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Pacifica Forum responds to Frohnmayer

On Friday, the Pacifica Forum met to discuss President Frohnmayer’s recent letter denouncing the forum and one of its more notable members, Valdas Anelauskas. PF founder Orval Etter drafted a letter to Frohnmayer, telling him to “get over it.” There was also talk of bringing “revisionist historian” Mark Weber back to campus on May 16. Finally, today’s ODE has a good write-up of the meeting. I’ll address all of this after the jump, in case you’re getting sick of reading about the Pacifica Forum.

The meeting began quite appropriately when Jimmy Marr, the man who delivered the speech on Martin Luther King Jr., handed me a copy of Imperium by Francis Parker Yockey and told me I should check it out. Flipping open the book, I noticed it was dedicated to “the hero of World War II.” Hmm, I wonder who Yockey was referring to?

Etter then presented his proposed letter to Frohnmayer, titled “Doctor Heal Thyself: ‘Get Over It.'”

Last fall at Northwest Christian College, in a lecture on tolerance in human affairs, you stressed a fundamental distinction between mere opinion or belief, on the one hand, and action on the other. perhaps with an eye to Anglo-American criminal law, in which occurrence of crime depends on concurrence of action and criminal intent, you emphasized that people may properly remain relaxed in the face of bad intent that has not evolved to the point of action – that they may simply “get over it.” The reason presumably is that as soon as the bad intent resolves into action, the vast body criminal law becomes instantly available for security.

This distinction bears on the distress that has recently been engendered in the is town over certain beliefs expressed at Pacifica Forum. these beliefs have engendered charges of racism and anti-Semitism. The charges have involved no instance of asault or battery, property damage, disturbance of the peace, or threat thereof.

Concurrently with these charges a local synagogue has been burglarized and some of its property damaged. No forum attendant was among the vandals.

Forum leaders have never sought personal injury or property damage through forum activity, and their record in the is realm appears to be perfect. Forum leadership can be counted on to continue along this line. So long as it does, the public may properly “get over” expressions of politically incorrect ideas at the forum.

Sorry, but that’s not how the marketplace of ideas works. No one is obligated to “get over it.” As Michael Williams noted in the meeting, freedom of speech does not mean freedom from criticism. If you have the right to spout your ideas, then the public has the right to disagree with them, sometimes vehemently.

The other big news is that the forum might bring Mark Weber back to campus on May 16. Jimmy Marr brought up the idea, saying that he was willing to pay Weber’s airfare out of his pocket. Etter replied that the forum’s planning committee would take the idea “under serious consideration.” I’m sorry (actually I’m not), but this is the worst thing that the Pacifica Forum could do if it wants to clean up its image.

On to the ODE article, Jill Aho did a great job of covering the current controversy. The main thing I noticed in the article, though, is that Etter has significantly reversed his earlier position on what constitutes anti-Semitism. When I interviewed him back in December, he refused to admit that anything or anybody in the forum was anti-Semitic, including Anelauskas. Even when I showed him the ad for the Mark Weber lecture, which featured a hissing snake coiled in the shape of the Star of David, he would only call it anti-Zionist.

“I wouldn’t regard [the ad] as anti-Semitic in the sense of being anti-Judaism,” Etter said. “Maybe anti-Zionist or anti-Israel, but there’s an awful lot more to Judaism than Israel and Zionism. And I have a hunch that the people who put [the ad] together would claim it’s anti-Zionist, not anti-Semitic.”

And later in the interview:

“An important fact about public life in recent years is that the word ‘anti-Semitic’ has grossly expanded in meaning.” Etter said. “It means a lot more than it used to.”

Contrast this with Etter’s statements in Aho’s article, and you’ll see that he is now trying to clean his hands of Anelauskas:

Etter said, “I found myself, quite a while back, divorcing myself, separating myself, from Valdas’ anti-Semitism, but when you read criticism of the forum, including in the Oregon Commentator, you’d never know I was one of the first to part company with Valdas when he became anti-Semitic.”

It should be obvious to everyone that Anelauskas did not recently become anti-Semitic. Of course, people like him tend to fall farther and farther down the rabbit hole as time goes on, but you don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to see what his Zionism and Russia lecture series back in 2006 was all about. I’ll just quote a brief snippet from the opening paragraphs of part eight:

The Zionists keep rubbing our noses in Auschwitz, because they want us to feel guilty, they want us to feel that we owe the Jews something for letting it happen. The media rarely mention Gulag because Jews were the guilty ones there. Besides, today they make a lot of money by promoting the “holocaust.” As saying goes, “There is no
business as good as Shoa business.” […] The “holocaust” story is used as sword and shield for IsraHell, that cancer tumor on Middle East.

An R-G article on the lecture series quoted Etter as being “unable to say” if Anelauskas’ lecture was anti-Semitic. Ironically, Anelauskas describes himself in the article as “a nationalist and white separatist and racialist.” It was Etter who invited him to present that lecture series, Etter who defended the decision and Etter who continued to involve Anelauskas in the Pacifica Forum. It’s a little late in the game to try and distance himself now. (According to Aho’s article, Anelauskas recently left the forum in a huff, vowing never to return).

This brings up another point that needs addressing: the complicity of the Pacifica Forum as a whole in recent events. Some people, myself included, have been guilty of lumping everybody in the forum together with Anelauskas and Marr. This is somewhat unfair. The majority of the forum attendees disagree with the anti-Semitic material that is sometimes presented at the forum. In fact, many longtime members of the PF left in protest over the Mark Weber lecture. However, a small minority of anti-Semites continues to have an inordinate influence over the discussions and presentations of the forum. As long as they do, people will not make a distinction between them and the Pacifica Forum. Furthermore, the decent, informed discussions that do occasionally happen at the forum will not be reported on, while the awful things will. For better or worse, that’s the way news works, and that’s what the public’s perception of the forum will be. If the Pacifica Forum does not want a negative, biased image in the community, maybe it shouldn’t invite “revisionist historians,” conspiracy theorists and rabid anti-Semites. If it does, maybe it should also bring qualified speakers to debate them. That would actually be informative and entertaining.

However, Etter indicated towards the end of the meeting that this flap is far from over: “It’s quite obvious to me that this discussion of racism and anti-Semitism in Eugene has to go on for much longer than it has,” he said.

(sigh)

  1. Ossie says:

    dc: It has been nice conversing with you and your group of crazies over the past months, but I think it is time to move on. I don

  2. ER says:

    >>>spinmeister dc say:

  3. Sho says:

    I mean, he’s all oozy and leaking redish-green fluid everywhere and the neighbors are starting to complain.

  4. Sho says:

    Oh god, will someone just bury the horse already?

  5. dc says:

    For Michael Williams (michaele / River)
    Pres.Frohnmayer’s speech “The Limits and Depths of Tolerance”, was not “exclusively on Religious Tolerance”.

    Here are a couple snippets:

    “We distinguish between beliefs, however abusive or provocative, and actions and behavior..

    ..We do not then, try to control thought. Thoughts can run wild without really hurting anyone but bad behavior, behavior that hurts the physical welfare of others can’t be tolerated.”

    “…Our job is to separate action from thought, to tolerate, not the action that may threaten us overtly but at least to be smart about how we interdict behavior that may flow from that.

    Poets and thinkers and mystics have tried to shed light on this human puzzle of how we live the question of tolerance…

    Albert Einstein said this: “Laws alone cannot secure freedom of expression in order that everyman present his views without penalty, there must be a spirit of tolerance in the entire population.”

    Helen Keller noted: “The highest result of education is tolerance.”

    In this wonderful passage from the Lebanese poet, Kahil Gibran, I quote: “I’ve learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, kindness from the unkind~ Yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.”

    The limits and depths of tolerance– perhaps it’s only defined by our Humanity and our understanding of it. If that understanding comes through religion, there’s a place to start. If that understanding comes from other ways: we can tolerate our differences.

    For more than 200 years, the US Constitution has worked, tolerably well..[: )

    There are 2 clauses in the First Amendment,
    to that Constitution. The 1st of them, protects freedom of belief.

    ..However crude the measure… is to distinguish between beliefs and action, to protect the right to express beliefs and distinguish
    the action that may flow from them, when it violates the general laws of our country, on a non-discriminatory basis. ”

    …Because when belief systems, formally capture the instruments of Government, bad things happen…

    ..That doesn’t say, of course, that the beliefs of individuals, haven’t weighed in on in public policy, it would be ridiculous to say so.. Anyone involved in the public arena, and sometimes we see this in glaring and open testaments, brings with him or her what some may see as baggage and others may see as the gift of their own personal beliefs. That is as it should be. Out of this we recognize and articulate our differences. Differences, that short of total conversion of one, to another faith, will always exist. This is where we must learn to tolerate.

    The R-G piece you’ve linked to, is only close to what Prez. Frohnmayer actually said. Hmm. I even sat right next to Jeff Wright/ wonder why he skewed it..

    Here’s the actual.
    Q. If I want to act on my faith’s beliefs; be consistent, with what my faith says I need to do, to walk the talk; and that is offensive, to someone else.. how do I reconcile that?

    A. Uh, Well, you know, with respect to most people, GET OVER IT… The cost of an admission to a free society, is that you may have to hear things you may not like to hear, from time to time.. GET OVER IT.

    ~
    >>To Frohnmayer

  6. river says:

    ?????

    Calm down, dc. Deep breaths now. Slow and deep. You’re halucinating wildly. Anyone have some extra thorazine?

    Are all those people this way? creepy. Where’s the off switch? Oh. Found it.

  7. dc says:

    ..and, by the way~ as Valdas made his exit, I said “I don’t think you should leave, because–” and he was gone. There was no desperate pleading. Stop lying.

  8. dc says:

    The 2 topics you mention here were Orval’s presentations. Valdas offered additional information, it is true, but he was not the presenter either time. Finally, the “MLK Communist?” forum was again: Orval’s topic/ Orval’s presentation. The information gathered by Valdas was not racist.

    I understand (michael?) that you are in desperation and trying to save face with the many folks that are (finally) taking a second look at your bloviations, but it is too late. The gig’s up. I will continue to meet with people individually, if necessary.

  9. Vincent says:

    Last I heard, the Lions Club and the Knights of Columbus weren’t using University property to peddle racism.

    Just sayin’, is all.

  10. river says:

    spinmeister dc say: “Valdas has already made it very clear that he is no longer interested in PF. He has not given a presentation since 2006….”

    The Real World knows
    1) In November Valdas Anelauskas gave a slide show (to Orval Etter’s voice-over) on how the Jews were responsible for Kristallnacht and the Nazis weren’t. (This was Pacifica Forum’s “commemoration” of that national pogrom.)

    2) The same Lithic Era Lithuanian later gave a presentation on “Elie Wiesel’s Hate,” revealing more about Anelauskas’ hate than about Wiesel.

    3) Earlier this year Valdas wrote the bigoted anti-King speech delivered by Jimmy Marr in celebration of MLK’s birthday.

    So no, dc, you are not a credible reporter of fact.

    Valdas stomped out of Pacifica Forum despite Dawn Coslow’s desperate pleading, but cleanup work remains. Jill’s article indicates Jimmy Marr is OK with racism. Coslow defends public anti-Semitic and racist rants as “freedom of speech” but says public criticism of Pacifica Forum is censorship. Etter says only assault needs to be criticised, anything else is freedom of speech so :get over it.” Cleanup work remains.

    Jill quotes Jim Flagg saying “many people” disagree with Valdas and his associated white nationalist and racist ideas, that “the forum should not be judged by the opinions of its members.” Maybe they can exert some peer pressure on Etter and the minority of “two or three” to turn away from the dark side. Or get them to follow Valdas into obscurity.

  11. dc says:

    Valdas has already made it very clear that he is no longer interested in PF. He has not given a presentation since 2006, which can in part, be credited to all the ‘Anti’ Haters that helped mushroom the j-Perception Management campaign against him, even though they did not hear his series.

    Maybe now the Hate Force can focus on the Lion’s Club or the Knights of Columbus. ~ I heard someone once said the z-word at a meeting there, too.

    And… Don’t tell Hal, but my cashier at a certain campus book- store (name withheld) had the anti-semitic gall to suggest that the Palestinian mom and 4 young children who took an IDF missile at their breakfast table were actually VICTIMS/murdered!

  12. Niedermeyer says:

    DC: Meh. If I held the PF in high regard (yep, if) I’d be doing everything I could to get Anelauskas booted ASAP. Sheeple that I am…

  13. michaele says:

    It may be worth noting that the Frohnmayer speech at NCC that gave rise to the “get over it” phrase concerned religious tolerance. Exclusively.

    [Let’s see if I can get this HTML thingy to work….]
    The Register-Guard ran an article at the time. The first two sentences read:

    If someone expresses a religious belief you personally find offensive, what should you do?

    University of Oregon President Dave Frohnmayer on Tuesday offered this advice: “Get over it.”

    At that time, Frohnmayer did not discuss racist or anti-Semitic hate speech. The topic then was tolerance and civilized discourse in a pluralistic society.

    To Frohnmayer’s great credit, he did discuss racist anti-Semitic hate speech in his Spring Letter. Two very different topics.

  14. Marginalizer says:

    Gee some old geezer has an attitude problem -lets debate it endlessly for
    weeks…we might win that flaming roboduck award Frohnmulcher is offering.

  15. dc says:

    The assimilation bit is at [40:00ish] can’t capture well..

    but here’s the GOI quote:

    “The cost of Freedom in a Free Society is that you may hear things from time to time that you don’t like… GET OVER IT” [45:00]

    computer crashing.
    must be Karl Rove and those stickies.

    Signing off for the eve.

  16. dc says:

    : )
    Playing his most eloquent speech right now.

    At about 39:minutes__ something, he uses the “get over it”. May have been a bit hasty above. This DVD has only 1 ‘trak’ /can’t fast forward.

    “Thoughts can run wild, without really hurting anyone…” [22:42]

    Still have not really read this post, though, no offense.

    TO Teddy: >>I guess I just don

  17. Timothy says:

    You know, having a right to be a douchebag does not absolve one of the charge.

  18. Meghann says:

    Link

    Made clickable by ADMIN.

    DAMMIT, LEARN TO USE HTML.

  19. dc says:

    Good for Frohnmayer, if True. There is no more fitting way to punctuate having caved to the z-octopus, as he has done, yet again.

    I’d take my toys and go home, too.

    Just in. Have yet to grok yer post, cj (may not ever), but at a glance, you should know, that the “Get over it” title that OE used, was a direct quote from Frohnmayer himself, w/RE: to Jewish reluctance to assimilate (???) Will source, exactly, that is close.

  20. Meghann says:

    Word on the street is Mr. Frohn is announcing his retirement tomorrow.

  21. CJ Ciaramella says:

    Duly noted. Maybe I should find a new hobby. This horse is starting to smell pretty bad, and my arms are getting tired. Plus, the Pacifica Forum isn’t the best place to meet girls.

    I might have to go back if they bring Mark Weber again, though. (Just one more fix, man!)

  22. Niedermeyer says:

    The price of eternal vigilance is boredom.

  23. CJ Ciaramella says:

    Yeah, is this starting to border on overkill? I started covering the damn group on a whim, something to keep my reporting chops up, but I’m worried it will end up like all hobbies do: I’ll be $10,000 in the hole with my entire apartment covered in model train landscapes (or the equivalent thereof).

  24. Niedermeyer says:

    Fear the jump!

    I guess I just don’t understand why Pacifica Forum so desperately wants to dismiss President Frohnmayer’s right to free speech. The man wrote a letter, he didn’t boot them off campus (as he’s probably been asked to many times).

    The problem here isn’t necessarily that groups of (ALLEGED) anti-semites meet on campus to bloviate, it’s that the (ALLEGED) anti-semites really seem to think that “this discussion of (POSSIBLY ALLEGED) racism and (INSINUATED) anti-semitism in Eugene has to go on for much longer than it has” are running them. Stop making the news people, and revert to the correct assumption that the forum is audience enough for itself. Next time anyone wants to hear the latest and greatest in “historic revisionism” etc, we’ll know where to find it.

    Pathetic.

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