John Thrasher, the current president at my university, Florida State University, and career Florida GOP politician, like many other so called conservatives, once again caved into the mob. He appointed a 30 member “anti-racism task force,” a small cohort to which he delegated the power to remove any statue on campus deemed “offensive,” and to rename any building with a name that embodies a history of “racism.” As of now, the “task force” has removed the statue of Francis Eppes, who arguably played a pivotal role in the founding of the school. He was in many ways the Thomas Jefferson of the school system down here (Tallahassee) – and a direct descendant of Jefferson as well. But of course, he had to go. Why? Because, like many others in the deep South during the 1800s, he was a slave owner.
Writes Bob Holladay in the Tallahassee Democrat:
“Why can’t John Thrasher stop letting himself get pushed around over the Francis Eppes statue? And who runs things at FSU — the university president or a very small coterie of students, the remnants of a late 1960s group called the Students for a Democratic Society, who, along with the Black Student Union, insisted the statue be moved yet again?
By caving on the statue yet again, he would seem to be agreeing with what can only be described as insanity. That means that FSU cannot honor any of the men who founded it; that means with the city’s bicentennial four years away, that Tallahassee cannot honor any of the persons who founded it. This is absolutely irrational and Thrasher has contributed to the irrationality.”
A petition has been started, calling for Thrasher’s removal: https://www.change.org/p/the-citizens-to-tallahassee-fire-john-thrasher?utm_content=cl_sharecopy_23803821_en-US%3A4&recruiter=1136782546&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=share_petition
10:41 am on August 10, 2020
