To the Editor:

I read with utter disbelief the local media coverage of the radical Black Justice League invasion and occupation of Nassau Hall and the Princeton University President’s Office.

I wasn’t surprised by coverage and now our mayor accepting and rationalizing a bend the knee response. There wasn’t editorial comment or even mention of threats and intimidation used to press the League’s Demands. Nonetheless, I respect the news media’s right to report and comment on these events as they see fit.

That said, as a longtime letter writer and contributor to the media on issues of the day, I am dumfounded and angered by the lack of coverage of the courageous student group now advocating a return of true academic freedom and open dialogue to the Princeton campus. My concern is heightened by the fact that I doubt many in Princeton have even heard of, let alone read about, their request and cogent justification for a meeting with the president seeking redress.

I am a Princeton graduate, alumnus ’66, active for years in education locally, New Jersey-wide and sometimes nationally from pre-K to high school. Also I have held administrative, senior management, and Board positions at community colleges and universities offering varied curricula to equally varied student bodies. I was on the Princeton campus during the Vietnam War and present at SDS uprisings against the war as a Navy officer in uniform. Many fellow career officers were at the Woodrow Wilson School as well. We disliked intensely the protests involving verbal assaults on our officers and enlisted personnel. However, we understood that the protests were directed at our current national leadership and related actions taken in prosecution of the war. However, most of us kept focus on our assigned duties as directed by military leaders in execution of the orders of our president and commander-in-chief.

Despite these past events on campus, I find the current campus unrest more troubling. This time it’s not about demanding an end to an unbelievably costly and unpopular war. It’s an assault on the rule of law in our democratic republic, the very core values embedded in our laws long honored within the prestigious institutions that support and sustain our Constitutional government.

I view the Princeton Student Group advocating a return to true “academic freedom and open dialogue” as right. The University needs to acknowledge the legitimacy of their concerns. Their group is now the one bearing abusive burdens of hate and discrimination for their personal beliefs, both by faculty and fellow students.

John Clearwater

Governors Lane