College embroiled in battle with the Pentagon over an art exhibit with works from Guantanamo

A criminal justice college in New York City is embroiled in a battle with the Pentagon over exhibiting and helping to sell artwork by suspected al Qaeda terrorists at Guantanamo Bay.

John Jay College of Criminal Justice is displaying 36 pieces of art by Gitmo detainees but the Department of Defense wants the paintings and sculptures destroyed. The school is funded by tax payers.

Families of 9/11 victims were particularly upset to learn about the artwork. 'I can't understand how this college in particular would allow such a thing. Where's their decency? Where's their dignity? . . . It's denying and softening what happened. What's next, hanging up the art of John Wayne Gacy?' Michael Burke told the New York Post.

The exhibit, titled 'Ode to the Sea: Art from Guantanamo Bay,' was curated by John Jay art crime professor Erin Thompson with archivist Paige Laino and artist and poet Charles Shields.

John Jay College?! If we could only bring him back.

John Jay (1745 – May 17, 1829) was an American statesman, Patriot, diplomat, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, signatory of the Treaty of Paris of 1783, second Governor of New York, and the first Chief Justice of the United States (1789–1795) appointed by President George Washington.

Long an opponent of slavery, Jay also worked to ratify the United States Constitution in New York in 1788 by pseudonymously writing five of the several The Federalist papers, along with the main authors Alexander Hamilton and James Madison.

Jay, who served as vice-president (1816–21) and president (1821–27) of the American Bible Society,[43] believed that the most effective way of ensuring world peace was through propagation of the Christian gospel. Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest, of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers.” He also expressed a belief that the moral precepts of Christianity were necessary for good government, saying, “No human society has ever been able to maintain both order and freedom, both cohesiveness and liberty apart from the moral precepts of the Christian Religion. Should our Republic ever forget this fundamental precept of governance, we will then, be surely doomed.”

As the necessity and inevitability of war became evident, Jay threw his support behind the revolution and the Declaration of Independence.

On June 23, 1782, Jay reached Paris, where negotiations to end the American Revolutionary War would take place. Benjamin Franklin was the most experienced diplomat of the group, and thus Jay wished to lodge near him, in order to learn from him. John Adams credited Jay with having the central role in the negotiations noting he was “of more importance than any of the rest of us.”

In 1964, the City University of New York’s College of Police Science was officially renamed the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Excerpts from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jay#Religion

Agreed, Daniel. I do love history.

Recorded in Henry Livingston's diary are visits from John Jay and his wife Sarah.

Jul 1 '78 "Judge Jay Mrs Jay servant & pair horses here 9 days"

Oct 5 '79 "In the evening Mr Jay came here with his horse"

Oct 6 '79 "Mrs Jay & footman & one other horse"

Madrid, 8 December, 1781.

Dear Benson:

I had yesterday the pleasure of receiving your favor of the 30th October last - the only one that has come to my hands since I left Philadelphia. The letter you mention to have written when General Washington was in Westchester County has miscarried, and I the more regret it as it probably contained some particulars about my father's family, of whom I hear little except by persons at a distance from them. ...

I have been informed that my father had been robbed, that he removed his family to Poughkeepsie, and that on the way he lost one of his servants (but which I know not) by an unfortunate accident. I am to this moment ignorant of the particulars except so far as they have been conveyed by report. I wish to know where he lives and how he does; nobody writes me a syllable about Peter and Nancy. This distressed family are never out of my thoughts or heart. Henry Livingston, Jr. has been so kind as to write a letter to Mrs. Jay, and for which we are much obliged to him. I wish, however, he had been as particular about my father as about my son. You tell me he is the solace of my father. This circumstance makes me regret their parting. So few rays of comfort beam on that good and affectionate parent of mine that it is a pity that he should be deprived of those which it seems he derives from the company and prattle of his little grandson. It must not be. You, my good friend, must manage this matter for me.

Harry Livingston, I imagine, lives in the neighborurhood. His wife is an excellent woman, and in my opinion a rara avis in terra. I believe they both wish me well, and would not refuse to oblige me by taking my son to live with them and treating him as they do their own. In that family he would neither see nor be indulged in immoralities, and he might every day or two spend some hours with his grandfather, and go to school with Harry's children; or otherwise as you may think proper. At any rate he must not live with his grandfather, to whom he would in that case be as much trouble as satisfaction.

This is a point on which I am decided, and therefore write in very express and positve terms. Unless objections strike you that I neither know or think of, be so kind as to speak to Mr. and Mrs. Livingston about it. I will cheerfully pay them whatever you may think proper, and I would rather that you should agree to a generous allowance than a mere adequate compensation. In case Mr. and Mrs. Livingston should consent to this, be pleased then to mention it to my father and the family...

I entreat your attention to this subject and beg that you will extend your regard for the father to the son and family of

Your affectionate friend,

John Jay.

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