[Peace] Fwd: [uslaw_educationworker_taskforce] Kent State Threatens Iraq Veteran with Expulsion; How Bush Visit Became the Siege Of Howard U.

Al Kagan akagan at uiuc.edu
Sun Nov 6 20:49:25 CST 2005



Begin forwarded message:

> From: "U.S. Labor Against the War" <uslaw at igc.org>
> Date: November 5, 2005 5:35:53 PM CST
> To: uslaw_educationworkers at lists.riseup.net
> Subject: [uslaw_educationworker_taskforce] Kent State Threatens Iraq  
> Veteran with Expulsion; How Bush Visit Became the Siege Of Howard U.
> Reply-To: uslaw_educationworkers at lists.riseup.net, "U.S. Labor Against  
> the War" <uslaw at igc.org>
>
> Kent State Threatens Iraq Veteran with Expulsion - Activists spring to  
> defense of free speech
>  October 29th, 2005
> http://www.traprockpeace.org/kent_state_students/
> UPDATE: Activists, writers and professors come to the defense of Kent  
> State Students (see statements of support and letters to Kent State  
> administration)
>
>  Join with Anthony Arnove, Bonnie Weinstein, Brian Willson, Camilo  
> Mejia, Charles Jenks, Charles Peterson, Cindy Sheehan, Dave Zirin,  
> David Swanson, Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, Gilda Carbonaro, Hadas Thier,  
> Justino Rodriguez and Nick Bergreen of the “City College 4?, Howard  
> Zinn, Jeffrey St. Clair, Kristin Anderson, Lindsey German for Stop the  
> War Coalition (UK), Michael Letwin, New York City Labor Against the  
> War, Michael Smith of “Berkeley 3?, Mitchel Cohen, Nagesh Rao, Norman  
> Solomon, Pablo Paredes, Phil Gasper, Rania Masri, Rebecca Sambol,  
> Sally Shaw, Sheri Leafgren, Sherry Wolf, Stan Goff, Sunny Miller for  
> Traprock Peace Center, Tariq Khan, and Ward Reilly in supporting Kent  
> State students.
>
>  Kent State Administration Threatens Iraq Veteran with Expulsion
>  by Nikki Robinson
>
>  Call/email the Kent State University administration to tell them how  
> you feel.
>  Carol Cartwright- University President: 330.672.2210  
> Carol.cartwright at kent.edu
>  Greg Jarvie- Dean of Undergraduate Students: 330.672.9494  
> Gjarvie at kent.edu
>  William Ross - Executive Director of the Undergraduate Student  
> Senate: 330.672.3207 wross at kent.edu
>
>  IRAQ WAR veteran and Kent State student, Dave Airhart, is under  
> attack for opposing the war he considers “unjust” and attempting to  
> stop any more students from being used as “cannon fodder.”
>
>  On October 19, the Kent State Anti-War Committee (KSAWC) stood around  
> the Army recruiters, who had brought a rock-climbing wall to entice  
> students over to talk with them. A member of KSAWC and former  
> Afghanistan and Iraq War veteran, David Airhart decided to show his  
> opposition against the war by exercising his rights of free speech.  
> After filling out liability forms Airhart climbed the rock wall. Once  
> he reached the top he took out a banner, which he held under his  
> jacket, and draped it over the wall. The banner read: Kent, Ohio for  
> Peace. Airhart was forced to climb down the back of the wall because a  
> recruiter was coming up the front, yelling at him. As he was climbing  
> down another recruiter came up the back and proceeded to assault  
> Airhart both verbally and physically by pulling his shirt, forcing him  
> off the wall.
>
>  Airhart was fined $105. by city police for disorderly conduct and  
> told that he will have to go to judicial affairs at the university  
> where he will face probation or expulsion. When asked why he wanted to  
> counter-recruit against the military Airhart responded, “I do not feel  
> that the administration should allow the military to recruit their  
> students for an unjust war that is taking the lives of innocent  
> people. They should be protecting their students, not using them for  
> cannon fodder.”
>
>  The recruiter who assaulted Airhart was never charged with disorderly  
> conduct; nor was the bigot who came by screaming profanities and  
> spitting at KSAWC members fined for being disorderly. Somehow an Iraq  
> War veteran hanging a banner, which called for peace, was disorderly  
> and the others were not.
>
>  Even after the atrocities of the May 4, 1970 massacre at Kent State  
> University the military has the audacity to come to campus and attempt  
> to recruit students for their illegal war. However, KSAWC, which is a  
> member of the national grassroots organization, Campus Antiwar Network  
> (CAN), counter-recruits against the military every time they are on  
> campus. We stand around the table of the military, hold signs, chant  
> and pass out literature exposing the lies of recruiters.
>
>  The administration’s blatant attack against the antiwar movement will  
> not be tolerated. We can clearly see that the administration does not  
> want its students and veterans practicing free speech on this campus,  
> especially if we are taking a stand against the war in Iraq. However,  
> we will continue to fight.
>
>  We believe in getting troops out of Iraq now, as well as assuring  
> that they have a voice to stand in opposition to the war when they  
> return. It is obvious that the Kent State administration does not care  
> about Iraq Veterans who attend their school. After everything Airhart  
> had to go through and see as a soldier, after viewing thousands of  
> innocent Iraqi lives being taken, he has every right to exercise his  
> opposition to this war. The administration may have the audacity to  
> punish an Iraq Veteran for speaking out against the war, but the Kent  
> State Anti-War Committee will continue to fight back for all Veterans  
> and students right to exercise free speech against the war. We will  
> continue to challenge our administration’s role in recruiting for the  
> war and demand our right to a ‘recruiter-free’ school.
>
>  Call and e-mail the Kent State University administration and let them  
> know how you feel.
>
>  Carol Cartwright- University President: 330.672.2210  
> Carol.cartwright at kent.edu
>
>  Greg Jarvie- Dean of Undergraduate Students: 330.672.9494  
> Gjarvie at kent.edu
>
>  William Ross - Executive Director of the Undergraduate Student  
> Senate: 330.672.3207 wross at kent.edu
>
>  KSAWC is a member of the national student grassroots organization,  
> Campus Antiwar Network (CAN) - http://www.campusantiwar.net
>  ======================================================
>
>  How Bush Visit Became the Siege Of Howard U.
>  Washington Post
>  By Courtland Milloy
>
>  Sunday, October 30, 2005; Page C01
>
>  It was Soul Food Thursday at Howard University last week, and many  
> students were looking forward to their favorite meal: fried chicken,  
> macaroni and cheese, collard greens and cornbread. At lunchtime,  
> however, students discovered that much of the campus had been locked  
> down and that the school's cafeteria was off limits.
>
>  Apparently, many of them did not know that President Bush and first  
> lady Laura Bush had arrived for a "youth summit" at the Blackburn  
> Center, where the dining hall is located. Stomachs began to growl,  
> tempers flared, and, eventually, a student protest ensued.
>   
>  In case you missed the broadcast Friday on Fox 5 (WTTG-TV), reporter  
> Robbie Chavez was at Howard trying to interview protesting students  
> when a campus security guard showed up and tried to stop him.
>
>  Chavez: The university went to great lengths . . .
>
>  Guard: I'm asking you to leave the campus now.
>
>  Chavez: . . . to hide angry protesting students . . .
>
>  Guard: I'm warning you, you don't do that.
>
>  Chavez: . . . a big effort to keep a lid on the growing frustration.
>
>  During the protest, dozens of students locked arms around a flagpole  
> in the Quadrangle, a designated forbidden zone at the center of the  
> campus, and refused to move despite warnings from campus security that  
> Secret Service rooftop snipers might open fire on them.
>
>  You'd have thought Howard had taken a page right out of the Bush  
> administration playbook on quashing First Amendment freedoms. In a  
> letter posted the day before on a university Web site, President H.  
> Patrick Swygert wrote that, having notified the campus via e-mail in  
> July, he was sending a reminder of the Bush visit. But students  
> complained that they hadn't seen either message and criticized school  
> officials and the Bush administration for poor planning.
>
>  Chavez said: "This is what university police and the Howard  
> University administration did not want publicized: students angry  
> after being shut out of parts of their own university."
>
>  What might have been a public relations coup for Bush -- a visit to a  
> historically black college to show concern for at-risk youths -- ended  
> up as another Katrina-like moment, with the president appearing  
> spaced-out, waving and smiling for television cameras while students  
> were trying to break through campus security to get to the  
> cordoned-off cafeteria.
>
>  Of course, the episode was nothing compared with all the other bad  
> news Bush got last week, including the indictment of White House aide  
> I. Lewis Libby on perjury charges. But what happened at Howard was  
> illustrative nonetheless of how a seemingly minor mess, easily avoided  
> by a more attentive White House, could have repercussions down the  
> road.
>
>  The Republican Party is trying hard to win over black voters before  
> the midterm elections, and Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele needs the  
> support of black Democrats in his bid to become the first black  
> Republican in the U.S. Senate since Howard alumnus Edward Brooke of  
> Massachusetts (1967-1979). So one thing Bush didn't want was a ruckus  
> during a visit to Howard.
>   
>  All he had to do was drop in on Soul Food Thursday, be seen sharing a  
> wing and some collard greens with students -- and score one for the  
> GOP.
>
>  But the visit went from bad to worse. On a day when the U.S. Senate  
> passed a resolution paying tribute to civil rights icon Rosa Parks,  
> who died last week, campus security guards were telling students that  
> if they wanted to eat they'd have to come back when the president and  
> first lady were gone, then go to a service door at the rear of the  
> dining hall and ask for a chicken plate to go. Never mind that a  
> student meal plan at Howard can cost as much as $2,500 a semester.
>
>  Howard is not some hotbed of political activism. The biggest event of  
> the year is homecoming, which features two fashion shows, a step show  
> and lots of hip-hop celebrities. As the rapper Ludacris put it in his  
> summer hit, "Pimpin' All Over the World":
>
>  Jump in the car and ride for hours,
>
>  Makin' sure I don't miss the homecoming at Howard.
>
>  To set off a student protest at this school, you'd have to be  
> politically tone-deaf in the extreme, out of touch and flying blind.  
> And yet, Bush did it.
>
>  God help us in Iraq.
>
> ////////  
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> Have you checked out the USLAW website lately?  New material is posted  
> daily.  The News section is one of the most comprehensive archives of  
> information about labor in Iraq and U.S. policy regarding Iraq  
> available on the Internet.
> http://www.uslaboragainstwar.org
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Al Kagan
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61820
USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax 217-333-2214
akagan at uiuc.edu
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