Bloggers Overreact

... because that's just what we do. We fume and fulminate and fret. And alliterate. A lot. Universities, on the other hand ...

Ohio liberal-arts school Oberlin College has been plagued recently by an uncomfortable amount of hate-speech incidents, mostly in the form of ugly graffiti, but it was the eyewitness account of a person in a KKK-like outfit that put things over the edge: Classes were canceled and “A Day of Solidarity” arranged instead. “We have made significant progress in the investigation of these instances,” school president Marvin Krislov told students yesterday, but the local Chronicle-Telegram reports a more innocuous explanation: “Oberlin police Lt. Mike McCloskey said that authorities did find a pedestrian wrapped in a blanket. He said police interviewed another witness later in the day and that person also saw a female walking with a blanket.”

Here's more on the Klansperson sighting.

There were few details of the sighting, which occurred at 1:30 a.m. on Monday, Mr. Wargo said. The person who reported it was in a car “and came back around and didn't see the individual again,” he added. 

It turns out that the two students behind the graffiti have been expelled. The person in the "KKK robe" seen at 1:30 AM looks to have been some woman in a blanket. Was that worth canceling classes? Oberlin has about 2900 students. Assume the Klanscreature wasn't just some woman in a blanket and they were real. What were they going to do against 2900 students, burn a plus sign on the lawn?

Oberlin ought to close itself down completely. If it's students aren't being taught to handle a situation where they outnumber their adversaries 2900-1 without a complete shutdown of facilities, then what good are they? Who would want to hire an Oberlin grad who's going to freak out every time someone disagrees with them in a meeting and demand the whole company be closed for a Day of Solidarity?

Geeze, guys, get a grip.

Little known fact about Woodstock: There were Klansmen everywhere.