Letter to Editor: Campus Demonstrations Correct

0 Responses

1. I’m guessing that you joined SNCC in your late teens or early 20’s. What a time it must have been; probably your first time away from home or college dorm for an extended time; bussing through the backroads of a still simple south, improvising meals, sleeping arrangements, your new life. And doing it with like-minded, mostly new, friends with the energy we only have in that magic period of our lives. And, best of all, doing something that’s been needed doing for a long time.
   At about the time you took to the road, I also got the bug. 24 years old, fresh out of the US Navy, working in the defense business and with a small family, I joined the ’64 Goldwater presidential campaign. To be sure, there was no “rough”travel and I was assured a comfy bed every night but I had the experience of working with like-minded people on a common cause that left me with many good memories. I read the books, led the rallies. Boy, those were the days.
   I did that once. Family and job come first. And with retrospect in the years that followed, I came to be less certain of the Goldwater cause. I now realize that I simply got swept up in a social movement without hearing the warning bells. I never did the critical thinking required to analyze where the movement was going under the backroom leadership of some very dark figures.
   Based on your list of righteous protests, you appear to have picked the right causes from the get-go…..until now. These protests are not just supporting the rights of Gazan residents, they are specifically supporting Hamas, rightfully designated a terrorist organization that doesn’t care a whit about what Gazans think……only what they can gain from any situation….a crime gang government. Have you actually seen films of the 10/7 massacre engineered by Hamas? Their own cameras record beheadings, stabbing, shooting, rapes and every other unimaginable inhuman cruelty. Hamas did this! “HAMAS DID THIS”, they shout.
   Our student protesters are blind and being led into an action that they, like me, will look back on with regret, like me. You may too.

   1. Mr. Barron: The campus protests are against Israel’s continuing air and ground attacks on Gaza. This has become an offensive and one-sided paroxysm of death and destruction, not a “war.” It’s ludicrous to think Hamas could spring another October 7 surprise. Israel’s not “defending itself.” Rather, Israel is destroying Gaza’s civilian population and may well find itself in front of the World Court in Geneva.

      1. I have every expectation that, allowed to survive this fight, Hamas will lick it’s wounds and arise again in exactly the same form to again lob missles into Israel and, eventually pull off an even greater surprise than 10-7. Bibi is exactly right. This isn’t over by a long shot. As long as there’s a single spark of Hamas or Hamas diaspora remaining somewhere and as long as sponsor states like Iran remain, this threat will remain. When will this dawn on us? If Hamas finally collapses, there will be another…..and another.

         We’re lucky to live in the USA, protected by sheer size and two oceans. I go to sleep confident that my worst real threat is of natural origin. In Israel, everyone’s a soldier…..for life. If a lot of these ambrosia-fed Palestinians-for-a-day had to survive in that environment, they might think more critically before donning the Palestinian mantle and battle cry.

         1. It’s hard to agree when “alternative facts” are deployed, e.g., your assertion that “Bibi is exactly right.” Mr. Barron, Vietnam and Gaza are mirror images of massive destruction and murder by two bully nations. Busting students in the Sixties and Seventies didn’t work, so why will it now?