Sviggum out as V. Chair, but…

October 25th, 2022

Resigning as Vice Chair of U of M Board of Regents is a start, but RESIGN FROM BOARD OF REGENTS.

NOW!

Dear Chancellor Ericksen and the University of Minnesota Morris community:
Today, I want to extend my sincere apology on behalf of the Board of Regents following Regent Sviggum’s apology yesterday. As you know, last Thursday Regent Sviggum asked a question regarding Morris enrollment. We all bear responsibility for speaking up and condemning the question, whether on Thursday or in our Friday meeting. As the leader of our board, I should have done better and I am not proud of my inaction.
Our Board is committed to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and it is a central anchor of the president’s MPact 2025 strategic plan, which the Board has fully endorsed. We are inspired every day by the diversity of thought, of inquiry, of vision, and of presence that drives our institution forward.
In March of 2023, we will hold the Board of Regents meeting on the Morris campus. With the full Board on campus, we will focus on engaging with the Morris community, including

Remember the assault by car in Minneapolis against Black Lives Matters protesters, the one where initially the police claimed the driver was the victim, and some media outlets reported it in that framing despite the readily available helicopter video of the entire incident!?!?!

What the hell is wrong with people?

And white nationalist Scarcella’s shooting of Black Lives Matter protesters in Minneapolis?

15 years in prison for gunman who shot 5 Jamar Clark protesters

And…

2 sentenced for aiding man who shot Black Lives Matter protesters at Fourth Precinct

Now it’s happened again, in Charlottesville, VA, and with much more horrific consequences.  One person has died, 20 plus injured:

Man charged with murder for allegedly plowing into crowd

One dead as car strikes crowds amid protests of white nationalist gathering in Charlottesville; two police die in helicopter crash

Mayor Singer of Charlottesville made an impassioned speech urging the white nationalists, neo-Nazis to go home, and drawing the connection to the vitriolic Trump campaign that worked to normalize white nationalism and hate:

Charlottesville mayor on Trump: ‘Look at the campaign he ran’ – KIFI

“Look at the intentional courting both, on the one hand, of all these white supremacists, white nationalist groups like that, anti-Semitic groups,” Signer said. “And then look on the other hand, the repeated failure to step up, condemn, denounce, silence, you know, put to bed all those different efforts.”

However, Signer said the country would move ahead, and the problems went beyond what he saw in Trump.

“To be honest, this is not about Donald Trump,” Signer said, adding that the violence from white supremacists demonstrated that the country’s core democratic principles were eroding, but people had an opportunity to change for the better.

“People will react to the darkness with a whole lot more light,” he said.

tRump’s response missed the mark:

“We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides,” Trump said during a short statement from his private golf club in New Jersey. “It has been going on for a long time in our country — not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama. It has been going on for a long, long time. It has no place in America.”

“…  hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides…”  WHAT?  Yet again, it’s white nationalists, and this is his statement?  tRump who encouraged violence at his campaign rallies, who welcomed Steve Bannon into his administration, who encouraged white nationalists, and who enjoyed the support of the likes of David Duke.

Charlottesville: Trump criticised over response to far-right

Speaking of David Duke, the voice of the KKK:

What a Jewish journalist saw in Charlottesville

From a white supremacist’s family:

Letter: Family denounces Tefft’s racist rhetoric and actions

My name is Pearce Tefft, and I am writing to all, with regards to my youngest son, Peter Tefft, an avowed white nationalist who has been featured in a number of local news stories over the last several months.

On Friday night, my son traveled to Charlottesville, Va., and was interviewed by a national news outlet while marching with reported white nationalists, who allegedly went on to kill a person.

I, along with all of his siblings and his entire family, wish to loudly repudiate my son’s vile, hateful and racist rhetoric and actions. We do not know specifically where he learned these beliefs. He did not learn them at home.

I have shared my home and hearth with friends and acquaintances of every race, gender and creed. I have taught all of my children that all men and women are created equal. That we must love each other all the same.

Evidently Peter has chosen to unlearn these lessons, much to my and his family’s heartbreak and distress. We have been silent up until now, but now we see that this was a mistake. It was the silence of good people that allowed the Nazis to flourish the first time around, and it is the silence of good people that is allowing them to flourish now.

Peter Tefft, my son, is not welcome at our family gatherings any longer. I pray my prodigal son will renounce his hateful beliefs and return home. Then and only then will I lay out the feast.

His hateful opinions are bringing hateful rhetoric to his siblings, cousins, nieces and nephews as well as his parents. Why must we be guilty by association? Again, none of his beliefs were learned at home. We do not, never have, and never will, accept his twisted worldview.

He once joked, “The thing about us fascists is, it’s not that we don’t believe in freedom of speech. You can say whatever you want. We’ll just throw you in an oven.”

Peter, you will have to shovel our bodies into the oven, too. Please son, renounce the hate, accept and love all.

Tefft lives in Fargo.