ms. Goodman to speak, but the simple fact is that we’ve invited her, we’ve paid her, we’ve advertised to the local community that she’s coming, and we’re lucky to have her.  We need to stand behind that.  Maybe we could have sent out disclaimers, something like “Saint Francis University doesn’t support or condone the views of Ms. Ellen Goodman and we’re only hosting her because we didn’t know she was pro-choice before we booked her.”  Maybe we could have passed out tomatoes to audience before she spoke.  Anything so long as she spoke.  Anything is better than the black eye the university will take with this cancellation.  This isn’t the university standing up for what they believe in, but the university ignoring basic human rights and respect while simultaneously encouraging prejudice and intolerance.

Ms. Goodman was going to discuss cooperation and compromise.  The university is demonstrating ignorance and stubbornness.  If anything, we need Ms. Goodman on campus more than ever. 

The university is wrong.  We are very, very wrong.  Ms. Goodman won’t come speak whether we reinvite her or not, but we can still do the right thing.  We can apologize.  We can admit just how very wrong we were.

As I said before, I respect and love Fr. Gabe, and I know this isn’t entirely his doing (he does, after all, have donors and religious superiors to answer to), but he’s as high up as we as a student body and faculty can reach.  Send him an email, something short and respectful, something like, “Father Gabe, I just wanted to let you know how disappointed I am with the university’s decision to uninvite Ms. Goodman.  I pray you and the others in charge will make the right decision and reinvite her.”  Even just five hundred emails in one inbox sends a powerful message. 

Students, show this letter to your professors.  Let them know there’s at least one student on this campus who’s angry that she’s being told who she can and cannot listen to not because of material but because of subjective, personal issues (although I have a hunch there’s more than one perturbed student on campus).  Give this letter to them.  Tell them it’s for Fr. Gabe.  I purposely wrote this under a pseudonym, not out of cowardice but because I wanted the university to respond to not just me, but us.  They need to explain themselves to not just one person, but thousands, to every single person enrolled and working on this campus.

This letter is also online.  Check out the link at the bottom of all of the pages.  Send the link to your friends.  Send the link to local newspapers and news stations.  Send the link to your parents.  Post the link on Saint Francis University’s numerous facebook pages.  Make copies of this letter and give it to anyone you meet.  Stand in the mall and read it out loud at the top of your lungs. 

Or better yet, take these sheets of paper and make them into a hat.  Something really ridiculous.  Wear it to all of your classes.  Wear it to Torvian.  Wear it to DeSepio.  People will stop you to ask what you’re doing.  Maybe it’ll be Fr. Gabe.  Maybe it’ll be a donor.  Whoever asks you, calmly turn to them and tell them you’re wearing it because you’re expressing yourself.

Because that’s your voice.

Because you want to, and nobody can tell you otherwise.

With love,

“Ann O’Connor”


[Father Gabe's email is GZeis@francis.edu]