Posturing at City Hall

The Cambridge City Council has been trying to get money out of Harvard for years. Last week, however, they went too far. In its Sept. 24 meeting, the Council considered an order urging Harvard to donate as much as $5 million to the victims of the Sept. 11 attack because the bin Laden family has given money to the University. While the language referring to the family was eventually removed, the decision by the council to pass the amended order was highly inappropriate in the current political atmosphere, especially given that Harvard has already showed its generosity.

The sponsor of the order, Councillor Kenneth E. Reeves ’72, based his demands on two newspaper articles: one reporting that Harvard had received money from the bin Laden family, and the other stating that some victims’ families would not be covered by insurance. Reeves, notorious for his grandstanding, simply put two and two together.

However, while Osama bin Laden’s half-brother Baker bin Laden has donated to the University, neither he nor any University donors have in any way been associated with terrorist acts. The bin Laden family is quite large, with Osama one of 52 children, and the family has condemned the mass murder that Osama appears to have perpetrated. The bin Laden scholarships go to deserving law and design students, and the assumption that a donor with the same name—or family, or appearance—must be a terrorist is a dangerous one.

Cambridge Mayor Anthony D. Galluccio, the man whom this page supported in the last elections, also showed his true colors during the debate. Galluccio was the only councillor who did not support the order. In a statement marked by justice and generosity, Galluccio said, “I just did not feel like that was an appropriate way to communicate our feelings to our neighbors.”

Indeed, at a time like this, it would have been fitting to see the Council make a gesture of solidarity with the University and its students, many of whom hail from New York. Instead, the Council engaged in the kind of pettiness which too often overwhelms its proceedings.

Harvard has already donated $1 million to a project appropriate for its role as a university: the funding of higher education for the children and spouses of the Sept. 11 victims. Harvard’s gift was generous, and it should feel no moral qualms about accepting donations from individuals with no connection to terrorism or terrorists save the unfortunate coincidence of family or name.