We’ve heard a lot about “context” lately — largely because that’s the bunker three Ivy League presidents opted to retreat to when asked the exceedingly difficult question of whether calls for genocide violated their schools’ respective codes of conduct last week as they testified before Congress.

Just kidding — that’s not really a difficult question. The difficult part for the three presidents was the answer. Because if they gave the right answer, the one that rests on moral clarity, they’d have a new dilemma on their hands: the fouling up of the Oppression Matrix. And that would send the squeakiest wheels of their student bodies into overdrive. 

So they tried to use weasel words and contextualize something that actually can’t be contextualized — at least not if one hopes to lay claim to any moral high ground. I mean, there’s certainly context for it if morality can be dispensed with. The problem with that approach, though, is that a lot of high-dollar donors aren’t keen on it. 

In the end, they chose unwisely. And rather than the three Wise Men, we were treated to the three Unwise Women. 

Perhaps, unlike on far too many college campuses these days, there’s a valuable lesson to be learned from this episode: When caught between a rock and a hard place, do the right thing. 

This “Moore to the Point” commentary aired on NewsTalkSTL on Wednesday, December 13. Audio included below.