Wow.

I really question whether I have the nerve and the principles to do something like this. Even if this person had certain safety valves in place (publishing opportunities, other income, major savings to fall back on, etc…) it does not detract from the sheer ballsiness of the act. Lord knows we need a lot more people doing it today.

Dear Father Leahy,

I am writing to resign my post as an adjunct professor of English at Boston College.

I am doing so — after five years at BC, and with tremendous regret — as a direct result of your decision to invite Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to be the commencement speaker at this year’s graduation.

Many members of the faculty and student body already have voiced their objection to the invitation, arguing that Rice’s actions as secretary of state are inconsistent with the broader humanistic values of the university and the Catholic and Jesuit traditions from which those values derive.

But I am not writing this letter simply because of an objection to the war against Iraq. My concern is more fundamental. Simply put, Rice is a liar.

For cynics who feel this is of no consequence, and what did this single individual really change by taking this self-sacrificing action, its worth remembering what Russian author and dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn remarked to colleagues who questioned the wisdom and effectiveness of his going public with his anti-Soviet writings: I may not be able to change what is happening, but it is not going to happen with my complicity.

Amen.

Read the full letter by Steve Almond Here