Reacting, Not Thinking

Two Michigan colleges, Michigan State University and Alma, have removed the name of Stephen Nisbet from buildings on their campuses.  The reason provided is that he was a racist, a member of the Ku Klux Klan sometime in his early adult years.  I don't know if he was or if he wasn't.  The actual evidence is a bit sketchy.  But to today's crowd, the "wokists" among us, evidence and facts are not necessary or, perhaps, even desired.  Facts appear to be inconvenient things to get in the way.

Very telling to me is a statement from one of the MSU trustees who voted to remove Nisbet's name.  She said, "Given the point of society we are in right now....."  Yep, another rush to judgment is in order right now.

Perhaps Nisbet was a member of the KKK.  As noted, there is some evidence he was, but it is not conclusive, especially not to his family.  Why the hurry?  As that same trustee added, "...it's appropriate to distance ourselves from anyone who had affiliation with the KKK."  I agree, maybe.  There are a number of things to consider first.

Was he really a member of the Ku Klux Klan?  If he was, was he an active member?  After all, it's been suggested that the Klan often just added names to its membership rolls to boost its numbers, obviously for propaganda purposes.  Were there really 50,000 Klansmen in Michigan in the 1920s?  And, especially given the times, did most of them "join" merely because it was a social organization rather than for its racism?  How many of them were young, in their late teens or twenties, and joined because their buddies did, not because they were racists?  I'm not at all defending the despicable KKK, although "given the point of society we are in right now" some "wokists" might so discern--wrongly, of course, in their convoluted and ignorant thinking.  It's just that I'm getting tired of ignorant, uninformed people making decisions or forcing other ignorant, uninformed, and even cowardly people (and schools, corporations, and politicians) to make them.

What about Nisbet's accomplishments in the rest of his life, after perhaps his bout with a youthful indiscretion that he likely never really thought about and regretted for the rest of his life?  Why do people, including the entire MSU board of trustees who unanimously agreed to remove his name,  ignore his later efforts to promote civil rights in this state, from the writing of the current state constitution to casting the deciding vote to appoint the first black president of a major research university in the US (MSU)?

I am reminded of two things.  (Oh Oh!  Is he going to start that history stuff again?)  Hugo Black was one of the great civil libertarians of the 20th Century Supreme Court.  Don't take my word for it; as Casey Stengel used to say, "You could look it up."  Yet, in his early adulthood he was a member of the KKK in Alabama (I think).  Should all of Hugo Black's efforts and successes in the area of civil liberties be "canceled" because of that?

Amid the rush to pull down statues, in Wisconsin the "wokists" tore down one of an abolitionist.  I don't know their faulty reasoning, but the man, Hans Christian Heg, died for the cause of abolition.  He gave his life for it; yet the ignorant had their way.  The thugs have defiled and vandalized memorials to Abraham Lincoln.  Lincoln was the man the freedmen, the emancipated former slaves, referred to as "Father Abraham."  The Biblical reference was no accident.

A prime culprit in all of this "wokism," maybe the prime one, is social media.  (This is one of those terms I am coming to detest.)   Social media makes situations worse. It rewards the instinct to react, to “like” or to “share,” not to “stop” or to “think.”  It has brought to life, to acceptance even, "No thinking allowed!"