Try to breach the wall alone, and you’ll be shut down. Only the people of the system, the politically connected, are allowed to cross. Which wall did I describe just now – the Berlin or the UK one?
Following UK’s prohibitive rules, and having gone through the prescribed channels, my wife and I tried to get access to the UK Board to show waste, fraud and abuse at our own University. Nothing but denial and stonewalling ensued.

And that lack of access is a great misfortune for the entire university community, as well as all Kentucky taxpayers. Being a corruption researcher, I know all too well that it is not merely the shortage of transparency that creates the witches brew where all sorts of uglies breed. It is also the intransigent prevention of input and access to the decision-makers (and thus the decision-making process) from anyone who is not anointed by the door-keeper.

From my own experience, I know that the surest way to tear down the access walls erected for the benefit of the privileged is for the people to come from their individual scared corners in a show of solidarity and determination. And although the apathy, and even fear, among the UK community seems as palpable as among those browbeaten East Europeans who lived behind the Iron Curtain, the Berlin precedent exists and repeats in place after place.

Hence, I hope that every true Wildcat will join Joe Peek in demanding: President Todd, tear down this wall! Tear down this wall!