From Tyler Moser
Monroe
To the Editor:
I’d like to respond to Gene Rufer’s letter to the editor. I don’t think I’ll be able to go over every point in their letter that has outright false information in 400 words or less, so I’ll stick to the main points of the conflict in Gaza, and protests on college campuses.
While some may not agree with Hamas’s response to Israel, it is easy to understand if you take a step back to look at it. If you kick someone out of their homeland in 1948, control their everyday lives, treat them like animals, and LITERALLY starve them of course they are going to fight back. “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.” Israel has been constantly withholding aid to Gaza, and indiscriminately targeting civilians. Israel has also targeted convoys of people from countries they would consider allies that were delivering aid to Gaza. The Israeli government was in contact with them to know their movements. Israel has repeatedly rejected a ceasefire, or even broken temporary ceasefires to allow civilians to escape. You are allowed to be critical of the Israeli government, and still want Jewish people to be able to live peacefully. “I have the audacity to believe that people everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits.”
Between the protests in 2020 for Black Lives Matter, and the current protests going on there has not been much change in response. We are still seeing police responding to these peaceful protests in full riot gear, and are often the first ones escalating the aggression against the protesters. This is not only happening to students attending the current protests, but faculty and staff of the public and private universities. Unfortunately, history is just repeating itself all over again. We are seeing the same responses that were seen at Vietnam War protests, Civil Rights protests, and Suffrage protests. Continuing to perpetuate this cycle is something we are all responsible for, and if you don’t want that to change then you don’t want America to improve as a country.
I urge readers to ask themselves: Do we love our children? Do we want them to have a better life than we did? Or would we rather see them fight the same battles and face the same hardships of the past?
