Categorizing people should stop

link Rube Render

Local columnist

Many conservatives in this country believe the political left has hi-jacked our education system, particularly when it comes to higher education. As evidence of this belief, they list Bill Ayers, retired from the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, formerly holding the titles of distinguished professor of education and senior university scholar and his wife Bernadette Dohrn, an adjunct professor of law at Northwestern University School of Law from 1991 to 2013.

Both Ayers and Dohrn were charter members of the Weather Underground, a self-described revolutionary group whose claim to fame involves the bombing of public buildings, including the Capitol and the Pentagon during the 1960s and ’70s.

Joining this stellar duo is Angela Davis, retired professor with the History of Consciousness Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and leader of the Communist Party USA.

Davis twice ran for vice president on the Communist Party USA ticket in 1980. The impact left by these educators remains extensive.

New causes and ideologies arise at the university and the push for a more liberal or progressive education in the classroom does not stop with formal studies, but also gravitates toward the social structures on campus as well.

Consider the recent effort of one university to provide “safe and inclusive space” for all students in their dorms.

Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college in Middletown, Connecticut, founded in 1831, under the auspices of the Methodist Church and named for John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. Wesleyan claims to be one of the most productive liberal arts colleges in the U.S. when it comes to the number of PhDs earned in all fields of study.

Tuition and fees at Wesleyan totaled more than $60,000 for the period 2014-2015. In a National Review story dated Feb. 25 of this year, Katherine Timpf details the account of Wesleyan in its attempt to ensure that all students feel safe and welcome by offering a dorm known as “Open House,” which will be super-inclusive.

The dorm will house LGBTTQQFAGPBDSM students.

The first nine of these initials are: lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer, questioning, flexural, and asexual. I leave it to the reader to Google the acronym for the remainder of the list.

In our vain attempt to be all inclusive to all people, at what point should we stop creating special categories of possibly slighted or disrespected individuals?

Rube Render is the Curry County Republican chairman. Contact him at:

[email protected]