The soul (soullessness) of a liberal

And the discovery of Le’s body did not make me worry for my daughter at Yale.
—Michael Daly, New York Daily News

That’s not a normal human response, or normal male response, to the murder of a female student at a campus where one’s daughter is a student. That’s the abnormal response of liberal who blocks out reality because to think about it would disturb his liberal world view and his personal complacency.

Here’s the column, which is also discussed in the previous entry:

Murder of Yale student Annie Le hits close to home and I’m not worried about my daughter
Michael Daly

The question my daughter asked when she called Sunday night was not one you expect ever to hear when your kid is at Yale.

“Can you check if they found the body?”

I knew she meant the body of Annie Le, the Yale graduate student who had gone missing five days before she was to be married. I figured rumors must be flying around campus.

I made a quick call and then dialed my daughter’s cell phone. I said something you do not expect ever to say when your kid is at Yale.

“They did find the body.”

Right about then was when I would have been expected to be afraid for her safety. I was not.

She was around two shootings when she was a youngster.

She once scampered up to see if her favorite tree was in bud and instead saw a pool of blood at the base where a man’s head had been bashed with a branch.

A nice young cop was killed up by the park and she took flowers up and set them on the spot where he died.

Of course, that was before our cops made New York the safest big city in America, if not quite as safe as Yale.

But terrible things can still happen even in the best parts of New York.

I was down at Rector St. a few weeks ago and watched dozens of uniformed cops file into an office building to search for a custodian who had gone missing. They found her murdered and stuffed above a suspended ceiling.

That did not make me suddenly more worried for my daughter in New York.

And the discovery of Le’s body did not make me worry for my daughter at Yale.

The added shock of it happening at Yale was not because I feared more bad things would happen there, but because so many good things happen there. It truly is a place of learning and truth. A killing there is as upsetting as a killing in a church.

More than anything, I felt exactly what my daughter was feeling when she later called back.

“It’s so sad,” my daughter said. “They found her on her wedding day.”

I asked her if she was all right.

“I’m just crying,” she said.

I would’ve hugged her if she were still at home.

I said what I would have said if tragedy struck down the block.

“I love you, my Monkey,” I told her.

“I love you,” my Brooklyn Yalie replied.

mdaly@nydailynews.com

- end of initial entry -

LA writes:

Consider Daly’s inane last sentence,

“I love you,” my Brooklyn Yalie replied.

It’s a column about a MURDER. And his closing point is this sentimental tripe showing how he feels it’s neat that his Brooklyn daughter goes to Yale. (I would guess that he’s of working class Irish background.)

A. Zarkov writes:

Michael Daly’s column comes across as something quite bizarre and incoherent. At first I thought it might be some kind of satire, but no this man means what he writes. He tells us that he’s not afraid for his daughter’s safety (a Yale student) because she was “around” two shootings when she was a youngster. I left to wonder how her prior exposure to crime makes her safe at Yale. Does he mean she will not be overly upset because of her prior exposure to crime? If that’s what he means, then he writes poorly and should find another line of work. Then he tells us that the murder of cleaning woman Eridania Rodriguez in a Rector Street building in downtown Manhattan did not make him worry about his daughter’s safety in New York. Does he think that Yale has the population of New York City? We expect grisly murders to occur in the big Gotham, but not in a cloistered Ivy League University. Finally he writes:

“The added shock of it happening at Yale was not because I feared more bad things would happen there, but because so many good things happen there. It truly is a place of learning and truth. A killing there is as upsetting as a killing in a church.”

A place of learning and truth? Is that why Yale has speech codes? Their policies restricting expression include the Orwellian “Unspoken sexual innuendo such as voice inflection when complimenting appearance or gazing at parts of the body other than the face.” A student at Yale can perpetrate a crime of the voice and a crime of the eye in the temple of truth.

Michael Daly does indeed have the brain of a liberal. His compulsive utopianism renders him incapable of understanding reality. He cannot (appropriately) worry about his daughter because that would disturb his world view. I recommend he read William F. Buckley’s God and Man at Yale.

Leonard D. writes:

That Daly article is something, huh? In addition to the crimestop you highlight (“crimestop” is a term in Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, explained here), how about the emphatic repetition of “my daughter is at Yale”? He says it not just in the part you bolded, but four times in the piece.

And how about the consecration of Yale? “The added shock of it happening at Yale was not because I feared more bad things would happen there, but because so many good things happen there. It truly is a place of learning and truth. A killing there is as upsetting as a killing in a church.”

P.S. For your amusement, here’s my satiric revision:

Murder of Yale student Annie Le hits close to home and I’m not worried about my Yalie daughter
By Michael Daly (Yale, ‘68)

The question my daughter asked when she called from Yale Sunday night was not one you expect ever to hear when your kid is at Yale.

“Can you check if they found the body?”

I knew she meant the body of Annie Le, the Yale graduate student who had gone missing at Yale five days before she was to be married. I figured rumors must be flying around Yale’s campus.

I made a quick call and then dialed my daughter’s cell phone. Of course she has no land line; she’s away at Yale! I said something you do not expect ever to say when your kid is at Yale.

“They did find the body.”

Right about then was when I would have been expected to be afraid for her safety. I was not. You see, I have already accepted and internalized the idea that people, especially minorities and women, randomly become victims, just as if a meteorite landed on their heads.

My daughter, now at Yale, was around two shootings here in the mean streets of New York City, when she was a youngster. Totally random stuff. Could have happened anywhere; just happened to have happened where I chose to live.

She once scampered up to see if her favorite tree was in bud and instead saw a pool of blood at the base where a man’s head had been bashed with a branch. It is a tragic thing to have one’s childhood innocence interrupted by a brutal murder!

A nice young cop was killed up by the park and she took flowers up and set them on the spot where he died.

Of course, that was before our cops made New York the safest big city in America, if not quite as safe as Yale.

But terrible things can still happen even in the best parts of New York. Even among white people! Nobody wants it or causes it, but it happens nonetheless.

I was down at Rector St. a few weeks ago and watched dozens of uniformed cops file into an office building to search for a custodian who had gone missing. They found her murdered and stuffed above a suspended ceiling. Shazam! Just like lightning.

That did not make me suddenly more worried for my daughter in New York. Who can affect the weather?

And the discovery of Le’s body did not make me worry for my daughter at Yale.

The added shock of it happening at Yale was not because I feared more bad things would happen there, but because so many good things happen there. Great things. Wonderful things. It truly is a place of learning and truth. And diversity! A wonderful place. A sacred place. A killing there is as upsetting as a killing in a church. More really. Who goes to church except maybe on Easter and Christmas? Whereas, truly important people attend Yale—my daughter among them.

More than anything, I felt exactly what my daughter was feeling when she later called back. You see, she is very empathic. She feels the suffering of others very strongly, as I do.

“It’s so sad,” my daughter told me from Yale. “They found her on her wedding day.”

I asked her if she was all right.

“I’m just crying,” she said. She is a very good person. (I was crying too.)

I would’ve hugged her if she were still at home. But she’s not, you know. She’s at Yale, where she will augment her natural empathy with the progressive learning necessary to make a difference in the world.

I said what I would have said if tragedy had randomly struck down the block, for example, if a random burglary had “gone wrong” at the old bodega and nice old Mr. DelVecchio had been killed by a handgun.

“I love you, my Monkey,” I told her. Love is the solution!

“I love you,” my Brooklyn Yalie replied. Teach your children well! And they may even get into Yale!

Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 15, 2009 11:01 AM | Send