Thrasher let himself be pushed around by small group of students | Opinion
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?
And most importantly of all, how much is FSU part of the larger Tallahassee community in ways beyond its football program, and how much is it a community isolated unto itself with, in Thrasher’s words, its own set of values? These are not questions peculiar to FSU and Tallahassee; they are being asked all over the country as our summer of unrest stretches on.
The first time Thrasher moved the Eppes statue, I called for his resignation. When he put it back in a different place, the SDS vowed to keep coming after him, and I apologized for my earlier column. Looks like I was wrong to apologize. Maybe I can get it right someday.
The problem is not whether the Eppes statue gets moved — nor whether the Confederate monument on the Capitol grounds gets moved, neither of which many of us would oppose, by the way — but whether the president of a major university can be pressured into flipping his position, not once but twice. This is not a show of “tolerance” or “inclusivity” or “strength.” It’s a sign of weakness.
Val Beron, described several weeks ago as an “SDS leader,” was quoted in this paper as saying, “No one who participated in the depraved institution of slavery should be honored at FSU or elsewhere.” Does Thrasher now believe that? After all, virtually everybody in Florida and across the nation “participated in the depraved institution of slavery” before 1865, even if it was just buying a cotton shirt made out of a crop grown by slave labor.
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.
I understand it would be foolish to call for his resignation again. He is in his 70s and just got a one year contract extension that I assume will be his last, though you never know. I also know that the two men whose reputations have been most sullied through this —former president Sandy D’Alemberte, who commissioned the statue, and sculptor Edward Jonas — are both now dead. Perhaps that makes it easier for Thrasher to get flipped again on this.
But it doesn’t make it right. It does not enhance his stature as president, and by listening only to some voices, it has the effect of isolating Florida State University from a substantial portion of the larger Tallahassee community.
Bob Holladay teaches American history at Tallahassee Community College.
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