Intimidation and secret ballots

Dr. Ronald Trowbridge's personal tale of crossing a picket line of an illegal faculty member strike:

"The nightmare that followed was the most stressful experience in my life, save for the cancer and death of my wife. ... On my first crossing, I was met and surrounded by my colleagues of 14 years. But they were now transformed into characters whose behavior I did not recognize. ... Donald said to me in the crowded faculty lunchroom, “There’s Trowbridge. No, he’s not a scab; he’s an oozing, running sore.” Laughter erupted. Sheila called me a “scab,” with a scowling, mean face. She really meant it. ... Shortly after the illegal strike ended (because of a student’s lawsuit), I was offered a vice presidency at Hillsdale College and took it. Though having been at this university for 14 years, there were no formal farewells, no goodbye parties, no nothing – not a single person came by my office to say goodbye.

The politics of intimidation is alive and it goes on today in many ways. Dr Trowbidge's lesson is that ending the secret ballot in union elections will be a triumph of political intimidation - and it will be. Yet that's not the only form of intimidation out there. A lot of what we call 'political correctness' is really a form of intimidation.