Burn Book for Jan. 21, 2015

Diligent readers might recall a certain column from early last semester, written by the potentially clairvoyant Seth Rose. In this column, Rose discussed rumors that system president Tom Ross might soon be removed from office.

The next day, Ross himself responded with a letter to this page, categorically denying any rumor that his departure was imminent. 

Well, Mr. Ross, unfortunately for the rest of us, you were wrong. Let’s hope that the second part of Rose’s prediction — that Art Pope is up next for the system presidency — is as misguided as you insisted it was back in September. 

Sorry, Board of Governors, we’re not going to let this one rest. Readers, you shouldn’t either. It is completely unacceptable to fire the president of an entire university system without providing a single concrete reason.

This particular burn goes out to our justifiable suspicion that politics are not, as the BOG likes to say, “left at the door.” How can they be when the board’s members are directly elected by the North Carolina General Assembly? The BOG will always be an inherently political body, and its pretense to the contrary in this case is insulting. 

Franklin Graham, an evangelical preacher very much in the mold of his father Billy Graham, praised Duke’s decision not to allow a Muslim call to prayer last week. His logic was that a similar display of Christian faith would not be tolerated and that Duke’s planned prayer was another example of Islam’s increasingly privileged status.

Of course, Graham chose to ignore the fact that this prayer was to be broadcast from atop an incredibly ornate Christian chapel on the campus of a Methodist university that was known as Trinity (as in Holy) College in its early days.