Suzanne R. Carlson
Dear Dr. Bennie McMorris, Den Woodson Hopewell, and Dean Jewel Long,
I am writing out of deep concern for what seems to be unnecessary and undemocratic overreaction to students who joined in the Nationwide Student Walkout on November 2, were booked and threatened with expulsion.
It is my understanding that our Constitution provides for the rights of freedom of speech and assembly, and that it is the obligation of citizens to bring grievances to their government. Citizens must be informed if they are to participate in a democracy. These students were enfleshing democratic principles (without which there is no democracy, only rhetoric and pretense) by trying to educate other students and to promote justice in the face of the injustices of wars and genocide and the crises of New Orleans and HIV/AIDS.
The university has an obligation to protect their students (and others) who protest injustice and demonstrate to arouse others to work together for a better world. I urge you, as administrators involved in this matter, to stand on the side of the Constitution, democracy, justice and social progress by:
* dropping charges against these students, and cancel all hearings,
* arranging for mediation to reconcile differences and find creative solutions (with all individuals involved),
* holding university-wide events that teach the history of social struggle in this country, as well as the history of active nonviolence around the world, and
* change your restrictive policies on student demonstrations/protests to reflect democratic principles and to provide for true social progress.
You have a choice: to promote fear and injustice, or to promote truth and justice and social progress. Please know that you will be supported by millions of citizens if you have the courage to do what is right.
Respectfully,
Suzanne R. Carlson, 86 Sanderson Street, Greenfield MA 01301; suzannec@crocker.com