letters to the editor

Author: [no author name found]

To the Editor:

In response to the MOQA protest of the United States Marine Core information table, the behavior demonstrated by the protesters was disrespectful and a good example of the behavior of Middlebury's activist communities as of late. While the armed forces are wrong in refusing to accept openly gay applicants, a protest with confrontational signs and provocative behavior is simply not the way to act in front a representative of one of our nation's most devoted services. The Marines are the reason we even have the right to behave in such a disgraceful manner in the first place. The freedoms and privileges that we all enjoy and seem to take for granted were - I can't believe how trite and canned this sounds - purchased with the lives of our servicemen and women. As the guardians of the rights that we enjoy, the armed forces deserve better than our insulting behavior, regardless of the policies that they follow. There are other - and in my opinion more effective - means to go about changing the status quo besides making complete asses of ourselves. Petitions and letters to the President of the College are effective enough to change Midd's policy, which was the stated goal. Jumping up and down holding signs and disrespectful behavior in front of a service-member gets nothing more than shock value, and at the end of the day serves no cause other than to make people angry and make a bad example of Middlebury's community as a whole. In short, activists in general need to stop using adolescent and ineffective methods to get attention and show some respect. Even if they are right.

Sincerely,

Nate Ackerly '10


To the Editor:

As a graduate of Middlebury College and a U.S. Marine I feel compelled to respond to MOQA's protest of recruiting on campus. First and formost, I support their protest. I am not a Marine in order to keep people from advocating for change, I do it so people have the ability to speak out against what they think is wrong. However, as a community shouldn't we want people in our military who have lived and studied in a place such as Middlebury? After all, it is a college that works tirelessly to provide a safe environment for all people no matter what their sexual orientation. Why are we trying to keep these people from serving? We tell the recruiter and College that military service isn't for us, let other people do it when in the same breath we scream about our leadership having no experience in military matters. Middlebury College is full of the future leaders of our country, and they are some of the most well rounded and tolerant people I have ever known. Not even letting students have the chance to consider service is taking out of the applicant pool a very large number of men and women, most of whom have the education, willpower and guts to go out and make changes, to educate the world and the military and to change at a fundamental level how the military views its gay service members.

Sincerely,

Thomas Wisdom '05