San Juan Peace Network

I am writing on behalf of the San Juan Peace Network in support of the two Pace University students facing expulsion as a result of exerising non-violent free speech.

Sandra Day O’Connor recently spoke at Georgetown University, cautioning all Americans to guard, now rather than later, the freedoms we all share. She condemned uncivil attempts by many Republicans to stifle freedoms, in particular conservative attacks on the independence of the judiciary. It was fitting that she made such a speech in a university, which is an environment committed to learning, to reason and to rational discourse.

The San Juan Peace Network, formed in opposition to the Iraq War, would have no hesitation designating President Bush and his war cabinet as “war criminals” for their crimes in the pursuit of that War, the detention of “unlawful combatants” of middle eastern descent, and other crimes too numerous to list here. However, President Clinton’s administration knew Rwanda was being engulfed by genocide in April 1994 but buried the information to justify its inaction, which is plenty reason enough for the students at Pace to call the man a war criminal, if only for the sake of discussing what thoughtful, rational-minded citizens should expect from their country’s leadership.

Pace should encourage their students to continue their passionate and non-violent discourse. The University should safeguard the rights of its faculty, staff and students to organize and participate in associations, meetings, and public demonstrations that advocate a point of view. No university should be free, under any circumstance, to censor unpleasant, perhaps noxious views from either side of any partisan line, if those views are offered peacefully.

Josephine Foo

The San Juan Peace Network

http://sanjuanpeace.net