McLean County Times

A growing number of voices are coming to the defense Illinois State University Director of Athletics Larry Lyons.

Last week Lyons was compelled to apologize after using the term "all Redbirds matter" in a private conference call with coaches and other athletics staff.  

Lyons said the comment was meant to convey his care for all of ISU's student-athletes.

ISU track and field coach Mary Wood

Mary Wood, ISU's track and field coach, took to Twitter to announce Lyons' comment and provided a criticism of it which set off a range of reactions, including a student athlete boycott and an editorial in the student newspaper vilifying Lyons.

“The movement is BLACK LIVES MATTER. The statement ‘All Redbird Lives Matters’ is insensitive and frankly one that attempts to drown the movement,” Wood tweeted.

Wood teaches critical race theory, which some have dubbed “anti white 101.” 

“He had nothing to apologize for and should not have apologized,” Laurie Higgins, who writes about cultural issues for the Illinois Family Institute, told the McLean County Times. “Mary Wood’s tweet is the kind of manipulation used by leftists to silence those who refuse to capitulate to leftist language diktats."

Higgins said Lyons’ statement should have been a non-issue.

“Leftists claim to be triggered or feel unsafe anytime they’re exposed to an idea that doesn’t comport with their beliefs, ideas, feelings, or desires,” Higgins said of Wood. “If that doesn’t work, they hurl epithets like ‘hater’ and ‘bigot.’ Their tactics work because we let them, just as Larry Lyons and his bootlicking administration did.”

Higgins said the situation was overblown and poorly handled by the administration.

“The Illinois State administration’s response to the demands of leftists students has been foolish, spineless, and embarrassing,” she said. “Student athletes who refuse to attend practices should be suspended from teams and forfeit athletic scholarships.”

While signs bearing the group’s motto dot the green front garden landscapes of liberal Illinois suburbia, its founders have ties to socialist regimes and the BLM Chicago chapter came out earlier this year in favor of looting and vandalism, which runs counter to the common narrative that peaceful protestors are being-opted by rioters.  

Wood’s main concern with Lyons’ statement was that it would hurt BLM as an organization. 
 


“BLM wants to destroy (the nuclear family) as it has destroyed cities in the past four months,” Higgins said. “No decent person, no one who cares about black lives should ever support anything that emerges from the BLM organization. Every time we capitulate to bullies and tyrants, their power grows.”