Sally Shaw
RE: Dave Airhart’s speaking truth to power
Dear Kent State University Administrators:
I write you as a concerned citizen, traumatized by the death of four students at Kent State University in 1970. I was in high school at that time, and active in the anti-war movement there. Today I am a core group member of the Traprock Peace Center, in Deerfield, Massachusetts. I recently heard of the punishment of one of your students, Dave Airhart, an Iraq war veteran, for protesting the recruitment of Kent State students for the Iraq war. I was not there, and have only heard second hand what happened, but it appears that Mr. Airhart was protesting in a non-violent and creative fashion that harmed no one. Yet the response of the recruiters and of the University administration appears to be inappropriate and ill-advised.
I am deeply disappointed that Kent State University has not learned from the past. Any recruiter who physically assaults a student for any reason should be banned from returning to campus, at the very least. That the recruiter assaulted an Iraq War veteran is very unfortunate for you. We must embrace the fact that we live in troubled and divided times, and once again there has been a great deal of deception of the public, as there was during the Vietnam War. There is an anguish that is rising with the death toll in Iraq, that needs expression. Thoughtful, creative, non-violent expression is allowed by our constitution–that is the import of the young veteran’s statement on the climbing wall. That is the teachable moment. The need for dialogue, debate, even handed support of everyone’s civil rights, and examination of the facts is the job of anyone involved in educating young people. These are the bases of a University education in the classical sense. Is the Iraq War veteran who opposes an illegal and immoral war wrong? Or is it his action that challenged the status quo you found wrong? Should speaking one’s truth from the heart be practiced only in the classroom, or in every aspect of campus life and in one’s life work afterward? Do you doubt that when a veteran of the Iraq invasion speaks about cannon fodder, he know whereof he speaks? My father, nearly killed in the Korean conflict, lived to tell the tale. He uses the same words as Mr. Airhart. He knows about the brainwashing recruits receive to inure them to murder. He is a deeply religious man who speaks his truth without fear, and would do anything to prevent young people from going to war. He would admire Dave Airhart, and so must I. How can we educate caring, conscious citizens who value and understand what this country stands for, if they cannot exercise even their first Amendment rights on campus? For Shame!
Sally Shaw
Gill, Massachusetts
On behalf of herself and Traprock Peace Center
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that really matter.” ~MLK