May 3, 08

Hi from Tex (aka Yazz aka David) Allen, Antioch alumus (Email me at TexAllen@Hotmail.Com):

I'm getting email messages from Antioch alumni I've been in touch with during the past year who write now about attending their "last Antioch Non-Stop meeting" at various cities around the USA.

The good ship "Antioch Non-Stop" is grinding to a halt. The networking, cyberspace and other communications between affronted Antioch alumni and others trying to stop the Antioch College closedown will be over soon, almost completely....it certainly won't continue with the numbers and passion seen during the past year before the closedown became a "done deal"....now the case, sadly.

Those of us who wanted Antioch to remain open "non-stop" and have been part of the networking during the past year are now left with the history of what happened.

The obvious bad guys are the Antioch University Board Of Trustees, who slit Antioch's throat.

These people should be despised...few disagree with that.

It's also important, I think, to despise the leaders who faced down the Trustees and lost the battle.

They need to be called to account for their colossal failure of vision, strategy, tactics, and their willingness to treat the Trustees with a respect the Trustees did not and do not ever deserve.

Let's not forget who closed Antioch College down....and equally, let's not forget who failed to stop them after claiming leadership in the battle of opposition, then led us all to defeat.

Let's not honor the loser activists, and most especially, if and when the crusade to keep Antioch College alive (revived) begins again, let us refuse the leadership of those who lost the battle just ended. Let's not repeat the mistake of letting losers get power, and risking being led to loss once again. These people do not deserve honor, and any accurate history of the closedown of Antioch College should state that emphatically.

Of course, I'm saddened by how the whole thing has played out. But I'm not surprised. The bad guys (the Trustees) had the upper hand from the start, and were never seriously challenged.

The people who got leadership of "the opposition" played by the Trustees rules and assumptions ("Antioch needs more money") and could always be vanquished by the Trustees refusing raised money because "it's not enough."

It was a no win game from the start (June 12, 2007...the date the Trustees dropped the bomb).

The only thing that would have worked was a head on attack on the Trustees, a legal challenge to their status as people required by law to hold Antioch "in Trust" and guide it responsibly. Legal proof and adjudication was (still is) needed that the Trustees were (and are) irresponsible, and therefore not legally engaging in doing what's best for Antioch. That could have been done, but it would have meant NOT "playing nice" with the Trustees from the start...declaring them bad guys from the start, and engaging in an Unconditional war! The war could have been won, but it never happened...wimpy Pacifists got control of the Opposition, and they lost (as Pacifists engaged against stalwart militants always do!).

Sincerely,

Tex (aka Yazz, aka David) Allen,

Antioch College Alumnus