Letters to the Editor
by Advocate Staff
To The Editor:
As someone who conceives of democracy “as a way of life,” it bothers me when I see others who self-identify as “left” engaging in behavior that discredits the cause. Case in point: Kevin Barrett and the whole “Loose Change” 9 – 11-was-an-inside-job-crowd. These folks are often critical of the US government (which they should be), but then they want everyone to believe that the Bush Administration has the brains to pull off a conspiracy which makes the story-lines from the combined 5 seasons of 24 look like something Dr. Bunsen hatched in his Muppet lab? A conspiracy as vast as Barrett and company envision involves lots of people, and people tend to talk. Give me a break guys.
Ditto the “leftist” students who disrupted Minuteman (his organization, not his wife’s nickname for him) Jim Gilchrist’s speech at Columbia the first week in October. Freedom of speech, which has allowed many an idea left of the pale to be aired, applies to those whose views we disagree with too. Shutting guests up and bullying them is just as bad if the perp is Bill O’Reilly or the Columbia chapter of the International Socialist Organization.
People like Barrett and the rowdy lefties at Columbia (maybe they’re angry over all the money they’re laying out for the Columbia imprimatur – shoulda gone to the GC guys!) don’t help the cause. They do exactly the opposite. What motivates them? I think D.H. Lawrence was wrong in his assessment of pacifist Bertrand Russell’s motivations, but that his words to the philosopher could be applied to Barrett and the Columbia campus rowdies: “It isn’t in the least true that you, your basic self, want ultimate peace. You are satisfying in an indirect, false way your lust to jab and strike.”
Tony Monchinski
Student in the Political Science Program and author of the forthcoming “The Politics of Education” (Sense Publishers)
To The Editor:
Defending immigrants against Minuteman vigilantes is vital to us throughout CUNY, our classmates, the students we teach and the multiethnic working class of this city. In protesting the Minutemen, we are helping defend literally thousands of “undocumented” students at CUNY. Many are from families that brave dangerous desert or ocean crossings, “Migra” helicopters and now Minuteman vigilantes. In areas around New York (including Long Island and New Jersey), anti-immigrant vigilantes have targeted immigrant day laborers for violent attacks. Now the Minutemen are pushing to organize racist vigilantes inside the city itself.
This is not an issue of “free speech” but of defending ourselves against the Minuteman racists, who are not a debating society but an action squad that helps kill immigrants. They are linked to and have been joined by other fascist and violent racist groups like the National Vanguard, National Alliance and KKK. Just five blocks from the Grad Center on October 7, an anti-Mexican rally by the Minutemen featured skinhead fascists and thugs – one of whom had kicked a Columbia protester in the head and was wearing a shirt with boot prints and the slogan “Stomp Out Illegal Immigration” – screaming for more deportations and attacks on immigrants. It is vital that we defend the students who protested the Minutemen at Columbia University; and that we join with the power of the multiracial labor movement to keep out these murderous vigilante squads.
Sandor John
Adjunct (History) and supporter of the CUNY Internationalist Clubs
