The New School In Exile

This latest student letter is part of recent development in the unfolding Tom Ridge incident at the New School. We'll post more updates and details as they emerge, but it seems this issue will continue to grow.

To the New School Community:

Last week student activists peacefully disrupted an event designed to promote the newly published book and future political aspirations of former PA governor and Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge. A key player in the Bush Administration, Ridge actively supported and executed policies of "extraordinary rendition" (torture), domestic spying, the harassment of Arab-Americans, environmental and anti-war activists, and the aggressive military action against Iraq. In his capacity as Secretary of "Homeland Security", Ridge was in a key position to tie the Bush Administration's flouting of domestic and international law to the imperative to protect American soil. He was therefore central in making the case to the American people and the global community, which has been proven since to be duplicitous. The climate of fear engendered in these years (embodied in the color-coded terror alert levels recently revealed by his own admission to be manipulated by Ridge for political purposes) was used as a smokescreen to obscure the commission of these illegal acts at home and abroad. As anyone familiar with the myriad acts of misprision committed in these years knows all too well, to call Ridge and his cohorts criminal is scarcely an exaggeration. However, the Obama Administration has been clear about its unwillingness to prosecute these crimes, and the perpetrators walk freely and are received with warmth and respect.

This is hardly an argument I expected to be making at The New School in 2009. I was certainly surprised that Ridge was invited to begin with, but given Bob Kerrey's long-standing complicity in the political spectacle of Washington DC, it should not have shocked me when, chucking, he patted the arm of Ridge and bragged: "We've been friends for years." This much could have been expected. However, the controversy surrounding the decision to confront Ridge with his crimes has taken me quite by surprise. The overwhelmingly negative response suggests that this school is no longer in touch with its rich heritage of anti-fascism. Could I have been deceived by clever marketing to think that this is an institution unlike others? It certainly costs more than many others; is that what sets us apart? Has The New School become the proverbial Starbucks cleverly re-named and fashioned to resemble an indie coffee house? Before entertaining such unpleasant thoughts, let us first for allow the possibility that those who have responded so negatively to this direct action have done so due to several misconceptions which I will now address.

The Administration's condemnation of these students, issued unilaterally and without a proper examination of the facts, on a medium to which the students do not have access, is buttressed on the issue of "Free Speech".

It has been argued that the student demonstrators should have vented their grievances during the event's question and answer session, and would have been allowed to do so. This claim is inaccurate. Prior to any disruption, Bob Kerrey stated that the question and answer session was to be limited to Milano students, who occupied two rows of reserved seats in the front of the event, clad in matching business attire. The claim that this was a discussion open to the entire New School community is false, and is flatly contradicted by Bob Kerrey's own words to this effect at the event itself. Bush Administration devotees will remember this strategy from the past decade of public appearances by top Bush officials: questioners are carefully selected in order to ensure the discussion remains within acceptable parameters. There surely was "free speech" at this event, but only in the sense that fenced off parking lots blocks away from political conventions are "free speech zones".

Along this same convoluted line of argument, it has been claimed that the demonstration was a violation of the free speech rights of Ridge, Kerrey, and those seeking to participate in the event. This claim is inaccurate. The event was terminated by Bob Kerrey when a non-Milano student took advantage of the confusion and stepped up to the microphone. This student was granted the floor by a befuddled Kerrey, and respectfully posed a question which Tom Ridge began to answer. The student asked Tom Ridge if his decision to execute over 200 people as governor of Pennsylvania was a factor in his appointment to the Bush Administration. Polemical, surely, but a valid question nonetheless. As Ridge began to answer, Kerrey prevented the question from being answered and declared the event over. By this time student demonstrators had settled down and the crowd respectfully awaited Ridge's answer. What's more, this sequence further invalidates the claim that proper channels were in place for non-Milano students to engage Ridge in anything resembling an "open discussion".

Tom Ridge's book and the talk he delivered on Thursday highlight policy imperatives rooted in his experience as a central figure of the Bush Administration. The Obama Administration is bad enough! The last thing the world needs is these rouge and lawless individuals regaining a seat at the table. And a seat at the table is exactly what Bob Kerrey offered Tom Ridge. Legitimating his criminal actions, Kerrey strove to limit the discussion to certain parameters within which the discussion of Ridge's crimes and totalitarian vision for American "security" was disallowed. This was the free speech violation. The student reaction was a celebration of free speech.

In writing all of this I can only claim to speak for myself. However, I can say that the anger and disgust at Ridge's invitation amongst politically aware students has only been amplified by the treatment this act has received in campus discussion. It is my hope that those so eager to condemn consider the perspective espoused above, and other accounts by concerned students, and come away with a different view of this event. Otherwise, I may be at the wrong school.

Jarrod Shanahan
MA Student
Department of Philosophy
NSSR

• Posted by: alvinjohnson
• Topic: Letters and Statements

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