Upon hearing of the events taking place at your campus recently, I was both shocked and ashamed. I was shocked that another university would find it appropriate to commit a gross act of repression directed against free speech, following the brutal attacks inflicted on protesters at my school, Holyoke Community College, and at George Mason University. It seems these schools are not the only institutions with no regard for their students right to freedom of expression.<\/p>\n
I was ashamed, not for Dave Airhart or any others in the counter-recruitment movement, but for Kent State University. It is not enough to be a synonym for campus repression and bureaucratic over-reaction from the previous generation; the administration of Kent State is fighting tooth and nail to reclaim its place as the most repressive school in the United States.<\/p>\n
It is high time that the managers running our colleges and universities began to realize that these institutions exist for the students, not for the president’s and chancellors to enjoy opulent salaries, and certainly not for military recruiters to turn our places of learning into warrens for potential casualties of an unjust and illegal war.<\/p>\n
For being a hero of Kent State University and the Anti-War Movement, Dave Airhart’s action should be considered a triumph of conscience. Rather than punishing him for his uncompromising stand against the militarization of our schools, the administrators of Kent State should be offering him their sincerest thanks. We all owe Dave our thanks for speaking out against this criminal war.<\/p>\n
With this in mind I urge the college to revoke the fine issued against Dave, and to immediately desist from pressing any formal disciplinary charges. Posterity will not kindly judge the persecution of heroes.<\/p>\n
Charles T. Peterson
\nCampus Anti-War Network Delegate,
\nHolyoke Community College Anti-War Coalition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Upon hearing of the events taking place at your campus recently, I was both shocked and ashamed. I was shocked that another university would find it appropriate to commit a gross act of repression directed against free speech, following the brutal attacks inflicted on protesters at my school, Holyoke Community College, and at George Mason… Continue reading Charles T. Peterson<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-141","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grassrootspeace.org\/campus_antiwar_network\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grassrootspeace.org\/campus_antiwar_network\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grassrootspeace.org\/campus_antiwar_network\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grassrootspeace.org\/campus_antiwar_network\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grassrootspeace.org\/campus_antiwar_network\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/grassrootspeace.org\/campus_antiwar_network\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/141\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grassrootspeace.org\/campus_antiwar_network\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}