Post #300

This is my 300th blog post since I started it around six years ago.  As with post #200, let's take a look at some of what I wrote about over the past 100 posts spanning about two years:

I wrote with more practical, real life advice for high school and college graduates.

I wrote about a variety of investment issues, client-approved of course.

I wrote about how a political lackey masquerading as a university president ended VEISHEA.

I wrote more about the best songwriters and lyrics from yesteryear.

I wrote about how pop culture should start ignoring Lolo Jones, well before pop culture came to the same conclusion.

I wrote about major cities I visited.

I wrote more about taxpayers getting fleeced, and the primary non-profit fleecers.

I wrote about how medical doctors are self-centered, not patient-centered.

I wrote about what turning 50 years old meant to me, in a mostly non-philosophical way.

I wrote about a variety of ways that people / politicians / governments refuse to accept the evolution of social issues, such as how dumb it is to oppose both medical marijuana and decriminalization of marijuana, and how dumb it is to allow 2,000+ year-old religious doctrine control all of their secular decisions.

I wrote a little bit about a lot of other things, all in the name of getting things off my mind.

Terrorists Still > VEISHEA

The past  week / weekend should have been a fun time on the campus of Iowa State University.  It should have been the 90-something-th edition of VEISHEA.  But that was postponed last year, indirectly due to a riot, but directly due to an out-of touch university president.

Last summer that president, Steven Leath, put a permanent end to VEISHEA   Of course, he did this after getting that recommendation from his hand-picked task force.  An absolute joke.

What was this task force going to do, make a recommendation contrary to what the president and his cronies wanted?  Leath had already played judge and jury to cancel last year's VEISHEA shortly after the riot, but well before enough time had passed to collect the facts about what happened.

He acted impulsively and dictatorially, claiming student safety was at risk, and ruining work and plans that were many months in the making.  He isn't going to admit now that he was wrong about his actions.

But in truth, those actions haven't made Iowa State students, or Ames, Iowa, a safer place.  Suppressing the organized fun and freedom of people doesn't engender trust and safety -- it makes those people bitter and angry, and makes them dislike you.  Worst case scenario, it manifests into something chaotic and violent.

Fortunately for ISU / Ames, that manifestation didn't happen this year, and maybe it won't ever.  Unfortunately for Leath, the same can't be said for how much he's disliked on campus.

Terrorists > VEISHEA, Part Two

ISU President Stephen Leath announced in a press conference August 7, 2014 that VEISHEA will be discontinued and the name will be retired.

"I'm not going to continue to put students at risk so we can observe what to many has become a week-long party," he said.

Leath, you are a politically-correct puppet for a few Republican cronies on the Iowa Board of Regents, and everything I said about you last Spring is as true now as it was then.  Only a close-minded fool thinks they have the means to control what they have no power over, such as the off-campus antics of mostly non-students.

Jerk.

Terrorists > VEISHEA

For the uninitiated, VEISHEA is an annual week-long celebration held each spring on the campus of Iowa State University.  VEISHEA is an acronym for the original 5 colleges of the university:  Veterinary Medicine, Engineering, Industrial Science, Home Economics, Agriculture.  It's presumably the largest student run festival in the nation,

VEISHEA has been marred in the past two decades by off-campus, late night, alcohol-induced, party-goer rioting on the last weekend, causing mostly minor but some significant damage and injuries.  The last time it had happened was 2004, and the university president at the time canceled VEISHEA for the following year.  Another riot happened again this week (this time early in the week), and in response the new university president, Steven Leath, suspended the rest of -- which is to say most of -- VEISHEA for the year.

Lots of losers in this, but hands down the biggest losers in all of it are.....the ISU university presidents.

While there is no defending the instigators or participants in these, neither is there a rational defense of canceling VEISHEA in response.  By all accounts, it wasn't so much a riot as a social-media inspired mob scene with a few drunken idiots.  To make matters worse, Leath acts as if his action has the full support of the university leadership.

Let's drop the public posturing and consider the facts that Leath is ignoring, and would like others to ignore:

1) He says he's thinking of the institution and safety in making his decision to cancel, but what exactly does he mean by institution?  The administration?  The faculty?  Because the university institution doesn't exist without the students, and the vast majority of them want VEISHEA to go on.  So do the surrounding campus businesses.

2) Speaking of the administration and faculty, while they made be around for dozens of VEISHEA festivals (thank you, tenure!), the students are only there for a few.  Many of them volunteer and put many hours of work into it.  Now Leath has taken away the fruits of their labor, because of a few folks who might not even be students.  It's bad enough that the majority are made to suffer for the few in elementary school or high school, but this is college.  C'mon, man.

3) By canceling VEISHEA, Leath has unquestionably increased the probability of more trouble.  Now there will be no alcohol-free alternative activities, and more students are likely to attended the off-campus parties, which have always been a source of mob-like behavior.  This probability has already become reality, as police have stated that in the following two days after the 'riot' there have been about twice the usual off-campus incidents reported than in past years.  (Note: This year's riot was in part a result of police closing down an off-campus party. Is it really that hard for Leath and his institutional cronies to put 2 and 2 together?)

4) Leath could easily allow VEISHEA to commence while law enforcement reviews the volumes of video evidence (something other riots didn't have), and both they and he can ultimately take action against the few who deserve it.  Instead, he chose to rush to judgement, and punish the many who don't deserve it.  When are educational institutions, at any level, going to accept that they effectively govern behavior that goes on beyond their physical territory?

This continues a pattern of questionable, socially-conservative decisions from Leath.  He was the pansy for the conservatives on the state board of regents a year ago in stopping the Harkin Institute at Iowa State, and by not allowing freedom in their research, valuable senatorial papers will now go to Drake University instead. And no one has any idea why he's single-handedly prohibited a player from participating on the men's basketball team this year, even though said previously-suspended player has been cleared by the legal system.

How much longer before the contributing alumni just suspend their donations in the same way Leath seems to arbitrarily suspend things?  Maybe they should -- then I'm guessing he'll suddenly find ways to make things work, instead of thinking of reasons for things to not work.  I noticed one alumnus already commenting that if there was a student uprising at a sporting event, the president wouldn't cancel the rest of the athletic season. But apparently, canceling VEISHEA is OK, because it only hurts students and not the big donor fans.

By canceling VEISHEA and threatening its future, Leath and his predecessor have simply allowed the terrorists to win at the expense of the students.  At Iowa State, this is called leadership, but it's really just retreat.