Hero’s unwelcome; Wounded Iraq vet jeered at Columbia

They may laugh and jeer all day long but they’ll be the bloodied hypocrites who’ll come screaming for someone to stop whomever attacks them as the Veteran is right there are too many groups and people to count Globally who would love to maim, pillage, and burn the very people who heckled the Veteran.

Appeasement does not make for good armor against the blade that seeks blood.

This Letter is from A FOURTH GENERATION COLUMBIA FAMILY:

President Bollinger,
I have written to you on other occasions regarding this same topic: the disdainful treatment of our Military on the Columbia Campus. The latest outrage of your students heckling SSG Anthony Maschek, an American hero, especially without consequence or denunciation from your administration, is absolutely disgraceful and beyond the pale.

I might also point out the utter hypocrisy of your administration’s continued refusal to allow ROTC back on campus even after Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell has been repealed. Clearly your denial of freedom of speech and association to the Military, and to those who bravely seek to serve our nation while also attending your university, is simply a matter of anti-Military discrimination rather than any sort of principled stand regarding gay rights, as you have disingenuously asserted for so long..

My grandfather received his BA and MD from Columbia. My father received his MD there. My mother received two masters degrees from Columbia. I received my BA and JD; my husband his JD and my daughter her MSW. Even with a rich Columbia history such as this, I am now mortified to be associated with this university.

I can assure you that your school will never hear from me or anyone in this family again—certainly as far as donations are concerned.

Carolyn Aufses Blashek
Barnard ’76; CLS ’79

@Old Trooper2: Awesome letter! Too bad more good, patriotic Americans like her won’t write similar letters.

When the talk is about the “DUMBING DOWN OF AMERICA” this is EXACTLY what they mean….

This is the ‘Tolerance’ of the left… We will keep “Cheering on the oppressors” of the world!

But we will disrespect as much as possible and at every turn our American National Heroes at all costs!!!!!

I wish I could send Anthony a personal email to let him know all of America doesn’t feel this way. And those who disrespected him have no souls. They are weak, weak, small people. May God Bless you Anthony Maschek! Thank you for your service and for protecting me and my fellow Americans who support you and your family.

Too bad he could not withdraw out of Columbia and be somewhere where there weren’t so many dumb arses …. He deserves to be somewhere where there is a lot more respect for people of his stature and courage.

What more can we say:

Columbia University political scientists Richard Andrew Cloward and Frances Fox Piven

Authors of the Cloward Piven Strategy, long time political activists, socialists. Frances Fox Piven still returns to Columbia every spring for the Socialist Scholars Conference held there.

That’s many years worth of socialist indoctrination of the alumni that attend/ed Columbia. Not only was that young man brave on the battlefield, he knew when he prepared his speech what he was in for yet he took the mic. That deed opened up a hole for the rest of the country to AGAIN look through, unfortunately there are too many in that institution that can’t be humbled, shamed or open minded to the world outside of their cocoon.

Some escape the indoctrination, I’m positive that will be the case for the young warrior, the family from OT’s letter and others; but look at where Piven remains to this day….representing decades of harmful, wasted thought she was able to infect to many with, Obama being one.

Good Morning President Bollinger,

While I expect your inbox has been flooded with responses to the most recent iteration of the controversy surrounding Columbia’s relationship with the military, I could not help but add my own to the pile. I graduated from Columbia in December of 2009 with a degree in Art History and commissioned as a 2ndLt in the Marine Corps on 23 January 2010 at Alfred Lerner Hall on our campus. I have been critical of the University in the past and continue to be so in regards to its relationship with the military, but I have a great respect and fondness for it as well.

Many of the current attacks on the Columbia community quite fairly hit the mark on the hypocrisy regarding Columbia’s current refusal to allow the presence of an ROTC program on campus. It is indefensible to argue that Columbia need not help to shoulder the burden of our nation’s defense by offering its support to filling out the ranks of the military’s officer corps. In refusing to allow ROTC on our campus we are tarnishing Columbia’s long and distinguished record of service and undermining the University’s deserved reputation as an institution worthy of great respect. While there are legitimate concerns surrounding the return of ROTC to Columbia, whether they be philosophical or logistical, none outweigh the importance of continuing Columbia’s tradition of public service and excellence.

To be fair, where many of these attacks entirely miss the mark is where they paint Columbia as a homogeneous place in which the military is summarily mocked and dismissed. I did not find that to be the case. Indeed, while I often encountered a level of ignorance in regards to the idea of military service that was utterly baffling and disappointing given the school’s role as a preeminent center of learning, I also found there to be great support throughout the student body and the administration. Chaplain Davis was a regular and strong supporter of military efforts on behalf of future officers and veterans alike while I was a student, and the same was true of many of my professors, such as Douglas Chalmers and Kenneth Jackson. Chaplain Davis and some of my professors were kind enough to attend my commissioning ceremony on campus a little over a year ago, an act which I greatly appreciated. In addition, I found Dean Moody-Adams to be amenable and supportive in the short period that I dealt with her during my final semester.

With that, let us remake Columbia’s image with the realities of people like Chaplain Davis and the numerous professors whom I counted as supporters of my decision to serve in the Marines. The realities of the Columbia community are more rich, complex, and robust than the current public debate would indicate, and the return of ROTC would serve to highlight our best rather than herald the embarrassment of our very worst.

Respectfully and, more importantly, Semper Fidelis,

Austin Q. Byrd
2ndLt
United States Marine Corps

President Bollinger,

Sir, I am writing regarding Colombia’s treatment of our military’s wounded on your campus. Specifically, Anthony Maschek, an American hero. This is absolutely disgraceful. You need to denounce such behavior for it is because of wounded veterans your students have free speech but this is certainly lost on the Columbia student body and administration.

My uncle a WWII veteran (now deceased) received his masters from Columbia. Your students and administration dishonor him.

G.I.W.

http://www.stripes.com/blogs/stripes-central/stripes-central-1.8040/vets-groups-appalled-by-heckling-at-columbia-1.135686

Vets groups appalled by heckling at Columbia

WASHINGTON – Veterans groups are seething over news that wounded Iraq war veteran Anthony Maschek was heckled by fellow Columbia University students during a recent forum about bringing ROTC back to the school.

The former Army staff sergeant was shot 11 times and lost a leg in a firefight in northern Iraq in February 2008, and spent two years at Walter Reed Army Medical Center recovering from his wounds. He was hissed and booed last week as he spoke out in support of the ROTC program and the military, according to news reports.

Yesterday, Veterans of Foreign Wars National Commander Richard Eubank issued an angry statement condemning the response, calling those involved “banal and juvenile” and questioning the school’s leadership.

“The faculty and the parents of the students who participated in the harassment of Mr. Maschek need to be reminded that all the freedoms we enjoy as Americans have been earned by generations of patriots such as Anthony who were willing to fight to protect the liberties we, as Americans, enjoy,” he wrote. “This is particularly true when considering the current war on terrorism is a direct result of the devastating attacks that occurred ten years ago in Columbia’s neighborhood.”

Jimmie Foster, national commander of The American Legion, said in a statement that while his group supports the rights of students to protest the return of ROTC “we cannot condone the lack of civility and ad hominem attacks directed at one of our nation’s heroes. Students’ time would be better spent honoring this brave soldier for the wounds he sustained in honorable service, and acquiring an appreciation for the price others paid for the freedom they now enjoy.”

The story has become a popular target for conservative commentators, blasting the school as a haven for out-of-touch elitists. Students at the event carried anti-military signs reading “The military preys on low income communities” and “1 in 3 female soldiers experiences sexual assault in the military.”

The university actually has one of the largest student veteran chapters in the country, and students there were among the founders of Student Veterans of America. In a post on the Department of Veterans Affairs blog, writer Alex Horton said the events shouldn’t be an indictment against all students at the school, but they do raise troubling questions about the health of civilian-veteran relations throughout the country.

“A lack of interaction with active duty members and Veterans has bred ignorance, mistrust, and fear that must be reversed if Vets are going to succeed after their service,” he wrote.

In a statement to the school newspaper Monday night, Maschek defended the school, saying that the heckling came from “a small number of individuals” and overall his time at the school has been positive.

“Thus far, my fellow students have been very interested in hearing about my past life and military experiences,” he said. “Columbia has been attempting to get more veterans to share their experiences here, and the atmosphere here has been supportive despite the actions of a very small minority of the town hall participants.”

University officials are considering lifting the school’s 42-year ban on ROTC chapters on campus, and have created a task force to poll students and faculty on the issue. No timeline has been announced for that decision.

@ilovebeeswarzone:

Beezy, I don’t think the uproar this has caused or thousands of letters will do anything to change their ways at Columbia. Some people will withhold money, but other like minded socialist/marxist creatures will step up and fill the void.

Seriously, let us quote the Solomon Amendment, yet one more time:

(a) Denial of Funds for Preventing ROTC Access to Campus. – No funds described in subsection (d)(1) may be provided by contract or by grant to an institution of higher education (including any subelement of such institution) if the Secretary of Defense determines that that institution (or any subelement of that institution) has a policy or practice (regardless of when implemented) that either prohibits, or in effect prevents –

(1) the Secretary of a military department from maintaining, establishing, or operating a unit of the Senior Reserve Officer Training Corps (in accordance with section 654 of this title and other applicable Federal laws) at that institution (or any subelement of that institution); or

(2) a student at that institution (or any subelement of that institution) from enrolling in a unit of the Senior Reserve Officer Training Corps at another institution of higher education.

http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/uscode/10/A/II/49/983

10 U.S.C. § 983 : US Code – Section 983: Institutions of higher education that prevent ROTC access or military recruiting on campus: denial of grants and contracts from Department of Defense, Department of Education, and certain other departments and agencies
Search 10 U.S.C. § 983 : US Code – Section 983: Institutions of higher education that prevent ROTC access or military recruiting on campus: denial of grants and contracts from Department of Defense, Department of Education, and certain other departments and agencies

OK then. Just Cut off the Federal Funding, Grants, Contracts and ALL based upon the US Code, Sections Cited above, Indict all of those that Restricted ROTC, Military Recruiting, Etc and lets see what happens…Whoops!
The Eric Holder DOJ won’t enforce it…