Warning!  Microaggressions ahead!

The president of the University of Virginia had the gall to quote Thomas Jefferson in a letter to the Snowflakes at her school in an effort to reassure them about the election that so traumatized them:

“Thomas Jefferson wrote to a friend that University of Virginia students ‘are not of ordinary significance only: they are exactly the persons who are to succeed to the government of our country, and to rule its future enmities, its friendships and fortunes,’” Sullivan said in the email. “I encourage today’s U.Va. students to embrace that responsibility.”

Sounds benign enough to me, balm to those fragile souls.  “Not so!” cried various professors of politics; psychology; women, gender, and sexuality; wounded self-esteem; terminal self-preening; haughty superiority; prancing solipsism; snotty self-regard; and various other academic “disciplines.”

A gaggle of professors and students sent a letter, drafted by assistant psychology professor Noelle Hurd, to University president Teresa Sullivan to voice their disapproval:

We would like for our administration to understand that although some members of this community may have come to this university because of Thomas Jefferson's legacy, others of us came here in spite of it.

Sorry, children, is it ignorance or stupidity?  If it were not for Thomas Jefferson, no one, diverse or otherwise, would attend UVA.  At all.  The man founded the school.  Is the university supposed to be a seat of learning – ya know, like, totally into imparting of knowledge, or an extended bull session where the professors trade their bull with the students?

“This is a complex issue but members of our community are intelligent and compassionate enough to be able to wrestle with this history and decide how we want to move forward as an institution that welcomes all.”

Tell us, Professor Hurd: how thoroughly have you thought through your position?  For example, would it be inappropriate to quote the Declaration of Independence in any context?  What about the Constitution?  Do you object to quotations from anyone who owned slaves?  Should the University of Virginia be a Founder-free zone?

On this showing, you and all who signed your letter are not intelligent enough to “wrestle with this history.”

Henry Percy is the nom de guerre of a writer in Arizona.  He may be reached at saler.50d[at]gmail.com.