THROUGH widespread vaccination, we officially eradicated smallpox more than twenty years ago. Alas, we cannot inoculate minds as we inoculate bodies. While it has been more than forty years since Joe McCarthy was exposed for his reckless ranting about closet Communists in American government, his terrifying tactics remain as virulent today.
Recently, a frightening epidemic of McCarthyism infected our very own Medical Center. The newest strain, which replaces "racists" for "Communists," hit the University in full force two weeks ago, when a mindless mob set out to crucify Myra Larkin on a cross of political correctness. And just as infectious outbreaks make no distinctions in whom they strike, the scariest part is that if it could happen to Ms. Larkin, it could happen to you.
With members of the Staff Union (SUUVA) calling for her head, and the NAACP chairman demanding "sensitivity training" (code for totalitarian-style thought reform), the question remained: what had Larkin, a Medical Center patient services manager, done to warrant this furious outbreak? The answer is not nearly as shocking as the mob's response.
Despite allegations that Larkin had used the dreaded and dreadful "n-word," an official investigation painted an exculpatory picture. After interviewing her supervisor and four witnesses, the University administration concluded Ms. Larkin had merely voiced her indignation that a football team continues to call itself the "Redskins." "That is as derogatory to Indians as having a team called the N-----s would be to blacks," Larkin said.
Jan Cornell, president of SUUVA, took issue with the administration's finding. "I absolutely do not believe that [University] President Casteen is a liar," Cornell told this writer. But in not quite so many words, she suggested just that. "We do have it on good authority though that it didn't happen the way he said," Cornell replied in an e-mail, adding, "but I can't prove it." When pressed again to explain what she thought was actually said, Cornell demurred, responding, "I can't
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