The Jefferson Council, formed by University of Virginia alumni and other stakeholders, is dedicated to preserving the legacy of Thomas Jefferson, the Lawn, the Honor Code, and the free exchange of competing ideas and intellectual diversity one would expect from Mr. Jefferson’s university.
The Jefferson Council champions free speech at the University of Virginia. We welcome well-written columns, op-eds, and letters addressing issues affecting the UVa community for publication on this blog under the heading of the “TJC Forum.”
Send submissions to the editor to [email protected].
We also invite readers to participate in the forum by posting comments on articles and commentary. We love civil debate – even when people disagree with us! We do, however, ask everyone to address others respectfully. Insults, profanity and ad hominem attacks will be deleted.
If the residents on the Lawn are sincere as to their support of the Palestenians…why are they still living here rather then Gaza helping the people of Gaza. Why have they not sent their college funds to the people of Gaza?
You are so right! No courage of convictions.
That dreck should have been forbidden when it started 30 years ago but none of the presidents had and have a backbone
Interesting to speculate about.
https://youtu.be/E2vfdbLz9zk?si=YqsGDQnNz6yqmA-v
This 13 year old child is braver than all of you immoral, cold people at the Jefferson Council.
Thank you anonymous Shame for the carefully curated Hamas propaganda.
Did UVA curate that? Or UNRWA?
Are you one of the Lawnies with all the poor Gazan victim names?
Does anyone have the names of all the Jews killed (in a barbarous act of war in violation of norms)? The hostages?
Why won’t Hamas let the brave 13 year old and siblings leave? Or other Gazans? Why keep the hostages? Are the released hostages lying about how they were treated?
How and when did 350 miles of tunnels get under Gaza?
Was the Gaza strip in better shape when Israel (foolishly) turned it over?
Was October 7 an act of war or not?
The problem is Hamas. When the “Palestinians” get rid of Hamas and quit supporting jihad, there is a chance for peace.
Let me tell you that, when we meet God one day, none of us will be able to plead ignorance.
The whole world is and has been a witness what is being done to the people of Gaza.
The whole world is and has been a witness to the brutal occupation.
The whole world is a witness to the brutal system of apartheid imposed upon the Palestinian people.
The whole world is and has been a witness to the policies of ethnic cleansing and genocidal rhetoric from the Israeli government.
The whole world is and has been a witness to the dehumanization of the Palestinian people.
And, today, the whole world is witness to the collective punishment and genocide taking place against the over 2 million civilians in the Gaza Strip including over 1 million children.
It’s not worth engaging with you Walter, because, unfortunately, it seems to me that you’ve lost your humanity. I truly, sincerely, feel very bad for you. It’s not to late to change.
Finally, on a different note, it’s truly shocking to me the Center for Politics would ever consider partnering with a organization as vile and hateful as the Jefferson Council.
If anyone from the Center for Politics is reading this, I hope you will reconsider this.
It seems to me that you are not following the directions of President Ryan and Leslie Kendrick to be a “generous listener.”
I suspect 99% of the Palestinians currently dying in the conflict are innocent, but they are being used by the evil people in control as props. That’s evil.
So Hamas starts a war and then uses the innocent for propaganda purposes, to get a ceasefire, so Hamas can resume its project to exterminate the Jews.
Could you please explain to me how The Jefferson Council is “vile and hateful?”
I’m pretty sure we haven’t slaughtered 1400 Israelis or taken hostages or justified war crimes.
So what, exactly, is our “crime?”
That we support free speech?
We want an honor system?
We think the Lawn should be protected?
We think the University is betraying the greatness of Jefferson?
How does that make TJC “vile and hateful?”
Seems to me you have been propagandized yourself, and are not able to “tolerate” people who disagree with you.
What does “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” mean? Was the October 7 guerilla/terrorist slaughter justified?
Curious minds want to know.
In any event, what Israel is now doing fits squarely within the just war doctrine.
What the “innocent” Palestinians should do, if they wish to stop the civilian casualties, is turn in the Hamas leaders, disclaim Hamas and disclaim intifada. Unfortunately, 70-75% of the Palestinians believe the Oct 7 barbarism was a good thing. That’s the problem.
Unlike you, I mourn for all the innocent people killed, whether they be Israeli or Palestinian.
Unlike you, I believe that Palestinians are equal human beings that deserve to live in their homeland in dignity and equality, not under occupation or as stateless refugees.
We mourn for innocent dead Palestinians, too.
The difference is that we blame Hamas for robbing its people to build rockets and tunnels, we blame Hamas for initiating the conflict and committing the worst atrocities imaginable for the singular purpose of provoking an Israeli response, we blame Hamas for positioning its military assets in population centers, we blame Hamas for neglecting to build bomb shelters or other protection for the civilian population, we blame Hamas for using its civilians as cannon fodder in order to win the propaganda war with Israel, and we blame the Hamas apologists who make such a heinous strategy one worth pursuing. Dead Palestinians are integral to Hamas’ strategy. Hamas is a death cult, and the Palestinians are its victims.
You’re either ignorant of the history of this conflict, or you don’t view Palestinians as equal human beings deserving of dignity and equality.
The Gaza Strip is a large reservation, an open air prison. Palestinians in the occupied territory live in 250 “ghettos” surrounded by checkpoints, walls, and settlements in the West Bank and in a large concentration camp in the Gaza Strip.
Read a book. Or a UN report. Or a Human Rights Watch Report. Or an Amnesty International Report. Or a B’tselem report. Or ANYTHING substantive.
And, PLEASE, get over yourselves.
If you know nothing about this conflict and its history, then don’t spread propaganda and silly talking points. Also, if you can justify the killing of over 13,000 children, then I don’t know what to say.
The United Nations Secretary General, in October 2023:
Excellencies,
It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum.
The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation.
They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing.
But the grievances of the Palestinian people cannot justify the appalling attacks by Hamas. And those appalling attacks cannot justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.
I will NOT engage with you any further.
With respect, not that it’s earned in this case, I try not to engage with men who never stoped acting like children.
I try not to engage with people who waste their precious time watching Fox News and discussing stupid “culture war” issues and targeting members of the LGBT community, and trying to sow controversy and division, rather than simply working to make the world a better place. Rather than working to help the the vulnerable in society and guiding their lives with compassion.
Just to clarify, I’m not talking about anyone in particular. (I don’t know any of you personally.)
However, I do think that everyone in this “organization,” needs to do a lot of self-reflection in my opinion.
This is the last time I’ll engage with anyone here because its simply not worth my time.
Jefferson Council, please grow up and try to be good, kind, compassionate human beings who respect others.
Test
I want to apologize if I came across as rude. I just wanted to emphasize the need for us all to maintain our humanity and to work together for a better world, instead of trying to cause division and dehumanizing people (e.g. by calling Palestinian civilians quote on quote “victims.”)
I can handle rude.
I can handle you being wrong.
But ignorance is on you. You don’t know anyone in The Jefferson Council Have you attended any event? Talked with any one of us? (We may be hard to identify – we don’t have horns or carry a pitchfork)
“I try not to engage with people who waste their precious time watching Fox News and discussing stupid “culture war” issues and targeting members of the LGBT community, and trying to sow controversy and division, rather than simply working to make the world a better place. Rather than working to help the the vulnerable in society and guiding their lives with compassion.”
Besides the stereotyping bit, “culture war” issues are “stupid?” How? What do you believe is stupid? I believe there are two sexes. That is the basis of biology. “Targeting members of the LGBT community” – by sponsoring a talk? Maybe trying to stop people from going through a transition they can never complete and will be on drugs for all their lives is the more compassionate approach. Is it OK to say that?
Maybe the policies advocated by members of The Jefferson Council (and we do not all agree like the herd mind of the UVA Administration) are based on their life experiences and their desires “to help the the vulnerable in society and guiding their lives with compassion.” They just don’t agree with your beliefs as to the best way to do that. And we don’t dehumanize you for disagreeing.
That is the problem in the universities now.
Walter, if anything I said came across as dehumanizing toward the Jefferson Council, I’m sorry.
I hope that from now on, you will avoid dehumanizing Palestinians, who are equal human beings who deserve freedom and dignity.
I’m not sure that any serious person denies that biological sex is a reality. But, people identify with different gender identities or as non-binary. Some people have gender dysphoria, and these individuals should be stigmatized. Transgender individuals, in my view, should be supported and respected, not mocked, and gender affirming care improves the life of many people.
*should not be stigmatized
I’m not trying to stigmatize Palestinians. I think the Palestinians, who are being used as props, and the rest of the Arab world lets them be used as props, are not entirely blameless. They support Hamas. Hamas wants genocide. Israel has had to put up with this since 2005. Israel turned over a garden. It has been turned into a hellhole, but not by Israel – by the Hamas leaders.
And many people sincerely believe that treating gender dysphoria is a mental health solution, not a surgery/drug issue. If you would have come to Abigail Shrier, through the crazed mob, you would have heard a compassionate woman who had studied the issue thoroughly and thinks the current confusion is a mania akin to the tulip craze, and, for the sake of the mostly young girls needs to be stopped.
That’s what we want – people to hear all sides and make up their own minds.
And you certainly don’t need to apologize to me – I have a thick skin, and you obviously feel very passionately about Palestine. My point was you were cutting off considering any point and any interaction because you perceived the people with whom you disagreed as not being worthy of your time. That sort of intolerant cancel culture aspect is what we wish to eradicate at UVA. I’d like UVA to be #1in free speech – for real because it is excellent – not because all the other colleges are horrible – UVA was ranked #6 with a score of 68! And part of that would be for students to be able to speak, to disagree, to believe they could speak in class and not be shunned by other students or punished by the teachers…and afterwards get along just fine – even be friends because there are many things in common. We can’t all agree on all things.
And you should come to the Jonathan Haidt event on February 8.
Haidt is no right-wing ideologue. He is among the cadre of red-pilled academics who believes that academia has become closed minded, and is not a place for discussing issues openly, pursuing truth – so even though I bet he and I have agreed on Presidents less than 10% of the time, on this issue – in the parlance of the woke – we are “allies.”
If even Larry Sabato’s Center for Politics is a co-sponsor, it should be a “safe space” for UVA students to attend without getting tarred by the evil Jefferson Council (that was tongue in cheek).
I hope you’ll attend.
People of all walks of life can have differing opinions, and that is certainly ok. Every human being was created by the God of the Bible and He loves us all.
This colloquy should continue “in a sit-down, mannerly environment without a truculent agenda.
Repeating the message to Shame – not as a reply – you are invited to the Haidt event, and all of our events.
I’d like to meet you. I am sure other members of The Jefferson Council would be happy to meet you.
It is possible to disagree, to disagree vehemently, and to still respect each other, even to enjoy each other, maybe even be friends. We are trying to restore open and honest dialogue. No self-censoring and no cancellation.
As a member of the Jefferson Council I was unaware I was “vile and hateful.” So sad if this is how someone feels who attended a place where students and faculty used to exchange different ideas without ridicule.