In response to my postings on John Bonnell yesterday and the day before, a reader writes:

I have to admit that one of the reasons this case hasn't gotten my ire is that the accusations against Professor Bonnell, if true, represent a shocking abuse of his position. As you point out, though, the accusations themselves don't seem all that credible and are doubtful enough that I really ought to have given the man the benefit of the doubt--which is the requisite approach of a free society to anyone accused of anything.

It occurs to me that this administration may be "crying rape"ÝinÝa way. What I mean by that perhaps regrettable analogy is that some accusations are so awful that it is difficult to simply suspend judgment. We want to believe the accuser. This is because the only way justice will be served is if A) the accused is guilty, and B) they have been caught and punished. Any deviation from this scenario represents a travesty of justice (for example, if the person is punished but not guilty, guilty but not punished, etc. By making extreme allegations, the administration automatically diminishes the Professor's chance for meaningful inside or outside support.

Also, I noticed that one of your letter-writers made the remark that what our schools are actually producing is a legion of intolerant, half-educated ideologues. A great example is what happened to me yesterday.

I have a couple of bumper-stickers on my car. One reads "Have You Made a Hippie Cry Today?" and the other has a picture of the Earth with the words "Visualize Me Ignoring You." Provocative, perhaps, but nothing exceptional.

Well, one of the university's enlightened footsoldiers left a note on my car yester day, asking me to "Visualize" him breaking my jaw, and further advising me that I was "asking for it" with my "blatent [sic] public display of hate." I hardly knew how to react. Obviously, the irony isn't worth lingering on, since this was not a rational response to an objectionable bumper sticker. I found it endlessly fascinating, though, and I've hung it on my office wall.

This could only happen on a college campus, and that's the part that's so chilling.