Richard Vatz

For those interested in a classmate’s take on last night’s presidential debate…reactions welcome at rvatz@towson.edu…


http://www.squareoff.net/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR3-kCp_jlN12W9RGwOd2HgooFDxSBHkcpBGZAoiWEHdgAeeuxs1XHrhEEg_aem_steAsUpUEKJruGqdbhIpRg

https://baltimorepostexaminer.com/disaster-in-presidential-debate-and-the-remaining-hope-for-the-democrats/2024/06/28

Posted on: Jun 01, 2024 at 10:12 AM

Dear Classmates of 1964:

As of today, I am severing my connections with TAHS ‘64 website.

I have had several connections with good colleagues at my own e-mail, rvatz@towson.edu, and anyone who wishes to contact me personally going forward is welcome to do so.

For over 50 years I have fought for freedom of speech and opposed censoring of non-profane communications. Communication is my professional field, and I have written prolifically on communication ethics.

I was elected and re-elected and became the longest serving member of Towson University’s Senate in its history, despite having minority views on several issues. In fact, an auditorium at Towson University was named after me. I love the free civil exchange of ideas.

It is indisputably clear that the overseers of the TAHS ‘64 website insist on control of what may be discussed there and what may not be discussed there, and they have no hesitation in secretly spiking without notice posts with which they personally disagree. I shall not here discuss what I think of such activities, but it has been unsettling to those of us who believe in academic freedom to say the least.


I shall miss all of you, or at least a large portion of you, and shall maintain very positive memories of the best of you.


Good luck.


Rick


Richard E. Vatz, Ph.D. https://wp.towson.edu/vatz/
Towson University Distinguished Professor
Marquis Who’s Who 2023
Eastern Communication Association Distinguished Teaching Fellow
Towson Student Government Association first Faculty Member of the Year, 2009-2010
Professor Emeritus: College of Education; College of Fine Arts and Communication
University Senate to Academic Senate: 1979-2020, longest serving Towson Senator
“Square Off” Panelist
Thomas Szasz Civil Liberties Award
Psychology Editor, USA Today Magazine, 1980 (?)-2022
(410) 704-3107

Author of The Only Authentic of Persuasion: the Agenda-Spin Model (Authors Press, 2022) and the co-editor of Thomas S. Szasz: the Man and His Ideas (Transaction Publishers, 2017) and many other works

Sponsor of Eastern Communication Association’s “RICHARD E. VATZ AGENDA-SPIN PERSUASION AWARD”

Sponsor of Towson University’s “Richard E. Vatz Best Debater Award”

“The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the mind of other men and women” Judge Learned Hand, “The Spirit of Liberty,” 1944

“Give me a leader with good judgment and a little bit of requisite knowledge, and I'll move the world.” (Vatzian motto on the relative importance of good judgment); Judgment is the key to almost everything.

"All that is necessary for evil to persist is for non-evil people to do nothing to interfere with a predominantly evil sociology. That is why evil leadership is rarely removed in the short term." (Vatzian emendation of apocryphal quote)

“The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.” -- Winston Churchill, House of Commons, 22 October 1945

Did I send this already? If so, I apologize… https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/american-professors-administrators-antisemitism/ Rick.

Posted on: May 17, 2024 at 9:36 PM

Two Articles You Might Enjoy

https://baltimorepostexaminer.com/the-2024-presidential-debates-and-consequences-will-there-be-change-in-state-and-national-presidential-preference/2024/05/17

https://baltimorepostexaminer.com/harrison-butkers-now-infamous-speech-overly-unjustified-negative-reaction-but-i-personally-didnt-like-it/2024/05/17

Posted on: Sep 03, 2023 at 12:19 PM

Allderdicean Friends:

This commentary was published today in the /Times of Israel/. I thought some of you would find it valuable.

Comments welcome.

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/the-tree-of-life-mass-murderer-deserves-his-sentence/

Rick

Richard E. Vatz, Ph.D. https://wp.towson.edu/vatz/
Towson University Distinguished Professor
Marquis Who’s Who 2023
Eastern Communication Association Distinguished Teaching Fellow
Towson Student Government Association first Faculty Member of the Year