Posted on 01/21/2003 8:56:59 AM PST by conservativecorner
DURHAM -- A speaking invitation to a woman who spent 14 years in prison for conspiring to plant a bomb in the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., has riled some Duke students.
The Duke Conservative Union is questioning why Laura Whitehorn -- a woman it calls a convicted terrorist -- was invited by a visiting professor to speak at the university March 3.
"It is rather perverse to have her here on campus when we’re at war with terrorism," said Bill English, a Duke senior and adviser to the group. "We are challenging the values of having an ex-terrorist on campus who is not repentant and who still advocates violence."
On Nov. 7, 1983, a bomb exploded around 11 p.m. in a public corridor near a Senate cloak room. No one was injured, but the explosion damaged a wood-paneled conference room near the Senate Chamber and the offices of Sen. Robert Byrd.
Whitehorn was convicted of conspiring to plant the bomb. She said she was protesting U.S. military action and that she and others took "great care" to make sure no one would get hurt. The group’s aim was to cause property damage only, she said.
"I have never been a terrorist," Whitehorn, 57, said in a telephone interview Monday night. Terrorists target civilians, she said.
"This is really a free speech issue," she said of the campus controversy. "The most important thing in college is to listen to different viewpoints and then you make up your mind. ... If we can shut people up and so easily intimidate them, then we’re back in the ’50s."
The university has defended Whitehorn’s invitation, saying it hosts speakers with a wide range of views and urges debate on a wide variety of ideas.
"Duke does not exert control over or pressure its faculty and departments in their selection of campus speakers," associate vice president David Jarmul said in a statement posted on Duke’s Web site Friday. It was posted in response to an online opinion article appearing on the Wall Street Journal’s Web site criticizing Whitehorn’s appearance.
"One of our nation’s greatest values, and one we at Duke celebrate, is the freedom for people to express their thoughts openly," the statement said.
It also explained that Whitehorn was invited to speak by Becky Thompson, a visiting professor at Duke, about HIV and AIDS in prisons. Whitehorn has researched the topic and worked with POZ Magazine, a monthly magazine aimed at communities affected by HIV and AIDS.
Whitehorn was convicted in 1985 and charged with "conspiracy to oppose, protest and change the policies and practices of the United States government in domestic and international matters by violence and illegal means." She spent 14 years in prison, and was released on parole on Aug. 6, 1999.
It was in prison that Whitehorn first saw women dying of AIDS, she said. At Duke, she will speak about her AIDS work and also about the history of "white radicals’ solidarity with the black liberation movement."
"I was a freshman in college when the Birmingham bombing happened," she said. "I swore I was not going to sit around and go, tsk, tsk."
In college, Whitehorn worked with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a group dedicated to ending segregation in the South and giving blacks a stronger voice in the civil rights movement. In the 1970s, Whitehorn worked with the Black Panther Party and the New Afrikan Independence Movement. In 1971, she led the takeover and occupation of a Harvard building with 400 other women to protest the war in Vietnam and to demand a Women’s Center.
"I’ve been an anti-racism activist for years and years and years. Now I’m doing that through my anti-AIDS work," Whitehorn said. "That’s why the students want to hear from me."
Her visit is being sponsored by the African and African-American Studies Program, the Women’s Studies Program, the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture and the John Hope Franklin Center.
Leon Dunkley, director of the Mary Lou Williams Center, knew little about the event when contacted Monday.
But he said that Whitehorn was invited to campus "with the same amount of integrity that the Conservative Union has when it brings a speaker to campus."
One of those speakers was David Horowitz, a conservative author who has spoken out against reparations for slavery and caused protests at Duke when he bought advertising space in the student newspaper.
Dunkley said dissenters would be welcome.
"I invite all contesters to find out why such a speaker would come," he said.
The students say they oppose sponsoring such an event with student funds.
"I think it would be an entirely different issue if a student group were to fund her visit, or if she were to speak for free," English said. "We think it’s the nature of the support, the nature of the funding that makes this so odious."
Whitehorn said she did know how much she would be paid for her visit to Duke. "That will be worked out," she said.
English said his group is also upset at the misleading nature of the university’s advertising for the lecture.
When the university first announced Whitehorn’s visit, the posting on the African and African-American Studies Department Web site read: "Laura Whitehorn is a revolutionary anti-imperialist who spent over 14 years in federal prison as a political prisoner."
On Sunday, the same announcement read: "Laura Whitehorn spent more than 14 years in federal prison for her role in planting a bomb in the U.S. Capitol building in 1983, in protest of the U.S. invasion of Grenada."
English said his group is encouraging students and alumni to e-mail Duke University President Nan Keohane with their opinions.
When Whitehorn does come, English said his group won’t be afraid to question her.
"If she comes to campus, I expect a lot of members will come to the talk and have very deep questions for her," he said. "We would try to turn this into an educational experience. It would just be a little different than what was originally intended."
Night metro editor Mark Schultz contributed to this article.
There aren't too many Arabs in that curriculum (not that I've seen anyway). It primarily consists of Asians, Indians, and whites who live in their parents' basement figuring out how to make elves disappear on their computers.
If you call left wing propaganda "education".
When will our universities wake up to the pack of lies they're being brainwashed with?
I bet Mony has something to do with this :-)))
No doubts about that :-).
Let's see. The woman planted a bomb in a public place. It blew up. She was convicted of the crime. Yet, this so-called reporter still isn't convinced she's a terrorist.
No Bias here. Wonder if Mediawatch.org has this story yet.
Then why not invite all who have bombed or threatened to bomb abortion clinics?
After all, they should be allowed to share their viewpoints, right?
The University of Pittsburgh did something pukey recently. They raised tuition rates by 14% and the college prez coincidentally received a 14% raise. (!!!) There's been some outcry in our local Pittsburgh papers.
The article blamed the trustees. Don't get me started.
She probably was a second choice; Mumia couldn't come to Duke.
-----
Tomorrow the Duke Conservative Union will run an add in the campus paper that says the following:
"The African and African-American Studies Program at Duke University is funding a TERRORIST.
On March 3, the African and African-American Studies Program (AAASP), along with the John Hope Franklin Center, the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture, and the Women's Studies Program, is sponsoring a lecture at Duke University by LAURA WHITEHORN. Who is Laura Whitehorn?
Although the original AAASP advertisement for her talk disingenuously refers to her as a former "political prisoner," Laura Whithorn is a CONVICTED TERRORIST. In 1983, along with a group called the Red Guerrilla Resistance Unit, Laura Whitehorn PLANTED A BOMB IN THE U.S. CAPITOL BUILDING that demolished a section of the building.
The AAASP's original advertisement never mentions Ms. Whitehorn's terrorist activities. And it fails to mention that Ms. Whitehorn spent 1985 to 1999 in prison as a result of her bombing. And it also fails to report that Ms. Whitehorn feels no remorse for her actions; rather, she condones violence as a means to further her radical political agenda. The AAASP only changed its advertisement and admitted Ms. Whitehorn's crime after the Wall Street Journal -- which was informed of the AAASP's dishonesty by the Duke Conservative Union -- publicized the story on its website.
Why did the AAASP try to hide the truth? Why is it using student funds to bring a terrorist to campus? Why did it describe Ms. Whitehorn merely as a "revolutionary anti-imperialist" and a "political prisoner"? Wasn't Timothy McVeigh a "political prisoner," too? After all, Mr. McVeigh had radical political views of his own.
What's next? Perhaps the AAASP will bring Osama bin Laden to speak on campus; he, like Ms. Whitehorn, hoped to detroy the U.S. Capitol Building.
Tell the African-American Studies Program that you don't want it to use your money to condone terrorism E-mail the African-American Studies Program at: jhfranklincenter@duke.edu"
We will also post this soon on our website. The object is, of course, to show the AAASP that this is not an insignificant matter and call them to account for this speaker, by flooding their mailbox. We share in former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis's belief that "sunlight is the best disinfectant." Please feel free to post this ad in any public domain- the more exposure, the better.
Regards,
Bill English
President, DCU
CD
Thanks,
CD
"This is really a free speech issue," she said of the campus controversy. "The most important thing in college is to listen to different viewpoints and then you make up your mind. ...Failing that...plant a bomb...
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