There are plenty of problems with the behavior with the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Sarah Parcak.
Her career highlights are apparently using a satellite to find Egyptian infrastructure and declaring herself “@IndyFromSpace” as if she is some amazing explorer unearthing historic finds.
In reality, Parcak is just the Indiana Jones of Google Maps satellite view.
She is actually most well known for saying outrageous things on Twitter, hiding behind a screen before ultimately deleting her bad takes, and changing her account to private when she gets in trouble.
She has routinely attacked normal people who have done nothing to her, simply because they dared to have the “wrong” opinions.
UAB: ‘Space archaeologist’ Sarah Parcak calling Trump supporters ‘bootlickers’ was 'poor judgment’ – https://t.co/7IgbjZ2YTP https://t.co/6Mh3W8pXso
— Wes Allen (@RepWesAllen) September 23, 2020
She has attempted to incite violence and destruction from the comfort of her home while allowing other people to take on the physical risk and do the actual damage.
University of Alabama Birmingham professor Sarah Parcak (@indyfromspace) gave rioters instructions on how to destroy monuments while rioting. https://t.co/cqfDrtLe0A
— MRCTV (@mrctv) June 1, 2020
She has now decided that a 70-year-old man who died of cancer deserved to suffer because he advocated for politics she despised.
UAB professor @indyfromspace didn't even have the guts to leave her tweet about Rush Limbaugh up.
Not only is she a bad person, she's a coward.https://t.co/vKYR98xAJi
— DaleJacksonForCongress.com (@TheDaleJackson) February 18, 2021
I will also remind you that Parcak wasn’t voicing a political opinion here; she was voicing an immoral opinion.
This wasn’t a tweet about Rush Limbaugh supporting tax cuts. She wanted him to suffer and die.
What Sarah Parcak did this week was garbage. She knows it. Her employer knows it. With a simple Google search, her kids will know it.
She is now more famous for a series of deleted tweets than she is for her “professional” “accomplishments.”
All of this is easily hateable.
However, let her teach at UAB until her job performance is impacted by her bad judgment and utterly-contemptible behavior.
I have yet to see a single instance where Parcak’s generally awful online persona has actually impacted her teaching or research.
I haven’t seen a single student make a complaint against her. Nor have I seen a colleague argue she is not performing her job at an acceptable level.
Keeping Parcak at UAB should be seen as a win for those who oppose “cancel culture.”
If this person can stay employed after multiple instances where she embarrasses herself, the university and UAB President Ray Watts, then how in the world can anyone argue that another professor needs to be fired for a conservative political opinion?
Granted, this is just a moral victory against the mob.
Even as Parcak is cowering from the mean responses on social media, we all know that if a professor at UAB gloated over Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death, they would likely be out of a job by the close of business.
Parcak would probably lead the charge, and she probably wouldn’t understand how terrible that would make her.
But you either believe cancel culture is wrong, or you don’t.
You can engage in a tit-for-tat if you want to, and the instinct is to do just that.
But right is right, and wrong is wrong.
If UAB keeps this person employed, every professor on that campus should feel free to express themselves without fear of reprisal.
Parcak’s continued employment and inevitable next controversy will be proof positive that those that work to cancel people are merely targeting those they disagree with politically; it is not about human decency or moral rights and wrongs.
If it was truly about right and wrong, Parcak is out of work and trying to figure out what someone with an Egyptology specialty can do at Wal-Mart.
Ironically, Rush Limbaugh believed in free speech, and he would not have wanted Parcak fired.
In fact, if Limbaugh were still alive, he would love that a UAB professor and Egyptian archaeology expert was angrily sending out potentially career-ending, life-altering, reputation-destroying tweets about a person that didn’t know she existed.
At the end of the day, let her keep her job. You either believe in free speech, or you don’t.
Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 7-11 AM weekdays on WVNN.
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