Michael Avery is a law professor at Suffolk University in Boston. He’s also a left-wing political activist with associations to like-minded groups like the ACLU and the even more radical National Lawyers Guild. He’s a frequent critic of the police and the U.S. military.
Here’s what some of his students say about him on : “A complete waste of time. Teaches from his liberal views not from text books.” “Typical academic, full of himself and out of touch with the real world. … It’s just a forum for his warped view of the world. … Horrible person.”
So that’s where he sits. Here’s where he stands. A couple of weeks ago, right around Veterans Day, while most of us were expressing our gratitude to those who have served our country, Avery dashed off an e-mail to his faculty colleagues defaming our troops.
He attacked his university’s drive to send care packages — containing sunblock, toiletries and the like — to those currently deployed overseas in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. Avery’s justification was advanced in this dumbfounding, sweeping generalization: “… it is shameful that it is perceived as legitimate to solicit in an academic institution for support for men and women who have gone overseas to kill other human beings.” He rejected the belief “that patriotic Americans should get behind out troops.” And he went on to complain that an American flag hanging in the school’s atrium was too large, adding, “Excessive political zeal is a hallmark of a national security states.”
As George Orwell put it, this is nonsense so great only an intellectual could believe it.
The world of foreign affairs is a nasty place with a lot of nasty people, and war is a constant of human history. Always has been; always will be. Every American military action, including World War II, was opposed by some Americans. When diplomacy fails, as it often does, the job description of soldiers necessarily includes breaking things and killing the enemy.
Paul Spera, a former commander in chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, branded Avery’s comments as “despicable,” noting, “The shameful thing is that he’s teaching our young people.”
Ironically, it’s Avery, himself, who’s guilty of “excessive zeal.” Shrewder academic leftists strategically pretend they “oppose the war but support the troops.” Avery won’t even support the troops with sunblock.
His remarks aroused outrage from Suffolk students and alumni but not from its administration. In an official statement typical of mealy mouthed academic bureaucrats, Suffolk president Barry Brown conceded that Avery wasn’t speaking for the whole Suffolk community but defended “the right of our faculty members to exercise academic freedom.”
That wasn’t good enough for at least one of Avery’s faculty colleagues, adjunct law professor Robert Roughsedge, who resigned in protest over the university’s tepid response. More precisely, it’s Maj. Robert Roughsedge, a U.S. Army reservist currently on active duty in Afghanistan, who characterized Avery’s remarks as “hate speech,” something the university wouldn’t tolerate from students and not protected by academic freedom for faculty, which is not absolute. He added that although the First Amendment may well protect Avery from government prosecution for his hateful words, Suffolk University is a private institution that, as an employer, is free to take disciplinary action against him.
I wholly concur and made a similar argument about Ward Churchill at the University of Colorado. Avery’s job may be protected by tenure and a liberal interpretation of academic freedom, but he shouldn’t be immune from censure. If I were the university’s president, here’s what I’d say:
“I can’t speak for all the faculty, administrators, trustees, alumni and students, but I would hope I speak for most when I condemn Michael Avery as a delusional, self-righteous, subversive, pompous ass.”
Freelance columnist Mike Rosen’s radio show airs weekdays from 9 a.m. to noon on 850-KOA.
