Thank you, Peter, for your very thoughtful comment. I understand your angst with the mandatory DEI trainings as I experience this as well. I am not able, and I will not lie or go against my conscience in order to take a training or fill a form. My conscience does not allow this and there is no amount of persuasion that will get me there unless I come to the realization that I am wrong and that what I believe is not true. This goes beyond practicality or employment; this is requiring religious beliefs or faith statements in other to work or participate in anything. I say it is faith statements because it is based on ideology. This country has freedom of speech and freedom of religion, and I am not required to accept or affirm their false premises (and lie) in order to fill any form or participate in anything. I understand that some people do not care and just do it, but I cannot and will not. If we all surrender to tyranny, we will lose our liberties. I think you are super; your comments are extremely thoughtful and intelligent, and I understand your points, I just can't. I am doing my work and doing well, don't worry about that, and so far, my job in not in peril. I truly believe that this kind of tyranny (i.e. DEI statements, mandatory DEI trainings, mandatory affirmation of ideologies such as the gender ideology) are a danger to liberty in this country, they are a danger to academic progress, and a danger to our societal culture of free expression and innovation. The standard for thousands of years has been tyranny and the US was founded by people escaping oppression. By what I am reading in your comments, you have also experienced some of this "DEI" oppression. I love MSU, it has done so much for me. My department is wonderful, I love the people there. I just feel that this is something that needs to be dealt with. I did not experience this 3 years ago. It has gotten progressively worse in the last 3 years, and it needs to stop.