Pepperdine president caves to students instead of educating kids about the complexity of historical figures

Here’s a newsflash:  people are not 100% good or 100% evil.  That’s true of President Obama, President Trump, and President Jefferson.  It’s also true of you, me, and the person next door.  Heck, it’s also true of the apostles of Christ.  (Remember Peter?  Judas?)  What a mixed bag!

Human nature being what is it, that means aggrieved students can be deeply offended by any person’s wrongdoings.  Or, more accurately, pretend to be deeply offended.  Such is the case on college campuses everywhere as students complain, complain, complain about everything.  (Seriously: do they ever go to class?) Perhaps only long enough to find out about our racist forefathers.)  This happened at Yale recently, when they renamed a building which bore the name of slaveholding former Vice President John C. Calhoun .  It happened at Princeton when students claimed to be “triggered” by a painting of Woodrow Wilson.

And now it happened at Pepperdine, as melodramatic students wore black ribbons and held hands around the statue of Christopher Columbus.

So did president Andrew K. Benton set them straight, explaining about how history is complicated and messy…  just like modern life is?  Did he talk to them about the nature of evil?  About the nature of goodness?  Did he explain how we can’t erase what happened?  Or pretend it didn’t?  Did he talk about learning from our mistakes?

No, he caved to the students’ demands:

“Today, for many, including those within our campus community, stories of conquest and the art associated therewith are painful reminders of loss and human tragedy.”

Note to parents thinking of spending the big bucks to send their kids to Pepperdine.  It’s now a university that values the avoidance of “loss” and “human tragedy” over an education.

Hey, President Benton, does tuition cover a pacifier and blankie too?