Tuesday, January 31, 2012

West Point Prayer Breakfast & Lt. Gen. Boykin

"Army officer who sparked controversy with remarks on Islam pulls out of West Point address"*

As a renowned institution of higher learning West Point should encourage and facilitate a broad range of perspectives presented to the student cadets. West Point, in its mission of preparing young women and men to be officers in the US Army, should provide education regarding radical views they may encounter in the service. The education should be structured and balanced within course and program context. There are, I expect, ample courses during which Lt. Gen. Boykin could present his defense of his ill-informed, insulting prejudices. The annual, ecumenical prayer breakfast at the Military Academy is not the circumstance for his presence, much less his being honored as a featured speaker. The Academy's administration failed to recognize the hypocrisy, if not the stupidity, of the situation. Three stars on a shoulder is not a blanket free pass.

*http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/checkpoint-washington/post/army-officer-who-sparked-controversy-with-remarks-on-islam-pulls-out-of-west-point-address/2012/01/31/gIQAMrDyeQ_blog.html

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