Respectful Disagreements Are Possible

This morning I learned that John Keshishoglou had passed away. John taught forever at Ithaca College and was the founding dean of the School of Communications. He was a noted scholar and consultant in the field of international communication. He was also an outspoken conservative among the relatively liberal faculty across the School.

I met him when I was hired at Ithaca College in 1985. By then he was the senior media faculty member and saw himself as mentor to us all. I arrived at IC from the University of Maine and I dressed the part, complete with flannel shirts and jeans before Grunge made them fashionable. He took me aside for a quite chat in order to tell me that I did not dress as college professor should. He even offered me some of his old three-piece suits to upgrade my wardrobe. I politely declined and that became the basis of our relationship over the ten years I was at IC.

As for the title of this post, John was not shy about his political priorities. His office was filled with pictures of various conservative icons, often with John in the photo shaking hands or whatever. John was, however, old school when it came to politic discussion. Respectful disagreement was the rule. He was more interested in whether you were a good teacher and supported the mission of the School. He expected you to be articulate in defending your politics. His closest colleague on faculty was the most progressive.

This was the marketplace of ideas writ large. It is possible to have respectful disagreements in political matters, a notion seemingly lost in the Foxification of our political discourse. I disagreed with John often, but I respected his willingness to engage in the discussion as a reasonable, rational adult. Our current politics would clearly benefit from more folks like Kesh and fewer like Rush and O'Reilly.

Rest in Peace, John, and may your name be a blessing.