April 28, 2005

Sims tells graduates to value dialogue

John Sims got a laugh from Antioch faculty and administrators during his commencement address in Kelly Hall at Antioch College last Friday, during which he emphasized that "dialogue and conversation, however critical, must be protected.”

By Lauren Heaton

A speech for the disinvited from the disinvited was what commencement speaker John Sims presented to the Class of 2005 at Antioch College on Friday at the first ceremony held indoors in 14 years.

Kelly Hall was brimming with people who came to congratulate the students and determine if a replacement speaker could possibly do justice to the original speaker, Ward Churchill, who was asked by Antioch’s administrator not to attend the ceremony.

Sims, who graduated from Antioch in 1990, had to fill a large void. As he sat on stage in denim overalls and dreadlocks, he said, he tried to anticipate the level of resentment he would receive from students who wanted an address from someone else.

Senior Sheena-Marie Hill, top, cheering after her speech at the Antioch College commencement ceremony last Friday in Kelly Hall.

An artist with strong political views, Sims has seen his share of controversy. In his most recent exhibit, “Recoloration Proclamation: The Gettysburg Redress,” Sims redesigned the Confederate flag in the African national colors of green, red and black. In 2003 he demonstrated with his flag at Ku Klux Klan rallies in Florida, where he is the coordinator of mathematics at the Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota. In 2004 he became the center of his own controversy at Gettysburg College, where he hanged a Confederate flag from a 13-foot gallows.

The Gettysburg art exhibit, also featuring a “drag flag” with glitter and a feather boa and a “McChina flag,” whose stars are replaced by the golden arches, attracted threats from hate groups such as the Klan and incited the Sons of Confederate Veterans to threaten to boycott the town of Gettysburg, according to articles from the Washington Post and Sculpture Magazine.

When Gettysburg College decided to move the flag hanging indoors, Sims felt the school caved into public pressure and boycotted his own opening in September 2004.

Antioch College rescinded its invitation to Churchill, a professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado, because of fear that graduation could be divisive at a vulnerable time for the college, Jurasek said at the time. Churchill sparked a national controversy for an essay he wrote on the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in which he described the World Trade Center and Pentagon as legitimate military targets and said World Trade Center towers were filled with “little Eichmanns.”

Sims felt compatriotic with Churchill and decided to address his speech to him in a letter that began, “Dear Ward.”

“The point of my speech was to acknowledge the manifestation of the political climate that holds liberal institutions hostage in terms of protecting our basic avenues of discourse,” Sims said after the ceremony. “It was to say to Professor Ward and the students that dialogue and conversation, however critical, must be protected.”

On Friday Antioch handed out 82 bachelor of arts degrees and 11 bachelor of science degrees to a class of students in whom Sims said he has faith. He said he believes they will continue Antioch’s mission to secure social justice and preserve the freedom to express and discuss all views, even when Antioch itself is not prepared to do so.

“When radical institutions like Antioch are not prepared to protect this dialogue, it sends a dangerous message to activists,” he said. “But I have faith that students will have courage as I’ve tried to have courage, as [professor] Bill Houston has courage to protect that dialogue.”