The events in Charlottesville set off a “rash” of white nationalist rallies scheduled to take place across the country. But if the early reactions to these rallies, like the one we saw in Boston this past weekend, are an indication of their future success, white nationalist rallies are about to be squashed.
A week ago Texas A&M stepped up to the plate and cancelled a white nationalist rally scheduled for 9/11 on the school’s campus. But the school shut it down, citing security risks.
Linking the tragedy of Charlottesville with the Texas A&M event creates a major security risk on our campus, Texas A&M said in a statement. Additionally, the daylong event would provide disruption to our class schedules and to student, faculty and staff movement.
In that statement, the school went on to say the following:
Texas A&Ms support of the First Amendment and the freedom of speech cannot be questioned. On December 6, 2016 the university and law enforcement allowed the same speaker the opportunity to share his views, taking all of the necessary precautions to ensure a peaceful event. However, in this case, circumstances and information relating to the event have changed and the risks of threat to life and safety compel us to cancel the event.
Now Aggies’ head football coach, Kevin Sumlin, has voiced his opinion on the matter, stating that he was “Really proud of that. I think it’s, without a doubt, you know, I was thankful and very proud of Chancellor Sharp and our president to put an end to it. That’s the only way I can put it. Without going in depth about it, when leadership like that comes to the front, our leadership did that. And we’ve talked about that as a team, too, and our appreciation of that leadership to step in … it’s big. It’s big for the players, it’s big for the coaching staff.”
You can see his comments made at a recent press conference below (starting at 16:00).
2017 Training Camp | Kevin Sumlin 8.19.17
Uploaded by Texas A&M Athletics on 2017-08-20.
