Columbia University students heckled a war hero during a town-hall meeting on whether ROTC should be allowed back on campus.
"Racist!" some students yelled at Anthony Maschek, a Columbia freshman and former Army staff sergeant awarded the Purple Heart after being shot 11 times in a firefight in northern Iraq in February 2008. Others hissed and booed the veteran.
Maschek, 28, had bravely stepped up to the mike Tuesday at the meeting to issue an impassioned challenge to fellow students on their perceptions of the military.
"It doesn't matter how you feel about the war. It doesn't matter how you feel about fighting," said Maschek. "There are bad men out there plotting to kill you."
Several students laughed and jeered the Idaho native, a 10th Mountain Division infantryman who spent two years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington recovering from grievous wounds.
Maschek, who is studying economics, miraculously survived the insurgent attack in Kirkuk. In the hail of gunfire, he broke both legs and suffered wounds to his abdomen, arm and chest.
He enrolled last August at the Ivy League school, where an increasingly ugly battle is unfolding over the 42-year military ban there.
More than half of the students who spoke at the meeting -- the second of three hearings on the subject -- expressed opposition to ROTC's return.
They're not anti-war. They're anti-American.
Update, 2/23/11: Two links included here--supporting my view that both the students and the administration of the Ivies "hates (sic) the military and has for more than a generation.
Come on that's a leap in logic. You're conflating some student protests with University policy.
ReplyDeleteDarren
ReplyDeleteYou're not a liar or a fool and your being generous only calling the place anti-American. Somewhere up there Ike is looking down with disgust at the college he was president of.
The students are mouthing the beliefs of those who make the policies. They're the same type of people.
ReplyDelete"Some student protests"? It's the reflection of the university's official stance and that of much of the faculty.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's my blinkered conservative viewpoint but there's not much to be proud of in acting like poorly-brought up, over-indulged children but that's the only accurate description of those "protesters" and those they're aping as well.
Sadly, not unexpected for an institution of this type and in this location. See an incident at the movies.
ReplyDeleteThe Ivies used DADT as a convenient excuse. The don't mind taking DOD grants and they don't mind working for think tanks that provide the new military technology, but to actually be confronted with the concept of personal military service is distasteful to them. It's not just arrogance, it's snobbery. They honestly believe themselves to be some sort of elite group. They think they know better than the rest of us. And these are the scions of industry who are running our banks and companies. Is there any wonder why they've been run into the ground?
ReplyDelete