The 1982 Newsletters Written Again

************************************************* OK Come On ! Let's Get On With It ! Reproduce The 1982 Newsletters ! From What You've Told Me So Far About Our Graduate Student I Figure He Must Be Some Kind Of GENIUS ! Probably Has A Photographic Memory And All That Stuff.

(laughing out loud !) WHOA ! WHOA ! Nobody ever said anything about a supergenius with a photographic memory here ! What I've described so far is a man with a lot of Common Sense and a lot of Courage. Besides, they say that genius is 1% Inspiration and 99% Perspiration ! To that extent, I suppose, by that definition, he IS a genius sometimes and it seems that he was gifted and blessed with something like genius when he wrote The 1982 Newsletters. He had to rise to the occasion, I suppose. The more he was challenged and threatened, the harder he had to work and the smarter he had to be ! Yeah, he's a pretty smart guy sometimes, but he doesn't have any photographic memory or anything like that. And he's no idiot savant, as they sometimes try to portray him. An idiot savant is someone with the mentality of a moron or an idiot who is mentally gifted to an amazing degree in some particular way. For example, an idiot savant might actually have a photographic memory or may be able to remember, verbatim, conversations from decades ago, even insignificant conversations with strangers. No. He's neither a genius nor an idiot savant. Don't set unrealistic expectations like that. It's not fair to him. In fact, he has told me that he thinks that often people Intentionally and Willfully Misunderstand him and Misrepresent him like that. You know, Willfull Misrepresentation, kind of like what they did in the recent Sherry Sherrod case. At one end of the spectrum are those who present the myth of the brilliant esoteric genius lost in his own world in the stratosphere, totally anti-social and lacking common sense, unable to tie his own shoes. These are the kind of people who give him an encyclopedia and expect him to memorize it overnight. The other approach is to brand him and treat him as a backward fool, a flat-earther, like Archie Bunker. Other examples of Intentional and Willful Misunderstanding are when they act like they don't know that his obviously satirical writings are satire. Since satire is often absurd exaggeration, they just say then that he must be a crazy, deranged fool. That is EXACTLY what the attorney dean of students at that state university did to our graduate student. "Satire !? Satire !?," he yelled dramatically, waving The Newsletters around, "I don't see any satire here !" They were dripping with satire, all over him. Another example of Intentional and Willful Misunderstanding is when they point out that he put the nword in print, thus proving, they say, that he is a racist, when what he was doing was quoting verbatim the white feminazi who actually said the nword out loud (like I said, she felt ENTITLED). Later in that same issue of The Newsletter, in an attempt to rouse some African American input to The Newsletter, our graduate student printed the nword a second time. After arguing that he felt it was absurd and offensive to compare the experience of white American females to the sufferings of American slaves, he said something like, "that's my opinion, but you know what I'd really like to know ? I'd like to know what the nwords think about it !" Oh, yeah, such a racist, huh ? Trying to get African Americans in the university community to express their opinion regarding that issue by contributing an article to his Newsletter ! Shame on him, huh ? (that's a little sarcasm there for you attorney deans of students) Our graduate student did, after his cajoling, get an African American female to submit and article expressing her ideas and feelings concerning use of the nword. A decade or so later, in the nineties, our graduate student was taking a course about the History Of Alaska, at the univ of alaska, to renew his teaching credentials, and the professor went on a bit of a tirade in class one day, shouting, "no one who EVER used the nword should EVER ever be allowed to teach in any classroom." It's called Willful, Intentional Misunderstanding, and a Conspiracy to deprive our graduate student of his Constitutional Rights. How did that professor in Alaska know that our graduate student wrote that word in his Newsletters unless they were networking against him ? As I said, there are copies out there !

Their Behavior Toward Our Graduate Student Has Been VERY UNFAIR To Say The Least !

That's Right. That's putting it very mildly.

OK, I've Heard Enough Of The Background To Make Me Want To Read The Newsletters. Is He Going To Reproduce Them Now ?

OK Sure. Let's Go ! ***************************************************************************** He decided to call the student organization the MLO. You can see he was somewhat satirical from the getgo. Like I said, how could you not be when you were addressing the kind of nonsense that they were dishing out ? The Men's Liberation Organization ! All the organizations in those days had a catchy three letters and many were "liberation organizations" (the SLA, the PLO, women's lib, etc.) He checked out the rules, got the paperwork, got enough members to join on, got a faculty advisor (from that same department), and bingo ! the MLO was an official student organization at that state university there.

Now What ?

That's a good question, and he asked it of himself, "Now that I have a student organization, what the heck do I do with it ?" Well, it was all about airing the issues, so he quickly came upon A Newsletter as the way to go. He decided that he would present the issues, put forth a little analysis and opinion, and ask for the same from the university community. He can't really remember for sure what the first issue said, but he does remember that they made fun of him. "Run out of ideas already ?" a student ally of that instructor mocked him as she passed by him on the campus. "All right", he thought, "this is gonna have to be good." It's gonna have to be intelligent, analytical. It's gonna have to be good literature, a good product."

******* "What Is Satire But TRUTH Grinning in a solemn, canting world !"

Gore Vidal ******* And that'll be the next chapter.