Shut up, Gene?
Some North Carolina Democrats agree with Republican legislators on one thing: Gene Nichol should shut up.
Or at least tone it down and turn down the volume.
Ted Vaden writes in The Assembly that Nichol is “back in the spotlight, hurling his supercharged invective in a new book that surveys the changes that have occurred since the 2011 Republican takeover of the N.C. General Assembly.”
The subhead for the article, “The ‘Prophet’ and the Backlash,” says:
“UNC-Chapel Hill law professor Gene Nichol regularly scorches the state’s Republican leadership—but it’s come at a price to the university. Even some who agree with him wish he’d tone it down.”
You’ve heard that song before.
In the 1960s, some supporters, Black and White, wanted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to tone it down.
The Kennedys fretted that Freedom Riders and the March on Washington were going too far too fast.
This always happens. Whenever someone speaks up loudly and passionately against wrong, well-meaning supporters get squeamish and squirrely: “Let’s not stir things up. Let’s cool it. Let’s be nice.”
The hell with that.
In 1930s Germany, somebody was probably saying, “Let’s tone it down and maybe Herr Hitler will play nice.”
We need angry voices like Gene Nichols’ today, even when he grates on our nerves and ears.
We need loud voices that speak up against wrong. And we need more of them.
No, Gene, don’t shut up. Don’t tone it down.
Turn it up.
Assembly article: https://www.theassemblync.com/education/higher-education/gene-nichol-unc/
While you’re at it, subscribe to The Assembly. You’ll learn a lot, and you’ll be supporting good journalism in North Carolina.
Nichols’ book: “Lessons from North Carolina: Race, Religion, Tribe, and the Future of America” https://www.amazon.com/Lessons-North-Carolina-Religion-America/dp/195888801X/ref=sr_1_1?qid=1685126774&refinements=p_27%3AGene+R.+Nichol&s=books&sr=1-1
Shut up, Gene?
Some North Carolina Democrats agree with Republican legislators on one thing: Gene Nichol should shut up.
Or at least tone it down and turn down the volume.
Ted Vaden writes in The Assembly that Nichol is “back in the spotlight, hurling his supercharged invective in a new book that surveys the changes that have occurred since the 2011 Republican takeover of the N.C. General Assembly.”
The subhead for the article, “The ‘Prophet’ and the Backlash,” says:
“UNC-Chapel Hill law professor Gene Nichol regularly scorches the state’s Republican leadership—but it’s come at a price to the university. Even some who agree with him wish he’d tone it down.”
You’ve heard that song before.
In the 1960s, some supporters, Black and White, wanted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to tone it down.
The Kennedys fretted that Freedom Riders and the March on Washington were going too far too fast.
This always happens. Whenever someone speaks up loudly and passionately against wrong, well-meaning supporters get squeamish and squirrely: “Let’s not stir things up. Let’s cool it. Let’s be nice.”
The hell with that.
In 1930s Germany, somebody was probably saying, “Let’s tone it down and maybe Herr Hitler will play nice.”
We need angry voices like Gene Nichols’ today, even when he grates on our nerves and ears.
We need loud voices that speak up against wrong. And we need more of them.
No, Gene, don’t shut up. Don’t tone it down.
Turn it up.
Assembly article: https://www.theassemblync.com/education/higher-education/gene-nichol-unc/
While you’re at it, subscribe to The Assembly. You’ll learn a lot, and you’ll be supporting good journalism in North Carolina.
Nichols’ book: “Lessons from North Carolina: Race, Religion, Tribe, and the Future of America” https://www.amazon.com/Lessons-North-Carolina-Religion-America/dp/195888801X/ref=sr_1_1?qid=1685126774&refinements=p_27%3AGene+R.+Nichol&s=books&sr=1-1