UNC Professor Mike Adams was a conservative and a champion for free speech. He took his own life a year ago, following a campaign of hatred against him led by students and other professors.
Jon Sanders writes at Carolina Journal:
On Prof. Mike Adams’ suicide, one year laterSo a year ago, I learned that my friend killed himself.My friend was a tenured professor in the UNC system, the Wilmington campus. He was an award-winning teacher notorious for speaking truth to power — and for being unapologetically provocative in so doing. It’s why the university tried to deny him tenure in the first place, and the court case that came out of it resulted in one of the greatest victories for academic freedom in a century. But instead of being celebrated, this triumph was deeply, deeply resented, since it meant academic freedom for Christian conservatives, too. For that is what Prof. Mike Adams was.From that point on, the ongoing effort to get rid of Mike Adams by any means necessary was redoubled. Mike still sailed above it, a happy warrior. I never would have believed it, but even Mike had his breaking point, and when UNCW leadership buckled under one such attempt and forced Mike into early retirement, Mike had reached that point.I heard it in his voice, and it scared me. But I thought when the settlement was finally agreed upon that Mike’s indomitable spirit was rallying. When he stopped answering his calls, I got worried again. Not about suicide, though; Mike would never do that. I was wrong.Since then, I’ve wanted to write about it all. I’ve wanted to honor Mike’s memory. I’ve wanted to talk about how Mike helped people fight for their God-given rights against the powers and principalities of this world. It always made him powerful enemies.
Professor Jacobson commented a year ago:
WAJ adds: I’m not sure if I ever spoke with Mike Adams. For some reason, I think I did long ago, but regardless, he served as a source of strength for so many conservatives in academia under attack. Many readers recently have told me I really needed to contact him, but I didn’t. I now understand the pain of working with people who want to damage you personally and professionally, and I can only imagine how that stress affected him over many years. Rest in peace, Mike, you fought the good fight.
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