The family of former National Security Advisor Gen. Michael Flynn has issued a fiery statement in response to a report that the University of Rhode Island’s new president has recommended that the institution revoke an honorary degree conferred upon the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014, calling the move “corrupt.”
Given that URI President Marc Parlange has held his position only since August, he apparently believes that revoking this honorary degree and one conferred upon former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani in 2003 are top priorities for the school.
The committee overseeing URI’s honorary degrees voted on Dec. 10 to revoke both degrees “based on their findings that General Flynn and Mayor Giuliani no longer represent the highest level of our values and standards that were evident when we first bestowed the degree,” according to a letter to the school’s board of trustees cited by The Providence Journal.
“As a civic institution, URI has the privilege and responsibility to sustain and preserve American democracy by insuring and modeling good citizenship,” Parlange’s letter claimed, according to The Journal. “Revoking these honorary degrees reinforces our values and allows us to lead with truth and integrity.”
“This is another example of cancel culture and ‘wokeness’ in our academic institutions,” Flynn told The Western Journal in exclusive comments. “And I know there is a concerted effort to attack me from certain elements on the Left, mainly because of my very visible stance fighting back against the socialist takeover of our country.”
“It will get national attention in the next 24 hours,” he predicted.
A statement from the Flynn family described Parlange’s recommendation to revoke the honorary degree as “a cowardly and corrupt attempt to discredit our brother, Lt. General Michael T. Flynn, USA (Ret.) and his life’s mission and work, without cause.”
“With this flawed and crooked action, URI endorses the destructive and tyrannical cancel culture, bowing down to the woke mob and repressive forces, while revealing itself to lack the intellectual capacity, fortitude or integrity that is required of an American public university in the 21st century,” the statement said.
“Astoundingly, URI’s new President Mr. Marc Parlange distorts the facts and adopts lies and gossip spread for years in connection with the, now confirmed, framing of General Flynn,” the family argued in their statement. “Mr. Parlange’s recommendation to revoke General Flynn’s honorary degree lacks moral courage, prioritizes pettiness over principles, and sets an unsavory, disturbing precedent.”
“This saga has been festering for a year,” Flynn told The Western Journal. “My family has had enough.”
URI the Doctor of Humane Letters Honoris Causa upon Gen. Flynn in 2014, The Providence Journal reported.
The Flynn family’s full statement appears below:
Today, our family learned the University of Rhode Island plans to disguise itself under a veil of false righteousness and turn its back on an American hero in a cowardly and corrupt attempt to discredit our brother, Lt. General Michael T. Flynn, USA (Ret.) and his life’s mission and work, without cause. If URI’s Board of Trustees gutlessly vote to revoke General Flynn’s honorary degree at their meeting Friday, January 21, 2022, the University will fail to stand for honor, truth, justice and morality, but instead, will smear its own reputation and dishonor its community, the State of Rhode Island, and General Flynn’s mother along with 10 of his siblings, nieces, and nephews who all graduated from the University. The blatant hypocrisy arising out of the Board’s expected decision to revoke General Flynn’s honorary degree smacks in the face of the core principles of this Country and the stated mission of the University, itself. With this flawed and crooked action, URI endorses the destructive and tyrannical cancel culture, bowing down to the woke mob and repressive forces, while revealing itself to lack the intellectual capacity, fortitude or integrity that is required of an American public university in the 21st century.
General Flynn has dedicated his life to protect and preserve the United States of America and the freedoms and liberties enjoyed by all citizens of this great country, including those associated with the University of Rhode Island. His unwavering love for God and Country – above all else – is the torch of light that he carried through decades of public service to America as a U.S. Army soldier and military leader of tens of thousands of young men and women in battlefields around the world. For General Flynn, that bright light of freedom, liberty and equal justice for all will never dim and he will never be deterred. Never will he stop fearlessly fighting for the Republic and for every individual’s rights and liberty bestowed on American citizens by the Grace of God Almighty.
For our nation to survive the deep-seated remarkable corruption exposed over the last several years, including the four-year political persecution of General Flynn as a means “to get Trump,” will take new leaders and brave Americans to courageously stand up to the controlling forces of evil, intent upon destroying this great nation. When an injustice to one person occurs in America, it happens to all citizens.
But America is awakened. She will no longer tolerate election fraud, media propagandists who acquiesce to their puppeteers, nor the fraudulent, treacherous rhetoric cloaked as wokeness. Those days are over. This moment in time demands more from all of us. The Flynn Family and General Flynn are still on the field and will continue to fight for America with all our might to ensure that all citizens enjoy their God-given rights to freedom, liberty, and equal justice under the law without fear of retaliation.
Astoundingly, URI’s new President Mr. Marc Parlange distorts the facts and adopts lies and gossip spread for years in connection with the, now confirmed, framing of General Flynn. Mr. Parlange’s recommendation to revoke General Flynn’s honorary degree lacks moral courage, prioritizes pettiness over principles, and sets an unsavory, disturbing precedent.
In fact, former U.S. DOJ Attorney General William Barr, in his May 2020 interview with CBS News Correspondent Catherine Herridge, verified the DOJ decision to dismiss the false charge against General Flynn was “to undo an injustice.” He further revealed the so-called January 24, 2017, interview of General Flynn by now disgraced FBI agents had “no legitimate basis” and was orchestrated as a “perjury trap” of General Flynn. (Attorney General Barr defends Justice Dept. decision to drop criminal case against Michael Flynn)
Furthermore, in September 2020, FBI Special Agent William J. Barnett testified – under oath – in an interview arising out of the DOJ’s independent investigation, led by USAO-EDMO Jeffery Jensen, into the truth behind, and the facts of, the General’s case, that he believed the prosecution of Flynn was used as a means to “get TRUMP.” (FBI William Barnett 302)
URI is without redemption to the Flynn Family and all others who seek right over wrong and truth over lies.
The family’s statement was sent Thursday to the board of trustees, who confirmed its receipt to the family, according to Flynn.
The trustees were scheduled to vote on the matter Friday, according to The Providence Journal.
Source: Western Journal