SK Multi-Hyphenate

Genoways' 'VQR' Email on Morrissey Suicide

In the latest account of the Virginia Quarterly Review tragedy, VQR contributor Tom Bissell writes in The New York Observer that managing editor Kevin Morrissey's suicide note didn't blame editor Ted Genoways for Morrissey's action. But in the e-mail Genoways sent to contributors and friends explaining the circumstances of Morrissey's death on July 30 (which Bissell amply mentions), it says—according to Morrissey's family—that the suicide note did indeed fault Genoways. I don't know if anyone aside from Morrissey's family has seen the missive to provide independent corroboration, but if Bissell has, he might clarify.

Subsequently, Morrissey's sister Maria has said the suicide note did not blame Genoways, but if that's the case, why did Genoways say in his email that the family told him it did cite him?

A redacted image of the putative suicide note is here.

Below is the e-mail Genoways sent in full.

  

Is Virginia the New Texas?

[UPDATE: Bowing to public pressure, Governor McDonnell issued a mea culpa Wednesday evening, saying his failure to mention slavery in his Confederate History Month proclamation was a "major omission." He added—as I similarly mention below—that "the state that served as the Capitol of the Confederacy was also the first in the nation to elect an African-American governor."]

"Whereas, it is important for all Virginians to reflect upon our Commonwealth's shared history, to understand the sacrifices of the Confederate leaders, soldiers and citizens during the period of the Civil War, and to recognize how our history has led to our present."

So reads part of the resolution declaring April Confederate History Month by Virginia's extremist governor Robert McDonnell. Now I'm no historian, but the Civil War was about slavery, and the "sacrifices" that McDonnell refers to were on behalf of slavery. But unlike Virginia's last Republican governor, James Gilmore, who at least included anti-slavery language in his own Confederate History Month resolution (as per Wednesday's Washington Post article), McDonnell pointedly omits any reference to this country's "great sin and shame." Why? Because while the Civil War "obviously" "involved slavery," he told the Post, "I focused on the [issues] I thought were most significant for Virginia." McDonnell added that the declaration was meant to promote tourism—next year is the 150th anniversary of the Civil War's onset.

As if the gamesmanship between McDonnell and his equally disreputable attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli, for the hearts and minds of Tea Partiers both in Virginia and nationally could get any worse. (Who can forget last month's topsy-turvy over nondiscrimination protections for gays and lesbians at the state's institutions of higher education?) As a former 10-year resident of Virginia and a proud but cognizant graduate of the University of Virginia, whose founder was a slave owner, I'm aghast at what's happening there. American slavery may have begun in Virginia, but it was also the first state to elect an African-American governor—Doug Wilder, in 1989—and it voted for Obama in '08. As Wilder himself told the Post, McDonnell's dubious historical endorsement is "mind-boggling to say the least."

Out at Work: The Photos

Last night I had the honor of moderating the third-annual "Out at Work" alumni career panel, held at my alma mater, the University of Virginia. About 30 students turned out, the most ever for this event, and both the panelists' conversation and the student questions were stimulating and productive. Glad to have participated! (You'll see me in the last photo, on the left.)

(L-R: Callie Bouchard, Bryan Myers, Holiday Simmons,

Heather Welborn, Matt Chayt, Steven Kung.)