The gentleman from Lucedale never uttered a word of profanity, but his phone call was intended to chew me out for daring to suggest in a positive review of former Ole Miss Chancellor Robert Khayat’s new book that he showed courage in trying to change the image of the university and by extension our state.

He repeatedly stated that Khayat’s efforts in addressing some of the university’s more controversial symbols were an attack on the state’s “history and heritage.” Four times, he returned to those phrases because I refused to agree with his point of view.