On October 19, David Airhart, an ex-Marine and freshman anthropology major at Kent State, took part in the Kent State Anti-war Committee (KSAWC) protest against military recruiters on the KSU campus. Airhart had signed the liability release forms to scale the recruiters’ 30-ft climbing wall, put on the safety harness and climbed to the top of the wall, where he unfastened the harness and spread out a banner reading KENT OHIO 4 PEACE. One of the recruiters started climbing the wall, objecting to the banner; Airhart climbed down the back, where he was met by another recruiter who tried to pull him down. Police cited Airhart for disorderly conduct, he was fined $105 and ordered to appear at a university disciplinary hearing on November 17. The hearing was cancelled just hours before it was to convene.

Nicole Robinson, a senior English major and member of KSAWC wrote an article about the event that quickly spread over some 400 blogs. In it she wrote: "The administration’s blatant attack against the antiwar movement will not be tolerated. We can clearly see that the administration does not want its students and veterans practicing free speech on this campus, especially if we are taking a stand against the war in Iraq."

By November 1,anger against KSU administrators had surged. Letters of protest to President Cartwright were solicited on blogs, and while some of the letters focused on getting recruiters off campus, many attacked Cartwrght for suppressing free speech. One letter charged "the administration of Kent State is fighting tooth and nail to reclaim its place as the most repressive school in the United States." Another called down " ... shame on the Kent State school administration for defending the preying tactics of the military machine, rather than its own students!" Jeffrey St Clair of Counterpunch wrote: "The repressive and cowardly actions by the administrators of Kent State University represent yet another blow to free expression and academic freedom." Howard Zinn wrote " ... a university should protect its students, not punish them for engaging in that honored American tradition of protest against injustice."

Trouble is, there is no evidence for an attack, blatant or otherwise, by Cartwright or any other administrator against the anti-war movement or against free speech. Indeed, there was no public statement, news release, or communication from any university officer assailing the anti-war movement, threatening free-speech, or calling for Airhart’s punishment or expulsion.

In fact, President Cartwright had previously shown herself to be a strong advocate of free speech. In 2002, after the Daily Kent Stater published an ode by a faculty member praising a Palestinian girl suicide bomber and another professor sent a letter to the editor demanding that the ode-writer be fired, Cartwright declined to respond, saying simply "We're a university. We examine all points of view." She also explained that the university is "not permitted to monitor the personal views of our employees," and added that faculty comments "fall under First Amendment protections of free speech. ... We strongly support the free exchange of ideas."

The KSU administration’s response to the Airhart event was arguably too little, too late and too lame, but it’s hard to construe it as an attack on free speech. The university followed their own administrative playbook, which calls for a hearing for anyone cited by police, and allows the hearing board to recommend disciplinary action, including expulsion.

Rainone’s statement above is questionable on two counts. Does anyone imagine that Airhart would have been cited by the police and haled before a disciplinary board for a banner reading "SUPPORT OUR TROOPS"?

And are we more concerned about an ex-Marine putting himself and civilians on the ground at risk by removing a safety harness than we are by the Bush administration putting our troops and the Iraqi people on the ground at risk from our fiendish war?

Airhart himself saw the irony: "If the [climbing wall] is that unstable, it shouldn't be there in the first place. ... I do not feel that the administration should allow the military to recruit their students for an unjust war that is taking the lives of innocent people." He has stood by his convictions, did not contest the citation for disorderly conduct, and took the consequences of his actions in the honorable tradition of civil disobedience.

While the anti-war protesters were trying to raise public awareness of the folly of war and the injustice of recruiting for war, others in the Kent community wanted to stir up righteous anger at traitorous students, or provoke another confrontation about war at Kent State. It is not administrative repression that has survived since 1970 – it is an underground belief that dissenting students deserve to be shot.

The passionate young people of KSAWC have raised larger issues, and they need our guidance and support. If our overarching goals are to end the war in Iraq and remove the illegitimate and immoral administration in Washington, we need to stop skirmishing the supposed intentions of one university administration and go after the crimes of the administration of our country.

None of us – students, citizens, universities, Congress – have done very well at dealing with the barbarities of the Bush administration. We let them divide and distract us, and indoctrinate us instead of listening to us. We’ve indulged in attacking one another for alleged infractions of free speech

We as a nation haven’t agreed that recruiters don’t belong on campus. We haven’t agreed about getting out of Iraq, though that consensus seems to be forming rapidly. These are matters we need to study and discussions we need to have.

The winds are changing. Kent State may again play a pivotal role in ending an unjust war. But we would do better to use it not as a target for criticism but as a fulcrum to lift the issues of war, torture, poverty, and environmental degradation back into the public discourse, and to take back control of our government.

Caroline Arnold (csarnold@neo.rr.com) served 12 years on the staff of Senator John Glenn and is now active with the Akron Council on World Affairs, Kent Environmental Council and the Portage Democratic Coalition.

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