Roy Exum
By the time most of America was still sniffing for lunch on Monday, University of Missouri president Tim Wolfe had committed the unforgiveable. He tucked tail and resigned in the most blatant example of poor leadership since the Ferguson, Mo., police were ordered to “stand down” as crazed rioters stormed through streets and burned down buildings.
This isn’t what America is about. Understand, I solidly stand behind the protestors for voicing their concerns over racism and publicly admitting their hurt feelings.
But there is “a right way” to change the world and in a state where the strife-torn St. Louis suburb of Ferguson is 125 miles due west, the university should change its nickname from Tigers to Morons.
In all that I can read, the “racial unrest” began when Payton Head, a popular kid by virtue of his being elected as president of the Missouri Student Association, was harassed by some rube in a pick-up truck. Payton sent a message out on social media rather than call the cops and that got the black students at Mizzou, all seven percent, who attend Missouri’s Columbia campus in a dither.
In October a group of black students were practicing a skit for Homecoming when some loopy white guy jumped on stage and then began shouting racial slurs. Please. Call the cops; arrest the jerk. Then somebody really deranged painted a huge swastika on the white side of a building and every single news report made sure we knew the artist’s medium was feces, if that added sensationalism doesn’t threaten your heart valves.
My case is this: former president Tim Wolfe – who did oversee four campuses and 77,000 students – obviously had nothing to do with any of it. He didn’t condone it, approve it, or know it until somebody told him about it afterwards. He met with the black students and they sulked afterwards, saying he didn’t do enough for the seven percent who must contend with 79 percent of white students every day. Wolfe said he would take a harder look but in the way of the undisciplined, the rabble-rousers used the savage beast of racism to fan every liberal flame in Columbia.
Over the weekend “about 30 black football players” said they would no longer practice until one student, look-at-me Jonathan Butler, ended his hunger strike. Embattled football coach Gary Pinkel saw a way to “insure” his hide by standing with the kids who were boycotting, telling the media the whole team was unified. Immediately, several miffed players, asking for anonymity due to Pinkel’s boast, said they had much rather play BYU this weekend instead and the whole thing was a farce. (Missouri’s team is roughly 50-50, black and white).
My goodnesss! I can hear Woody Hayes, Darrell Royal, John McKay and every other Hall of Fame coach turning in their grave. Any one of the aforementioned would have called the boycotting student-athletes into the Mizzou Athletic Center and, after politely thanking each for his service, would have told them if they weren’t at practice Sunday afternoon to please have their lockers cleaned out by 6 p.m. and to be out of the dorm by noon on Monday. Mizzou has a 4-5 record with BYU, Tennessee and Arkansas remaining.
Such behavior assures three more losses. Believe me, you never let the tail wag the dog and don’t think the university’s Board of Curators will look at Pinkel much longer with kindness. Any coach with a backbone would have put cleats on managers and helmets on water boys before falling in with dissenters.
It is great for athletes for have a voice … and they should be free to use it ... but remember there was a prior obligation as well. Each agreed by scholarship signature to represent the University of Missouri long before some redneck yelled the N-word at Payton Head (which, candidly, is all the more laughable since the kid is a high achiever and a student leader). Payton should have laughed – as we all do to unsubstantiated sexual or racist slurs -- and promptly recited, “Sticks and stones … but words will never hurt me” before heading towards the library to study.
The former president got it right when he lamented, “It is my belief that we stopped listening to each other,” be that is the norm on every big campus. Can you, in your wildest dreams, picture Wolfe or his executive staff eating lunch with students, black or white? Wolfe also said, “The frustration, the anger I see, is clear. It’s real. I don’t doubt it for a second. The faculty and staff have expressed their anger and frustration. It’s real.”
Then why didn’t Wolfe and his educated cabinet nip it in the bud from the beginning? We moan that seven percent of the Missouri student body turn the campus into a circus but if just one percent felt hatred or animosity, Mizzou should have reacted quickly and boldly. But not doing so, we have shambles and the protestors – while joyous celebrating as Look-At-Me Butler gulps down whatever he gulps – have gained nothing other than to create ridiculous havoc, made far more distasteful by learned educators who fell for it!
At some point university leaders, as well as city and state leaders, have to sit down with any protesters, listen to their concerns, and map out a solution together. But the protestors must know that everybody plays between the lines, acknowledges prior obligations and commitments. If 30 University of Missouri football players actually believe they caused UM President Tim Wolfe to resign, Lord help us all when Coach Gary Pinkel sends a play into the huddle they don’t like.
In the very near future, America must stand for what is right, good and proper or else we’ll let seven percent of our discontents skipper our boat in severely-choppy seas. My goodness gracious – vote wisely.
royexum@aol.com