OSU president Gordon Gee has announced his resignation in the fallout of comments he made back in December about Roman Catholics. Say whaaa? He made a pretty funny joke, I thought.
“The fathers are holy on Sunday, and they’re holy hell the rest of the week,” the AP quoted Gee saying at a meeting of the Ohio State athletic council on December 5. He was referring to priests at Notre Dame who evidently made negotiations difficult when discussing the University’s potential entry to the Big Ten Conference. “You just can’t trust those damn Catholics on a Thursday or a Friday.”
Gee later apologized and called the remarks a “poor attempt at humor.” Now, he’s officially stepping down. After presiding over the Buckeyes since 2007, he’ll be out of the captain’s chair July 1. (Gee also was OSU president from 1990-1997).
So here’s the thing: Given Gee’s extensive gaffe track record, this is a bizarre and sort of low-watt exit, isn’t it? Or do the Catholic remarks strike some folks as less tame than they strike me (i.e. extremely tame)?
This article appears in May 29 – Jun 4, 2013.
You reveal your ignorance in so many respects with this post. Go read some history. You will learn a lot you did not know – it has cleverly been hidden – about churches being burned down in the 19th and 20th century because catholics weren’t “trustworthy.” Or, for a shorthand version, go ask your friend’s protestant grandma what she thinks about catholics, and what she jammed down the throats of her kids and grandchildren. Maybe the particular form of the stereotypes and bigotry she spews will give you some insight. Then, go run a 2 year investigation into Gee’s hiring/firing/personnel decisions at every level and every position throughout his career. Oh, wait, he resigned to avoid that!
It’s common sense that you don’t say stupid shit like that. I, for one, did not want to see him fired in relation to the comments that were made. But because he should have known better and this isn’t the first stupid thing he’s said in public, I’m in support of the whole resignation thing. You can’t say things against other groups of people, why would it be okay to say something against catholics? I can guarantee you that if this would have been about a racial group or muslims, holy hell would have been raised and Gee would have been chased out the door in a few days.