Silent onlookers — The moral failure to protect education

Today, as the Department of Education faces dismantlement, American higher education stands at a similar crossroads: an invaluable institution threatened by a relentless political project.

- Dr. Anthony Hernandez, Tribune News Service

One of my favourite stories is “The Butterfly and the Tank,” a powerful novella written by Nobel Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway. First published in Esquire magazine in November 1938, the piece is based on Hemingway’s experiences in the Spanish Civil War. In it, Hemingway exposes a chilling truth about human nature: the greatest tragedies aren’t caused by the acts of evil, but by the silence of those who stand by and do nothing. One of the story’s images — a delicate butterfly on a collision course with an unstoppable tank — serves as a stark metaphor for the senseless destruction of war and the failure of bystanders to intervene.

Today as the Department of Education faces dismantlement, American higher education stands at a similar crossroads: an invaluable institution threatened by a relentless political project. If we allow function cuts and policy rollbacks to continue unchecked, we risk crushing a higher education system that has long been a pillar of opportunity, innovation, and democratic engagement.

As a professor who studies leadership in higher education, I believe we must think deeply about what our inaction will cost us — not just in this moment, but for generations to come. The question remains: Will we fight to protect higher education, or will we become the silent onlookers whom Hemingway warned us about?

Just as in this story, where a butterfly represents beauty, innocence, and fragility, American colleges and universities — especially public institutions — embody some of our most important ideas like intellectual freedom, critical inquiry, and democratic access to the body of knowledge.