Letter from the Editor
May 11, 2021
Happy Spring Term, and welcome to the latest edition of the W&L Spectator!
It’s warm outside, sports are back, and we can finally ditch the masks – well, outside, at least. Things are finally starting to feel a little more like normal here on campus.
And the same is true for our country more broadly. With 152.8 million vaccinated Americans and 25 states having fully reopened, Covid fears are subsiding and life is kicking back into gear. We should admire the ingenuity of our businessmen, the efficacy of our supply chains, and the beauty of the scientific innovation that made our successful vaccination campaign possible.
Yet there is another, more sinister similarity between the W&L community and the American nation: our political divisions have only grown more entrenched. With the advent of Covid and last summer’s protests – not to mention the very presidency of Donald Trump – several issues at the national level became intensely personal for millions of Americans. People are ending relationships and friendships because of disagreements on mask-wearing or whether Trump is a racist. Polite discourse has further devolved into profanity-laden Twitter spats, manifestos of brazen demands, and pervasive violence on the streets.
The W&L community, too, is splintering over the name of our university. Two highly motivated groups have emerged on either side of the issue, each with their own vision for change and the infrastructure necessary to effectively advance their goals. We might not be brawling in the streets, but the controversy over Robert E. Lee has shunted us into two well-defined but opposing groups, undermining the student body’s sense of unity.
Whatever the Board decides in June, one side will emerge the loser. And preserving the harmony of our treasured community in the face of that decision will require many of us to learn to look past an issue we either championed or challenged for an entire year. It will force us to come to terms with an outcome we might find morally reprehensible. It will reveal quite painfully that no matter how much time, energy, money, and passion we poured into our chosen side, victory was never guaranteed.
But most importantly, the future of our community depends on our willingness to put life before politics. Though it is admirable to passionately advocate a political vision, no single issue is worth sacrificing the general amiability and the beautiful friendships we enjoy here at W&L.
Some, unfortunately, do not recognize the value of our community. Those who twice removed the “Retain the Name” banner from Commons, for instance, have rejected respectful debate in the name of silencing their opponents. So too have the dozens of students who hurled personal insults at an Executive Committee candidate on Instagram, some labeling him a racist simply for advocating his position on our school’s name.
Now, more than ever, we must embrace civility over demands, respect over ridicule, and our school over politics. If we allow our views to corrupt our relationships at W&L, like the tens of millions of Americans who refuse to even associate with the “other side,” we will continue to chip away at the fabric of our community. And for what? The presence, or removal, of a three-letter word on our diploma.
We’re better than that.
-Dennis Hull, Editor-In-Chief