Response to proposed walkout

After more than a year and a half at Tufts, I really shouldn't be surprised at some of the things that happen here on campus, but here I am, writing an article for The Tufts Daily, expressing my, well, amazement on what some students and professors here can dream up.

At first, the idea of a student and professor walkout of classes on the day the US (or UN) begin bombing Iraq could be idealized to those who lean to the left as a romantic "stick it to the man" moment, steeped in the (sometimes) successful history of nonviolent protest. I can hear the protestors in Goddard Chapel now, yelling, "No blood for oil! He's not my President! Regime change in Washington, not Iraq!" But my point in writing this article is not to prove to said people that there might be a few benefits to disarming Saddam, including the chance to help form a model of a true Arab democracy, as well as avoiding a later (and definitely nuclear) standoff with Iraq. No, no, my point here is to argue that a truly open dialogue on Iraq, while important, does not complete its objectives if done in the way prescribed by the newly formed Tufts Coalition to Oppose War in Iraq (TCOWI).

Let's get real here. Who is going to attend a dialogue at Goddard during normal business hours? Only people who are protesting. Shouldn't this be obvious to everyone? And not even all those who have qualms about Iraq will attend, just the really zealous ones, those who believe that skipping class and talking to their like-minded classmates in a severally underused building on Tufts campus will actually change anyone's mind on the entire situation. Why won't anyone's mind be changed? Because everyone there will have the same sound bite stuck in their heads _ "No blood for oil! He's not my president! Regime change in Washington, not Iraq!" Again, I believe that we should have an open dialogue, but a walkout on a school day ostracizes the very people that I think TCOWI would want to include -- those on the fence, looking at each argument, saying to themselves, "Gee, I really don't know what to believe." It is obvious that TCOWI's effort to create a true dialogue by skipping classes would simply degenerate into a day-long protest -- so I challenge TCOWI to answer this: If your goal is a open dialogue, why hold it at a time when students are forced to make a decision between class and a dialogue on Iraq? Isn't there room for both?

Well, for the sake of getting to my next argument, let's move on. In the end, if some students want to skip their classes and protest, well, that's fine, they're paying for them. Tufts professors, however, lack this key characteristic. I know Tufts has a real liberal reputation to live up to, but if I was President Bacow, I would say something like this to my professors: "Listen, guys, I know that some of you feel really strongly about the action the US/UN has just taken, but let's look at the big picture, okay? First of all, not to scare any of you, but Tufts is a business, its students are its clients, and you, the professors, are on its payroll. In the end, we have a duty to educate our clients, and they paid for classes, so, I think we should give them classes. Having said this, if some of you do skip out, well, we reserve the right to handle your absence like a business. Now, I don't want to do that, I'm a nice guy, I can relate to you professors, and I know you guys want to make a point. But to whom? It seems that if some of you walked out, to hold an open discussion at Goddard Chapel, the only people who would show up would be people with the same ideas about Iraq. Now, that's not a true open dialogue, is it? To whom will this point be given? President Bush? The international community? Let's get serious, guys. A true, open community dialogue would be held at a place and time that would try to accommodate everyone and everyone's views on the matter, not just one side or the other. And, please, not on the student's paycheck. Say, I've got an idea. Is anyone free this Saturday?"

Matthew Edmundson is a sophomore majoring in Economics in the five-year BA/BFA program.