Free Republic

Not in Your Name For the better part of the last six months, Cornell University has been besieged with students, faculty, and townies marching around campus, wearing black armbands, and chanting “Not in Our Name.” (Not in Our Name is a reference to a radical antiwar organization affiliated with Communist organizer Leslie Cagan.) These folks have been screaming at the top of their lungs about how America’s war against Saddam Hussein is “not in their name.” Let’s review. A few weeks back, former U.N. weapons inspector and child sex offender Scott Ritter came to campus and informed Cornell students that...

<p>On Monday, March 17, St. Patrick's Day, four of us from the Ithaca Catholic Worker Community -- Peter De Mott, who served in both the Marines and the Army including a year in Vietnam as a Marine, Clare and Teresa Grady and Daniel Burns -- went to the Army-Marine Recruiting Center in an act of nonviolent civil resistance to war making. We read the following statement and poured blood around the entrance to the center, including on the flag, to call attention to the horror of war. It may seem strange. You may wonder -- why did they have to pour blood, why on the flag? We will try to explain by offering the statement that we brought with us on March 17 to the recruiting center.</p>

A study made public today reveals a stunning lack of political diversity in the faculty of Ithaca College (IC), with 117 registered Democrats or Greens (93.6%) versus only 8 registered Republicans or Conservatives (6.4%). At a debate on affirmative action on April 2nd at IC, Tompkins County Republican Chairman Mark Finkelstein contended that there is a distinct lack of political diversity in the IC faculty. IC President Peggy Williams, who attended the debate, declined to acknowledge a lack of political diversity on the IC faculty. IC Professor Gwen Seaquist, who along with Finkelstein was a member of the debate panel,...

<p>MONTOUR FALLS (NY) -- Village officials' plans to put a series of lighted flags at a popular tourist spot has drawn criticism in the community.</p> <p>Members of the Catharine Valley Trail project and some residents have voiced concerns about the village's plan to create an Avenue of Flags, 24 American flags in Shequaga Park that will salute fallen firefighters. They believe the flags will interfere with the path of the trail project.</p>

The following is an actual email notification posted to the web site of The Ithaca Coalition for Global Justice, AKA "The Ithaca Sharks." ------------------------------ From: Jim Semp To: jimsemp@yahoo.com CC: Subject: [Ithaca Sharks] April 12th DC Peace Bus Trip Cancelled Greetings Peace-Loving People of the Greater Cayuga Basin... The Peace Buses for April 12th have been cancelled. Currently, people are seeking alternative actions to express their dissent and opposition to this illegal, immoral, insane, unjustified, unjustifiable, injust [sic], racist, greed-driven, violent, destructive, horrible and deadly war. Not enough tickets were acquired to make a bus trip possible. We are sorry...

<p>With the attack phase of the war in Iraq coming to an end, the anti-war movement seems to be winding down as well, and the party may be over for awhile for the protest crowd.</p> <p>The marches and demonstrations, quite predictably, had no effect whatsoever on the Bush administration's policy decisions. Not that there wasn't an up side: Middle-aged protesters got to relive their youths, and young people got a taste of what they missed in the Sixties. "It was something I needed to do for me," was offered by protesters as an explanation for their activities more often than the belief that their actions would actually do any good. I hope it worked out for them. But now that things are settling down, it's time to focus on the real business of where this country is going.</p>

Tax breaks for office, hotel approved By LAUREN BISHOP Journal Staff ITHACA -- The developer of a proposed office building and hotel in downtown Ithaca has cleared one of the major hurdles that line the way to a planned late summer groundbreaking. The Tompkins County Industrial Development Agency on Tuesday approved the Buffalo-based Ciminelli Development Co.'s request for nearly $3.9 million in property and sales tax breaks for the $26 million project. "This was a really significant step," David Chiazza, Ciminelli's vice president for development, said after Tuesday's meeting, noting that he first appeared before the IDA in July. "We're...

<p>Listen. Listen closely. What do you hear? Do you hear silence? Is there an undeniable silence that is filling the air today?</p> <p>Today, April 9th, 2003, is the seventh annual National Day of Silence. This is a day when people, traditionally students, that support lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) folks vow to be silent for nine hours. This silence is a way to mimic the silence that has been forced upon LGBT people for years through harassment, prejudice, and discrimination.</p>

<p>OWEGO -- Four local anti-war protesters were fined Tuesday for their participation in a demonstration at Lockheed Martin Systems Integration facility in January.</p> <p>On Tuesday in Town of Owego Court, Daniel Burns, Peter DeMott, Lisa Guido, and Antoinette ChenSee, all from Ithaca, were among seven people found guilty of trespassing. They were ordered to pay $100 in fines and about $60 in court fees. Emmy Koponen, of Ithaca, participated but was found not guilty because the judge could not place her at the scene.</p>

<p>ITHACA -- Alternative Community School students, in character as key world leaders Monday, demonstrated the instability of the Middle East by engaging in a series of fiery debates.</p> <p>Students in Chris Sperry's "Facing History and Ourselves" global studies class dressed as George W. Bush, Saddam Hussein, Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat, among others, to participate in the 12th annual ACS Middle East Debates.</p>

<p>But if all goes according to plan there will be appearances by French celebrities, toasts made with French wine, and a celebration of the nation that many Americans have vilified for its opposition to the war on Iraq.</p> <p>Call it a backlash against the backlash. Paul Glover, known throughout Ithaca for activism on any number of traditionally left-wing causes, is calling for Ithaca to host a "FrenchFest" April 30 on the Ithaca Commons.</p>

<p>Ithaca College plans to host a series of seven lectures and a film in April in celebration of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Awareness Month. All events are free and open to the public.</p> <p>A lecture titled "Queer Reading/Reading Queer: Introducing Queer Studies in the First-Year Composition classroom" is planned for noon Tuesday in 101 Textor Hall. Mary Beth O'Connor, assistant professor of writing, will give the lecture.</p>

Paul Glover, a leader of Ithaca's Green Party, in the course of calling for Ithaca to declare a "Franco-Ithacan Friendship Day", has called for a message to be sent to Moroccan demonstrators calling for suicide bombing letting them know that "Ithaca is against the war." Here is the text of the Green Party leader's message, posted to the list serve of the anti-war group "Ithaca Sharks': Subj: [Ithaca Sharks] Ithaca FrenchFest Date: 4/4/03 9:07:09 PM Eastern Standard Time From: paglo@lightlink.com To: green-l@lightlink.com CC: ithacasharks@yahoogroups.com, editor@ithacatimes.com Bonjour! I’ve gotten tired of standing around with candles singing peace songs, looking sad at...

<p>ITHACA -- Ithaca Fair Trade Coalition seeks participants for the first Ithaca Fair Trade Fair, to be held on The Commons on Saturday, May 17.</p> <p>IFTC is looking for speakers to present on fair trade options or the damaging effects of free trade. IFTC is also seeking musicians, vendors offering fairly traded products and local organizations working on fair trade initiatives. The event will coincide with hundreds of others around the world to celebrate World Fair Trade Day.</p>

Political Harassment at CornellBy Joseph SabiaFrontPageMagazine.com | April 4, 2003 Last week, I penned an article for the Cornell Daily Sun in which I presented a case study in liberal bias or rather liberal abuse of the university. Specifically I revealed that a group of professors employed at Cornell University’s College of Human Ecology launched an antiwar organization and used taxpayer-funded resources to indoctrinate students in their cause. I had hoped that by bringing the issue of political abuse of the university to light, we might commence a much-needed dialogue on the lack of ideological diversity at Cornell and strive...

COLUMN TUESDAY, APRIL 01, 2003 Does Antiwar Mean Anti-Israel? The Bully Pulpit By JEREMY WEINBERG Those who know me or read my column regularly can tell you that the only thing I am more unabashed about than my progressive political views is my heritage. I am a Jew and I'm very proud of that. Throughout time, my people have embraced some of the values that I hold most dearly: scholarship, perseverance, compassion and social consciousness. Historically, Jews have more often been thought of as people of the book rather than the sword. Following expulsion from their homeland thousands of years...

My sons grew up loving Star Wars. My oldest, especially, would watch the original trilogy of videos over and over. I saw the stories as a traditional retelling of good versus evil, light versus dark. But I was wrong. We've been led, as a culture, to believe these stories - the good guys always win. Lately, I've been forced to look deeper, to actually think about the morals of these tales. Star Wars is really a Western in a space ship. Bad guys come into town, act immorally, terrorize the God-fearing local population. Then the good guys - those brave...

We have a frontrunner for next year's Campus Outrage Awards, also known as "Pollys," given each spring by the Collegiate Network in recognition of "political correctness, curricular decay, [and] violations of academic freedom and free speech." His name is Nicholas DeGenova, and last week this Columbia University professor wished "a million Mogadishus" upon U.S. troops in Iraq. That translates into 18 million dead American soldiers, most of them probably the same age as DeGenova's undergraduate students. The vile DeGenova will have to wait until next April Fools Day to pick up his Polly award. This year, however, he can congratulate...

<p>ITHACA -- Although Saturday marked the second major antiwar demonstration in Ithaca since the war in Iraq began, the props carried by participants prompted at least one onlooker to wonder whether they were for or against the war.</p> <p>Because the peace march included the theme "Dissent is Patriotic," many of the roughly 300 marchers carried American flags, which people have recently displayed to show their support of the Bush administration's actions.</p>

A Case Study in Faculty Liberal Bias By JOE SABIA Cornell's faculty is overwhelmingly liberal. To paraphrase Bernard Goldberg, the liberal bias is so blatantly true that it's hardly worth arguing about anymore. Leftist professors have no interest in teaching students how to think critically. They reach conclusions on the "proper" way to think and proceed to indoctrinate students in their preferred ideology. The War with Iraq has led many antiwar-minded professors to behave outrageously and unethically. Consider the case of Dr. William Trochim, professor of Policy Analysis and Management (PAM). Trochim is a rabid antiwar activist. Obviously, that is...