Protests

To the Editors of the Crimson:

Ah, yes, John Yoo, I can see them now, the good ole days when activists were really committed, when things really got done. When protest got 4 people murdered by the National Guard at Kent State. When during the takeover of University Hall in 1969, "(i)n the reception room of Dean Glimp's office, a girl stood with blood trickling down from a cut in the center of her forehead. A state trooper stepped up...and steadied her chin with his thumb. The tenderness of this grasp was deceiving. With his free hand, he raised his long club high over his head, and brought..the club crashing down on the girl's head. The force of the swing nearly lifted the trooper from the floor; the girl screamed and blood cascaded onto Dean Glimp's blue carpet" (The Harvard Strike, L. Eichel et. al.).

Incidentally, as for the positive effects of such protest on the University administration, the takeover resulted in the Resolution and Commitee on Rights and Responsibilities, two of the biggest mockeries of procedural justice ever seen at Harvard. Yes, John Yoo, this "erstwhile activist who favors army surplus clothing and an earring" is afraid of things like arrest, beatings and death. Is that a surprise? Is it something to lament?

Funny, but I don't see the same things that John Yoo sees. Instead of the simplistic view that sees the civil rights movement and the Vietnam protests as having achieved permanent structural change for the better, I see the sixties in conjunction with a Reagan administration which wants to veto further civil rights legislation and which appears all too willing to repeat the stupidities of the past. I see a struggle which takes place over decade, and in which the gains of the sometimes violent and enthusiastic protests of the past are easily lost, if they are not fought for again and again, every day.

One of the things I have learned from activism is that people like Bok and Reagan and Botha have a lot of resources at their command. They have law, tradition, inertia, and if all else fails, clubs and guns on their side. That's where the heart of all this talk of goverance is--these people have a lot of power. I don't have to apologize for trying to be innovative and resourceful, for trying to find new ways of changing things. Being in a riot isn't enough; forceful and militant tactics are only one part of what must of necessity be a more comprehensive strategy. By criticizing activism on the basis of whether it measures up to the sheer spectacle of the sixties, Mr. Yoo falls prey to all the errors of a sensationalist press that values style over content, and ultimately shows only that he doesn't know what he's talking about. Next time, before you fault activists for their lack of commitment, take the time to figure out what's really going on. Jay Hodos '89