Bush win cannot be reversed, students must move on

I can understand the dismay and anger of the students who, as The Crimson reported (News, “Students Rally in Copley, Claim Bush ‘Stole’ Election,” Nov. 4), rallied in Copley Square claiming that Bush stole the elections. However, whatever the suspicions over voting machines that allowed no recount and no auditing, that were supplied by the private company Diebold which is owned by staunch supporters of George W. Bush, the fact is the gesture is futile because Bush is in place and will serve out his four years, doing all the things that the students in Copley Square, that I and my fellow Canadians and that the majority of informed people around the world fear that he will do.

However, this is not the first time America and the world has faced this dismal situation. Lyndon Johnson’s pursuit of the Vietnam War and the election of Nixon created a similar situation. What is needed from American students now is something similar to what the students did then. That is, to organize themselves across America and, without succumbing to the extreme radicalism that marked that era, take action to do the good things that the Bushites will not do, such as: reversing the despoilment of the environment, ensuring that large corporations, in particular drug companies do not take research and patents that the American people have paid for and with the connivance of the Federal Government and various research institutions, convert them into corporate possessions on which they earn billions of dollars.

Action is needed to reverse the further dispossession of the working poor. There is of course much much more to be done. To quote Martin Luther King, “It is easy to be noble, just undertake noble tasks.” For those of the Harvard community who accept this truth, America now presents many opportunities, and furthermore, opportunities to which the word urgent can be attached.

C. ALEXANDER BROWN

Ontario, Canada

November 4