If old habits die hard, old traditions die harder still. Kudos to the organizers and planners of the forum, ‘Racism, Power and Privilege.’ I wonder what would have been the outcome if African Americans (another minority) had “staged” such an aggressive event.

Would the response to acts of discrimination been so rewarded with members of UIUC Administration in a sit-down meeting of the minds? I think not. The demands of the students have yet to be proven worthy of sensible dialogue without the usual commonplace rhetoric from those in authority with the ability to make a difference.

I listened and understood the pain of those whose hurt and disgust was obviously dismissed with a placebo or a band-aid for the cancer-like effect of Chief Illiniwek.

The forthcoming (2007) resolution will be watched from various sentinels in the United States by Native American people and other minorities. Whatever balance between student rights and free speech about those rights would not come as a surprise, such a “treaty” in which the governance’s language could presumably be a forked-tongue and a continual “Hail-to-the-Chief.” Old habits indeed die hard, but old traditions try to “live” forever.

Rev. Jerome Chambers

Champaign County NAACP