Sunday, September 9, 2012

* WHO AM I, ANYWAY? A CLOSET YALIE.




theantiyale 0 minutes ago

An Open Letter to Ava Kaufman, Jeff Gordon, and Past/Current Yale Daily News  Editors:
Please stop messing with my identity.
“ImportImages” deserves a serious, not a flip, reply even though, unlike myself, s/he hides behind an pseudonymous username
Ava Kaufman’s article Lulz at Veritas in the Weekend magazine last spring suggested that by signing my name to my posts (all 1965 of them !) I could not be classified as a troll. ("Some would argue that Keane isn’t a troll precisely because he identifies himself as Paul Keane”) http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2012/apr/20/lulz-and-veritas/
Jeff Gordon in his essay for English class about The Anti-Yale "For God, For Country and For Yale,"  suggested that by signing my name and degree I am invalidating my critique of Yale elitism: “When Paul Keane criticizes Yale, he signs his name with the very authority it granted him.” http://theantiyale.blogspot.com/2010/02/for-god-for-country-and-for-yale-by.html
Not wanting to be a “troll,” of either digital or fleshly ilk, I continued signing my name and degrees.
Obviously it sounds pompous to “ImportImages" (and to others).
This is ironic, since I have lived in Vermont for 28 years and Vermont has absolutely no regard whatsoever for pretension of any kind.
Yale has more respect up here as a lock company than as a a degree awarding institution. In fact, I have never used my degree in those 28 years in Vermont.
I am in effect a Closet Yalie.
And that’s the other reason I refer to my “years” at the divinity school in my Anti-Yale posts.
The snobby downtown undergraduate clubby Yalies do not consider any degree other than the undergraduate degree to be authentic.
You are a Yalie only if you graduated from the undergraduate experience.
Indeed, four years ago when I began The Anti-Yale, there was an extreme reaction of contempt from posters to any opinion coming from  Holy Hill or a graduate of Holy Hill. The Divinity School was a place for big hearts and soft heads. Its curriculum was trivial and its impact in the world nonexistent.
I sought to reverse that opinion with The Anti-Yale (726 posts, 146,000+ views as of today) http://theantiyale.blogspot.com
The Pope and Margaret Farley put the lie to that opinion, as I mentioned in my letter to the YDN published Friday.
So who am I ?
PK ? Paul Keane, M. Div ’80 ? The Anti-Yale? A Vermonter?
Even I don’t know anymore.
PK
Closet Yalie
PS:
I am running---or , rather, I am standing still --- for the Vermont legislature, so that fact, along with my recent retirement after 25 years as a Vermont public school teacher, adds to my identity confusion.
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Comments

ImportImages 1 day, 20 hours ago

Mr. Keane, I don't think folks here trivialize the Divinity School in its own right. As you point out, it's a place full of brilliant people who make significant contributions to their field. What YDN commenters mock is your flaunting of your Divinity School credentials by way of asserting your authority on all matters Yale-related. Most of the discussion on this website is centered on undergraduate life, and the fact that you own a Divinity School diploma is, more often than not, besides the point. It's really too bad that you insist on reminding us you own an M.Div. Mostly I stop reading your comments when you begin a sentence with, "When I was a student in the Divinity School in the seventies..." which you inevitably do. Your insistance on this point obscures the fact you can actually add to the discussion regardless of your resume. Your comment on Noah Chases' column today, for example, was actually interesting, and it had nothing to do with the Yale Divinity School.
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theantiyale 1 day, 19 hours ago

Sorry.
When in Rome do as the Yalies do.
One needs to rub the secret password three times to gain entrance to the inner sanctum. Oh--I meant inner santorum.
Feel free to ignore me.
My words have had 144,000+ views on the real source of my credentials, The ANTI-YALE.
PK
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RexMottram08 1 day, 18 hours ago

That gas leak sound you hear? Just more hot air coming from the Divinity School...
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theantiyale 1 day, 17 hours ago

I only sign the Yale MDiv when I address phonies.
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theantiyale 1 day, 11 hours ago

“In a largely anonymous community of disembodied voices, TheAntiYale is an exception to this rule. He deliberately signs comments with his real name and identifying information: Paul D Keane, M.Div. ’80, M.A. (Middlebury ’97), M.Ed. (Kent State ’72), B.A. (Ithaca College ’68). Some would argue that Keane isn’t a troll precisely because he identifies himself as Paul Keane”
Lulz et Veritas
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Margaret Farley’s influence


Letter to the Editor
Yale Daily News:


The New York Times (“Vatican Scolds Nun for Book on Sexuality,” June 5) recounts the Vatican’s displeasure at the book “Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics” by Sister Margaret Farley and puts the lie to all of those on the Yale Daily News web site’s posting board who have mocked and trivialized both the Yale Divinity School and its curriculum.  (“Vatican ScoldsNun for Book on Sexuality,” June 5) 
Sister Margaret was a respected faculty member when I was a student (’76–’80) and continued to teach there until her retirement a few years ago.
It is clear from this article that her influence (and, by extension, Yale Divinity School’s influence) has had a world-wide impact in the realm of religious ethics. The Vatican finds that to be the case and attempts to snuff that influence out.
I suggest that those who would criticize Yale Divinity School and its curriculum need to look closer at the history of its leadership in the religious and ethical revolutions of the world which proceed quietly, unseen by the media but felt by millions.
Paul Keane
June 5
The writer is a 1980 graduate of the Divinity School.
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