Posted on 11/09/2001 3:39:55 AM PST by Mr. Mulliner
Tufts University Declares Open Season on Patriots
By Joshua Martino
FrontPageMagazine.com | November 9, 2001
PATRIOTISM, HONOR, AND PACIFICISM—everywhere but on America’s most politically correct college campuses these are virtues. Unfortunately, my friend Sam Dangremond and I go to Tufts University. Like many liberal arts schools, loving America at Tufts can be hazardous to your health.
Sam is the editor-in-chief of the campus’ conservative magazine, The Primary Source. At a left-leaning university, that’s a tough job. I should know; I was Sam’s predecessor. In my four years at Tufts, I’ve seen leftists mobilize against swordfish in the cafeteria, decry the inherent racism of The Lion King, and protest a lecture by Colin Powell. I thought I’d seen the worst of campus radicalism by my senior year when I let Sam take over as chief editor. Then one night, three campus radicals assaulted Sam because he displayed the American flag.
One of our university’s most sacred traditions is painting a cannon on the main quad. Political groups, fraternities, and boyfriends who forget their anniversaries decorate the mock relic from the U.S.S. Constitution and guard it all night so that no other students paint over their message. On October 11, to honor the victims of the attacks on America, Sam and the staff of our magazine proudly adorned the cannon with the colors of the American flag and the message “God Bless America.” Then the rest of the staff left for the evening. Sam stayed to guard the cannon.
He was alone until 5 am when three student radicals, clad in baggy, hooded sweatshirts and bandanas across their faces, arrived at the cannon and found Sam studying in his sleeping bag. They knew he would be there. Earlier that night, one of them saw us painting and shouted, “We’re gonna get you good.” That leftist kept his promise. Two of the hooded hoodlums seized Sam and wrestled him to the ground. They did so repeatedly as Sam struggled to get up and prevent the third student from painting over the American flag. Finally Sam freed himself and called the police. When Tufts officers arrived at the scene, they found the three leftists, still in disguise, gloating over their masterpiece. Scrawled over the stars and stripes were the words: “Violence has no peace.”
Sam filed assault charges. Soon after, the three leftists submitted counter-charges, claiming Sam had attacked them. The case went before a judiciary panel of Tufts students and administrators. The evidence against the three radicals was overwhelming. Their accounts of the incident contradicted each other. The police report indicated they had admitted to physically restraining Sam at the cannon. Common sense says three students incognito are more guilty than one without a disguise. At Tufts, the penalty for this type of assault is suspension for one semester.
Yet anyone familiar with life on a politically correct campus knows that there is no justice for conservatives. Last Thursday a Tufts tribunal acquitted Sam, but his attackers got a wrist-slap: Probation 1. At Tufts, that’s the same punishment you get for walking outside your dorm with an open beer can. The dean presiding over the case told Sam via email “based on the admissions of [the three leftists] that they intended to paint over your work, even if you were present, and that they practiced physical non-violent strategies prior to going to the cannon, the panel found the three students to be guilty of harassment.”
If not for the severity of the crime, I might have better appreciated the irony: Sam’s attackers are members of a student group called The Coalition for Social Justice and Nonviolence.
Sam and I are now university-sanctioned targets for violence. The staff of our magazine lives in fear of harassment by the new Tufts definition; that is, we fear assault, censorship, and watching our attackers be pardoned for their crimes.
Since the incident at the cannon, I’ve secretly wished that Sam had fought back. I sure would have thrown a punch for Old Glory (and probably would have been suspended for a hate crime). But Sam did not react with violence; a peaceful man, he only demanded that his attackers set him free. The lenient verdict—and perhaps Sam’s passivity—brazened Tufts leftists. Boxloads of our magazine’s issues have been stolen and the radical campus media continues to slander Sam. I tell myself if he had only landed one blow perhaps his defiance would have scared off Sam’s assailants. But Sam is not a coward who needs violence to achieve justice. Too bad for us both that Tufts University needs something more than the truth to do the same.
Joshua Martino is a student at Tufts University. His e-mail address is: jmarti04@tufts.edu.
Support the brave patriotic lad.
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