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Weakling Rescinds Kenyon College Nick Griffin Speech Invitation
Taylor Somers
Left-wing terrorists win another round.
The following statement from Taylor Somers of Kenyon College appears on the One People’s Project website:
We have been in communication with Campus Safety, and we have come to a consensus regarding the upcoming Griffin event. While we had wanted to shake things up, the reaction against the event has been compelling. The possibility of violence, or at least unintentional injury, to Kenyon students at such an event outweighs, we feel, any contribution that could be gained from having Griffin speak. Never have we intended to incite violence or to otherwise provide an atmosphere in which it becomes at all likely. With Campus Safety’s advice in mind, and as members of the Kenyon community, we must take it upon ourselves to do the right thing and ensure no one is injured. It isn’t worth the possibility of violence or the further pain that will almost certainly be caused, so with those concerns in mind we have cancelled.
The hurt that this controversy has already caused is palpable. There is a rift, an upset in the Kenyon community, and I will accept personal responsibility for that as I think a sense of honor compels me. It was never my intention to cause such a hurt, and so I think the only decent option is to minimize it at this point. It saddens me that many of those with whom I’ve been on friendly terms are now at odds with me. I would like to apologize to those offended or who feel or felt threatened by the immanent presence of Nick Griffin, who I have never claimed did not say many things that were wrong in the past and present. Your passioned appeals, along with the concerns for the safety and integrity of this school and those who attend it, have persuaded me that we were on the wrong course. I am attempting to right that course now.
As for my own views which were dragged into all of this, I intend to embark on a path of radical self-examination. Those who know me personally will recognize I’m not a bigot, fascist, or totalitarian, but rather, perhaps, more of a contrarian (yet one who believes in a free society, even though we may find difficulty agreeing on what that is). Some of that which I have written over the past day and night could be described as knee-jerk reaction to being attacked personally, and I can recognize failures in my own judgment due to that fact. I think I have been beholden to a more abstract and theoretical point of view than is merited by real life, as has been made clear over the course of this trouble. I only ask that it not be assumed I am insincere in this appeal. I am being sincere, and I humbly submit my apologies to those of you voicing your legitimate concerns who I have attacked for recognizing my failures in judgment before I saw them myself.
I realize this has been difficult, and has created a rift. I’m willing to try to correct that, to learn a lesson, and go on with life, if you’re all willing to go on with life as well. I’ll not go out in search of controversy or extreme methods to incite discussion, however curious I may be. The Taft Society will exercise better and more sensitive judgment with regard to who we bring to campus. I should really thank you all for persuading us toward the right course of action, and indeed I do thank you for that.
With Best Wishes,
Taylor Somers
Robert A. Taft Society
This should come as no surprise from a college kid narcissistic enough to pen this pretentious interview.
News Desk
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I concur with Greg on the issue of credibility loss.
I would underscore that Taylor Somers not only failed to keep his obligation to Nick Griffin and anyone planning to attend the event he scheduled, but he also collected $300 from facebook “friends” (most of whom he “de-friended” in light of his recent politically correct soul-searching) under the pretense of attending AmRen as a representative of the “Renaissance Party of North America,” which was one of his facebook groups. Does he plan to attend AmRen, now that it is back on? Or will he refund this money? Or does he just plan to keep it? There are fears that he is leaving everyone in the lurch, as these two messages from the group’s other Admin make clear:
“02/16/10 Attn: RPN Members:
URGENT, LISTEN UP: I have just received an email from someone informing him that he has corresponded with Jared Taylor, AND THE CONFERENCE IS ON! Here’s the deal, within the context of me being as poor as a mouse with no cash flow:
-my cost for attending would be approximately $1,000 (the flight is the big ticket)
-this individual above is prepared to pony up $300
-the RPN was able to scratch together about $300 to cover Taylor’s expenses
-Taylor is out, and he is sitting on that $300
-that puts us up to $600
-I’ll throw in another $100 (on top of $50 I contributed to Taylor)
-WE ARE SHORT $200 FROM HAVING ME ATTEND THE CONFERENCE as the Chairman of the Renaissance Party of North America
-I/we ask for pledges to cover the $200 shortfall (any surplus will be tucked away in an RPN account and put towards next’s October’s founding convention)
What say? Are you in?
Thanks for your attention.
Sebastian”
——————–
“02/17/10 Dear RPN Member:
This is the skill I learned when I moved from corporate Vancouver daze to rural (and survival) Nova Scotia in 2001 after my wife’s death. The pledges to send me to AmRen are still several hundred dollars short. (Thank you very much to those who have pledged.) Does anyone happen to be a retailer or know a retailer who would be interested in placing a wholesale order for some of these hand-crafted lovelies? If we can squeeze 3-4 orders, then that should get us over the top. Individual, retail purchases I am not, of course, about to chase away. =;-{D Also, same applies to the hand-crafted, wood putters (see link in the Abel’s Canes site). This would all be so much simpler if things hadn’t collapsed with Taylor Somers, who was all set and financed to represent the Renaissance Party of North America at AmRen. The drop-dead timeline for making a decision on this thing has to be at the end of business hours to-day. That’s when the window either slams shut…or opens. Thanks for your attention.
Sebastian”
The “Occident” movement, which Taylor Somers founded on Facebook, had very grand ambitions, as one can extrapolate from reading his interview at Amerika.org, and Taylor repeatedly asserted that he understood the nature of the forces arrayed against him and that he would not back down, period. Taylor claimed that he would never be swayed by the power of the pejorative, often exclaiming things like, “I’m not a fascist; I’m worse than a fascist!”
As OPP and other Antifa groups set their sights on Taylor Somers, he threatened to go down swinging. This is the last message he sent to his “Occident” facebook group:
“[Subject] One People’s Project has us on their radar
Taylor Somers February 10 at 5:06pm
Comrades, the One People’s Project, a radical left-wing hate group, has taken notice of our movement. They will likely resort to harassment, and they have already spammed our fan page. The time will soon come for decisive action against these fear-mongering crypto-communists.
http://www.onepeoplesproject.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=324:nick-griffin-is-going-to-make-some-pretty-interesting-rounds-while-in-the-states-cpac-included&catid=29:antifa-news
~ TS
After promising “decisive action”, Taylor inexplicably went silent. He shuttered his facebook group, tossing the grand ambitions of “Occident” in the dumpster, and wrote an apologia that sounds as if it were coerced by the Stasi. As Greg said, Taylor must be aware of the damage done to our morale by such incidents (many of his former friends are racking their brains, wondering what terrible tactics of intimidation were brought to bear on him), yet he went ahead with this betrayal anyway! I don’t see how that can be defended from a WN perspective.
Original fund-raising missive:
“February 7 at 8:04am
Dear RPN Member:
Please be advised that at the RPN Executive Council meeting held February 6, 2010, it was decided to change the name of the “North American Renaissance Party (NARP) FB Group” to the “Renaissance Party of North America (RPN) FB Group.”
Also please note that Mr. Taylor Somers was elected as the RPN Vice-Chairman. Mr. Somers will be representing the RPN at the upcoming AmRen Conference and at the Kenyon College presentation by The Hon. Nick Griffin, Chairman, British National Party.
To help offset Mr. Somers’ expenses to attend AmRen, we are asking for members to offer a financial pledge of assistance. Please forward all intents to pledge to either myself or to Mr. Jeff Odgis, Communications Committee. Please take into consideration that Mr. Somers will be “equipped” with business cards and brochures featuring the Party’s Mission Statement. We intend to make this presentation on our behalf, our official “stepping out” if you will, as professional as possible. Your financial contribution towards making a highly favourable and successful first impression by the Party, AS A PLAYER, will be greatly appreciated.
For any member wishing to receive a copy of Executive Council minutes, we simply ask that you make such request, offer a valid email address, and the minutes shall be sent to you as a Word doc attachment.
Thank you for your attention.
Sincerely,
Sebastian Ernst Ronin
Chairman, American Renaissance Party”
I’d bet my life savings that he did not write that letter. He was given the letter by the school and told to sign it or he would be expelled.
In RE:
Such a gambit would be illegal, so I doubt it took place. College administrators are among the lowest, most cowardly forms of life. They don’t scratch their balls without consulting a lawyer about the possible legal ramifications.
But even if this were true, Somers had a choice: knuckle under or fight it by publicizing it and taking Kenyon to court. He could easily have raised substantial funds to cover his court costs, and win or lose in court, he would still be a cause célèbre and a movement hero. All it would have required is some guts and loyalty.
How much do you have saved, by the way?
My initial feeling was that this article (and some condemnatory threads inspired by it on Facebook) were too harsh on Somers, given his youth, but after rereading his letter a few times I had to conclude that he had gone beyond mere defensiveness and had betrayed both his purported principles and his colleagues. The demoralizing effect of this sort of cowardice must not be underestimated.
The “Renaissance Party of North America” appears to be just a cover for Mr. Ronin’s political fantasies, with a great deal of attention paid to protocol, “offices,” and appeals for subsidy. Quite a lot of chrome and not much under the hood.
Greg is absolutely right. If calling someone a “weakling” for writing that warm pile of syrup is too harsh then we are all weaklings. Taylor not only failed Griffin, his friends, his family, members of his group the “Occident” and all those who WOULD have helped him if he needed it, but he failed himself. The Marxist anti-white Left are going to refer to the “Taylor Debacle” for decades to come and so will we.
Incidentally, here is what Heidi Beirich from the SPLC has written about Taylor Somers:
As you can see by the mocking tone in her writing the Left has even more contempt for Mr. Somers’ groveling than we do. Yet, don’t forget they will use him as a public patsy if he offers to keep atoning for his “sins.” I bet this is what happens.
I wonder how his “radical self-examination” is going? If this isn’t utterly disgusting and morally repugnant then please tell me what is?
Both sides make some valid points. Just as both sides show some serious limitations. And I have to admit, when I started reading the comments here and at TOQ I was disappointed and had an impulse to say a few things to people from both sides of the matter.
But I’m glad I resisted the impulse because it would have simply added fuel to the fire. It would have been unproductive.
The first thing that came to mind after resisting the impulse to join the fight was that the fight itself is symptomatic of why we’re in this position in the first place.
It’s a shame it needs to be pointed out, but it does.
The irony here is that while this group is squabling the participants and the by-standers, all of us, are still under attack as if we’re one group.
They’re not drawing dividing lines that we are amongst each other now. They’re after all of us.
Not only is the enemy gloating over its recent “victoy” it’s rolling on the floor laughing at how many of us are responding to it all.
We’re also demonstrating the same principle weakness of our enemy, the inability to engage in self-criticism without being overcome by anxiety, which of course leads to defensiveness and guilt, neither of which are of the slightest value in solving any of the many problems we face right now.
Posting Taylor’s photo and calling him names was wrong, and Sebastian, though well-meaning, is capable of being wordy and nerdy. I believe firmly, and have dedicated my life, to the notion of spiritual growth which requires an acknowledgement of personal limitation, and I’m about as imperfect as the come. But I love myself through those imperfections, and without a drop of sentimentality or conceit.
.
Today, a Hostile Elite is coraling all “recalcitrant”, “disobedient” Whites into one group whether we like it or not. And, honestly, sometimes I don’t like it. But it’s a fact. So I have had to adjust my life to that fact so that I might preserve the ability to embrace the spiritual values that I have chosen for myself after lots of close contact, in flesh and in print, with the Civiilization that made those values available to me in the first place.
I’m not doing this for any of you. I’m doing it for me. You can respond unfavorably to that or not but it’s an honesty that works in our favor. Because for it to work for me I have to work with you. All of you. Or, forget it. When new borns we are part of a We before we’re an I. For me to preserve my Individuality I have to become a part of a We again, perhaps for the first time. This, as I see it, is the real challenge that lies before us.
What might be helpful now is to look at what we’re trying to do as a process, not an event. So what we’re trying to do must keep its focus on that process and not get tripped up by particular events and the psycho-emotional baggage we all carry with us and that will surely bog us down into the kind of who said what to who details that will certainly keep us moving, but won’t get us anywhere.
In any event, the enemy sees us all as “united” for their purposes. What a shame we’re not united for ours.
Either way, we still have a common bond. Let’s use it.