Wren Cross - Important Open Letter

According to a W&M alumn, The VA Gazette is willing to post the letter she sent yesterday (Nichol and the ACLU issues) but they have a policy not to post letters from the same person more than once a month---- they asked if someone else would sign off on it so they can use it--- While the alumni are searching of another signer to the letter, I am posting a "draft" of the letter here for you to read. It contains important information and pertains to the planned Board fo Visistors meeting coming SOON. The letter follows:

To begin:

On February 8th and 9th, the William and Mary Board of Visitors will convene for its quarterly meeting. Among the other topics on the agenda should be discussion of the uproar caused by Nichol’s removal of a cross from a Christian chapel; the Board must now live up to its duties as steward of the College and reverse Nichol’s order, an order born of ACLU-inspired goals and rhetoric.

***Reprehensible rhetoric:

“The display of a Christian cross…sends an unmistakable message that the Chapel belongs more fully to some of us than to others. That there are, at the College, insiders and outsiders…in the College’s family there should be no outsiders. All belong.” This, Nichol’s argument to the BOV in November 2006, and an email message to students in December 2006 use the same wording: insiders and outsiders.

***ACLU verbiage of divide and conquer; mostly divide - creating issues where none exist:

The Insiders/Outsiders argument is pure ACLU verbiage. They consistently use it for litigation they instigate for the removal of public displays of crosses. Nichol did not come to William and Mary and suddenly discover that he opposes these displays. He has a long track record with the ACLU itself; he was on the ACLU Board of Directors in North Carolina and Colorado, and was the ACLU Chapter President for north Florida. The ACLU has a long track record of targeting crosses: the Mount Soledad cross in La Jolla, CA; the Los Angeles County seal; the Tijeras Town seal in New Mexico; the Mojave Desert Cross. In places large and small, remote and prominent, the ACLU is fighting to sanitize the public landscape of crosses. Nichol seems to be happy to help that cause.

If the Board does not rein in Nichol, what religious symbols or references will he target next? The lyrics of our Alma Mater Song? The statue of King William with the cross in his hand? The Mace used to lead official college processions? The opening paragraph of the Charter granted in 1693, used every year to celebrate Charter Day? If Nichol has no compunction at removing a cross from a Christian Chapel, he will certainly have none in removing any of these. Where will it end? When will enough be enough for the Board of Visitors?

If Nichol is inclined to resign when the Board reverses him, then so be it. The College would be better off with an interim president than with the destructive Gene Nichol. In fact, I urge the Board to ask for his resignation now. He has clearly damaged the reputation of the College and appears determined to lead the College in a cause that is certainly not mainstream and certainly not in the best interest of our college’s heritage and traditions.

Karla K. Bruno
Class of 1981 and 1992
Williamsburg, VA
_____________________________

I have not altered Mr. Bruno's letter, I have only divided *** it into sections. She is absolutely right. I hope there is no objection to my posting the, as yet, unpublished letter here.