"Furious" Peter N. Kirstein, Ph.D. vs. "Baby-killing" Cadet Kurpeil,
“[A] tenured professor of history sent a young Air Force Academy cadet some e-mail containing inflammatory, anti-military comments. Professor Peter N. Kirstein, an avowed pacifist, quickly apologized to the cadet and to the Air Force Academy for his e-mail message, but in the meantime thousands of other interested parties have taken offense.”
—“Furious” Peter N. Kirstein, Ph.D. vs. “Baby-killing” Cadet Kurpeil, Xavier University)
While Prof. Kirstein sounds annoyed that his private e-mail to Cadet Kurpeil got spread across the Internet, his action was completely unprofessional. Kirstein has every right his pacifist beliefs, and every right to share them with whomever he wishes. But “You are worse than the snipers” is hardly the voice of a trustworthy academic, who’s supposed to be able to comprehend all sides of an issue. Now that he’s been relieved of his teaching duties, Kirstein will have some time on his hands to reflect on how much damage it’s possible to inflict on yourself by hitting “send” without thinking about what you are doing.
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Gerry, my spam-blocking ability has gotten much better, so as you can see I'm still accepting comments on old entries.
AS for your 'closing off comments to old blog entries', you should know that Peter Neil Kirstein (still at Xavier) is attempting defenses of Ward Churchill in the comments section on the WC matter at 'Inside Higher Edu'. PNK is not sorry, nor apologetic, about any damn thing, since he is always right - and holy.
Thanks for your comments.
Every so often I toy with the idea of closing off comments to old blog entries, because I'm tired of dealing with spam, but I'm glad you found this and offered an update.
I would not have expressed myself in the manner you did. I do however admire your fortitude in persevering and directly confronting a national campaign against you. When I saw your letter to the New York Times last Spring, I recognized your name and then saw your Chomsky-like website.
With the war in Iraq, I suspect ironically this has given you even more of an opportunity to express your antiwar views.
I believe that the military action of this country consitutes war crimes. The numbers of deaths that we have caused in Iraq exceeds greatly individual sniper attacks in the US. Yes I could have phrased components of the e-mail more elegantly but within a few weeks of this event, I realised that this was not about manners but an effort on the part of many to suppress my views. As usual they failed because they seriously underestimated my toughness and lack of fear in opposing the militarist, racist policies of the United States.
I believe I was suspended because of unpopular beliefs that have proven correct.I believe my suspension was a disgraceful, cowardly act intended to stifle me and my capacity to verbalise my beliefs against militarism and violence.
I am proud of my ideological ethos and my capacity to use this inquisition to pursue my mission of peace and justice.
I am proud that efforts to silence me and intimidate me through persecution has had the opposite effect.
I am grateful to the thousands of supporters and numerous universities from all over the country that have invited me to speak about this incident and my approach to war and pacifism.