Pace’s 2nd coming

“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”

Being invited to meet Gen. Peter Pace after publishing a column critical of his appointment to the Kelley School’s Poling Chair, I couldn’t help but imagine the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff might have been keeping in mind this advice of Sun Tzu, a military commander himself 2,000-plus years ago.

When we met, Pace was surprisingly soft-spoken, engaging and polite. Sincere or not, he managed to effect a face of concern when discussing the impact his comments about the moral unfitness of gay people had on IU’s students. I was impressed.

After recounting my visit with the general, my friends wanted to know if the conversation had changed my mind.

About what?

To my horror, I realized I perhaps hadn’t made it clear that I never considered Pace a personal enemy.

I didn’t write a column because I thought Pace was a mean person. (For the record, I would say he was very well-mannered and kind during our conversation.) Rather, in writing my column, I intended to express my concern that the Kelley School was sending its students the wrong message.

Of the many qualified business leaders the school could have chosen as a role model for its students, Kelley elected someone who prominently said homosexual conduct was immoral and it should never be allowed in his organization.

After these comments caused a scandal, he did apologize for making them public, but not for the viewpoints expressed therein.

Selecting a candidate with this profile, nice or not, for a prominent honorary position shows that Kelley administrators believe diminishing gays is not as serious an offense as making racist or anti-feminist comments – either of which would presumably (and hopefully) disqualify even the most economically efficient of leaders from being heralded as truly exemplary.

That’s the real problem our campus needs to address. It’s easy to get wrapped up in the moment and decide this issue is either infuriating or alternatively resolved if we base our opinions solely on how we feel about Gen. Pace.

But he’s just another human, not the problem of inequality itself.

That’s why I encourage you to do something that matters.

Write Dean Dan Smith of the Kelley School (dansmith@indiana.edu), and let him know you hope future honorary appointments will be made more judiciously and in consideration of IU’s diversity.

After meeting the general, I’ve ended up excited about the possibilities his appointment has created. In his capacity as Poling Chair, I understand he’ll be returning this spring, a visit coinciding with the Midwest BLGTA Community Conference.

Knowing what I know now, I hope the general will use this opportunity and his demonstrated intelligence and concern about how students perceive him to engage in constructive debate. As Kelley’s appointment of Pace shows, even in Bloomington we haven’t decided what sexual orientation’s place in society should be.

Involving the general would doubtlessly create a richer dialogue. And if the past is anything of a predictor, he has quite a lot to say about the subject.