Liberal Arts

Southern Man teaches in a private, church-affiliated liberal arts college. That's right - the marketplace of ideas, the last bastion of free and open thought, where honest debate reign supreme.

Or not.

In a brief hallway gathering, Southern Man heard all of the following in less then five minutes:

• All Republicans / Christians / Country Bumpkins (there seemed to be little distinction between these categories) deny that global warming exists, with the added thought that any such notion should be repressed at all costs.
  


• VP Candidate Sarah Palin insists that creationism be taught in schools and demanded that the local library ban a lengthy list of books (both debunked here).
  


• Southern Man's state (which leans towards the red) is populated by idiots who have no idea who or what they're voting for (during a discussion of electronic voting technology and the ease of hacking thereof; our backwards little state uses paper ballots and optical scanners, which is about as foolproof as it gets).



• And my favorite quote from the gathering, from the dean of my college: "I won't think in your church if you won't preach in my classroom."

It is to weep.