SHORTER UNIVERSITY has been a little jewel adorning the Rome community for many, many years. Countless of our children have had music, dance, art and sports lessons from its stellar faculty. Adults have taken classes, attended lectures and enjoyed performances that enrich our lives. Shorter faculty have been dedicated teachers and community leaders

And now all that is threatened by a megalomaniac whose need for control and obvious personal demons have ordered a witch-hunt.

A puppet president and malleable board are allowing this figure to hide in the shadows to work a dangerous agenda. Who but a megalomaniac would impose his own definition of the virtuous man, supplanting the biblical Ten Commandments that have guided the school throughout its history.

Now instead of “love thy neighbor,” we must hate the homosexual. Instead of “honor thy father and mother,” we must humiliate and threaten professors who have served the school and the community with honor. Instead of “thou shall not bear false witness,” we must become vigilantes, monitoring other’s personal lives.

As in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” there are secrets and motives. It is time for the person behind this tragedy to step out of the shadows and accept responsibility for what he is doing. Something is rotten.