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Ayers, King are Brandeis ideals
by Zachary Matusheski
Op-Ed | 3/17/09
Posted online at 11:19 PM EST on 3/16/09
/ Last updated at 2:22 AM EST on 3/16/09
The University Senate Judiciary committee ruled last week that the $900 to bring Bill Ayers of Weather Underground and Robert H. King of the Black Panther Party was unconstitutional. By the letter of the law, this may be true. But in a case like this, we must look beyond the law to the spirit and history of Brandeis in order to fully understand what Ayers and King have to teach students.
Two radical conceptions were sustained in the founding of Brandeis University. Sometimes, students forget just how radical they were. The first principle that Brandeis was founded on was fairness in admissions; the second, justice across the board for all people. Brandeis was a beacon of hope and fairness in 1948 when lynching was still a way for whites to terrorize blacks and many residents of suburbs were discriminating against blacks, Catholics and Jews.
Some of the great agitators against segregation and ending a shameful war came from Brandeis. The hilarious Abbie Hoffman used to walk our campus grounds. He practiced guerilla theater and actually tried to nominate a pig for president in 1968. Though he has since passed away, his unique legacy as an activist lives on.
Angela Davis graduated from Brandeis in 1965. Once placed on FBI's top 10 most wanted list because a gun registered in her name was used in a murder, her trial and acquittal were among the most influential in the last 50 years. When Ronald Reagan was governor of California, he waged a war against her academic career. In 1970 he circulated a memo firing Davis for her political sympathies. He swore she would never teach in the University of California system. She boldly ran against Reagan as vice president on the Communist Party ticket and now teaches at UC-Santa Cruz.
Davis and Hoffman were both harsh in their criticisms of the government and society. Likewise, Brandeis' existence itself in the late 1940s was a criticism of the problems with the government and society in American way of life. Bill Ayers and Robert H. King represent contemporaries of Hoffman and Davis. In the spirit of Brandeis' foundation, we should embrace these two personalities and welcome them to Brandeis wholeheartedly.
Two radical conceptions were sustained in the founding of Brandeis University. Sometimes, students forget just how radical they were. The first principle that Brandeis was founded on was fairness in admissions; the second, justice across the board for all people. Brandeis was a beacon of hope and fairness in 1948 when lynching was still a way for whites to terrorize blacks and many residents of suburbs were discriminating against blacks, Catholics and Jews.
Some of the great agitators against segregation and ending a shameful war came from Brandeis. The hilarious Abbie Hoffman used to walk our campus grounds. He practiced guerilla theater and actually tried to nominate a pig for president in 1968. Though he has since passed away, his unique legacy as an activist lives on.
Angela Davis graduated from Brandeis in 1965. Once placed on FBI's top 10 most wanted list because a gun registered in her name was used in a murder, her trial and acquittal were among the most influential in the last 50 years. When Ronald Reagan was governor of California, he waged a war against her academic career. In 1970 he circulated a memo firing Davis for her political sympathies. He swore she would never teach in the University of California system. She boldly ran against Reagan as vice president on the Communist Party ticket and now teaches at UC-Santa Cruz.
Davis and Hoffman were both harsh in their criticisms of the government and society. Likewise, Brandeis' existence itself in the late 1940s was a criticism of the problems with the government and society in American way of life. Bill Ayers and Robert H. King represent contemporaries of Hoffman and Davis. In the spirit of Brandeis' foundation, we should embrace these two personalities and welcome them to Brandeis wholeheartedly.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
AnnG
posted 3/31/09 @ 5:26 PM EST
Uhhh... what do they have to "teach" the students of Brandeis? Like, how to build bombs? Or how to "kill the pigs"? Anyway, who needs the Black Panther Party when you've got ACORN, its direct descendent, a perpetrator of voter fraud?
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