The right to protest

Submitted by James King (United States), Dec 28, 2002 at 10:46

I read your article with interest partly because I was indirectly involved with campus
upset in the'60s -- I was stationed across the circle from American University in DC
when the students at Kent State were shot by the National Guardsmen. In my 30
years plus career in the U. S. Navy, I was fortunate to visit many countries in the
"free world"; a number of which I was stationed in, several I 'just visited'. Not one
to be content staying on the base, I found it to be to my benefit to venture out into
the 'hinterlands' and talk directly with the local people. You would be surprised at
the conversations that can develop when one knows just a word or two of the
local language and the other party knows just a word or two of English. For the
most part, I found that for the most part, Americans as INDIVIDUALS are considered
to be fairly nice people, liked by the locals; BUT, our government is strongly disliked,
and the main reason was -- and is -- "How dare your government think it has the
right to dictate how we do - or should - run our country?" Your article dealt with the
way professors are presenting the current 'problems' to college and university
students and the reactions to these teachings. I, for one, think it's a good way to
get the point across: as individuals, Americans are considered to be "okay" but as
far as the government goes -- it sucks!! Bush started out by wanting to quote
stamp out terrorism and terrorists unquote; yet, he practices some of the same
tactics; i.e., "Saddam, if you don't get down off your high horse, I'm gonna blast ya
'til ya do" knowing full well that to accomplish this feat, he will direct American troops
to needlessly kill Iraqi civilians. And for what? In my opinion, it's the oil for the
simple reason that our intelligence gathering by satellite and paid informants can get
him the information needed to locate and destroy any 'weapons of mass destruction.
Most importantly, he is all up in arms about 'nuclear proliferation' and wants to stop
Iraq from having such devices. He should first and foremost tell Arial Sharon that
Israel needs to turn over THEIR nukes -- or they will not get another penny from US
taxpayers -- and then he'll see about helping them out. The fact that our college
professors and students protest against what our government is condoning on one
hand -- Israeli governmental terrorism; and we US taxpayers are footing the bill for
it -- and striking out blindly against others (Iraq) using vague and as yet not
verified 'information' is totally against the premise upon which our great nation was
founded. Protests by professors and students usually leads to wide media coverage
and sometimes results in rethinking of the situation at the highest levels of our
government. Let us hope and pray that some of the protestors will be heard and
heeded this time.

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