US 2024 Graduations: Thought Under Siege

US 2024 Graduations: Thought Under Siege

Gustavo Gac-Artigas (Graduaciones 2024: El pensamiento bajo estado de sitio)

Translated from Spanish by Priscilla Gac-Artigas

Naive, I always dreamed and fought, in fair battles, for the universality of thought, for an open discussion that would escape the university walls to go out and explore the world, for a student who would dare to break free from the university’s confines to give meaning to their education, who would take the microscope out of the classroom to scrutinize the world we live in, to be a part of it rather than just a mere observer. How naive of me!

I participated in strikes and university occupations for myself, to feel like a valuable human being, for my desire to open the university doors to anyone wishing to study there because I believed that education was a pathway to change the world.

I defended university autonomy, never accepting that a military or police force would besiege knowledge, putting thought under siege, and the times they entered a campus, I stood shoulder to shoulder with others to defend our right to think differently.

If an authority called on “law enforcement” to occupy the university?trampling?on the students, from behind bars or from the sidewalk, I demanded their resignation; it was dialogue what we were asking for, not a state of siege; it was for our voices to?be heard?when our cry was the cry of others.

What happened at Columbia, and then at other universities in the United States, was students asking to live in a more humane world, students asking that hatred not breed more hatred, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, for respect for the lives of the Palestinian people, for the right to life of the Jewish people, together in a lesson of life and morality, Palestinians and Jews were calling for a ceasefire, refusing to accept blood-stained money in their classrooms, in their libraries.

A minority amid that noble minority?was carried away?by hatred, which, according to them, justified the rain of death over Gaza.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, justifies the lack of dialogue, the confrontation of ideas and not of fear, the erecting of barriers, yet another barrier between students and knowledge.

Nothing justifies a student denying another student the right to knowledge. Nothing justifies a professor denying a student the right to express their ideas. Nothing justifies a student fearing another student for thinking or being different.

The actions of that minority allow the authorities to hide, to justify themselves to the public opinion instead of leading, to cry out “chaos,” to tear their clothes and call for the intervention of those forces so distant, yet so distant from university thought.

You don’t combat a state of siege with another state of siege. You combat it with freedom, with thought?walking?through the beautiful campus of Columbia, through open doors not controlled by police forces.

Nothing justifies that an authority, incapable of establishing a dialogue, resorts to violating university autonomy. Shame on it!?

Graduations are approaching, a reward for effort, a step towards the future, but in universities occupied by the police, graduations are?approaching?under?a state of?siege.?

How bitter a memory it will be for the graduates to think that they paraded fenced in, that their first step towards another world will?be taken?surrounded by police!

How shameful it will be for the president of Columbia and the presidents of other universities who called for police intervention, confessing that they were not capable of sustaining dialogue and preferred force!

How much pride there will be in those who raised their voices, not for themselves, but for those who die under the bombs in Gaza, for those whose thought is not under siege but in danger of death!

Graduations in which above the state of siege, a libertarian song will rise, a song of love calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, the existence of two states, Israel and Palestine, two states, two peoples, living in peace, respecting each other.

Generous youth that raises its voice for others; shameful adulthood that offers the club instead of an open hand, an open book, an open and generous thought in its classrooms, the?mission of a university.